After last week's final regular-season FLW Tour event at Vermont's/New York's Lake Champlain, FLW Tour rookies have no more tournaments to fish in the BassFan Rookie of the Year (ROY) Race. When it was all said and done, the best FLW Tour rookie this year was Thanh Le of Davie, Fla.
He finished 12th at Champlain, his best finish of the year, and ended up 11th in the FLW Tour points, which qualified him for his first FLW Tour Championship. He's now 7th in the ROY Race standings, but could fall (or even rise) as Bassmaster Elite Series and FLW Series rookies finish out their seasons.
The next FLW Tour rookie in the BassFan ROY standings is Leeds, Ala.'s Charles Cummings, who is now 25th in the ROY Race. By that measure, Le was the best true rookie on the FLW Tour this year by a substantial margin.
But the six anglers at the top of the BassFan ROY race don't change. The Top 5 are Elite Series rookies led by Cincinnati, Ohio's Bill Lowen, and Jefferson, Ga. FLW Series rookie Paul Driskell is 6th.
Notable
> As a reminder, the BassFan ROY Race only measures true rookies, meaning those anglers who have not fished the boater side of a Bassmaster Tour (now Elite Series) or FLW Tour event before this year. This is important because the leagues don't acknowledge each other. For example, BASS says Alabama's Steve Kennedy is a rookie, but Steve has been fishing the FLW Tour for years. The BassFan ROY Race also is the only cross-tour rookie race, meaning that each year it crowns the best rookie in all of pro bass fishing.
> Finished in tour/series-level championships (including the Bassmaster Classic) and special events like the Bassmaster Majors are not included in the BassFan ROY race. Only regular-season events in which all rookies are eligible to fish are used.
Previous Standings 
