When Georgia pro Drew Cook earned the Bassmaster Rookie of the Year title in 2019, he said something remarkably profound for a man who was only 25 years old at the time.
“It’s incredibly special this to win Rookie of the Year this year of all years, with this group of rookies,” Cook said. “All of these guys — Patrick Walters, Lee Livesay — those will be household names for years to come.”
The statement was profound, and it’s proven to be prophetic.
Four years later, that 2019 rookie class — one of the largest in Bassmaster Elite Series history with 18 members joining during a time of great change in the industry — has accounted for 28 appearances in the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota. They’ve collected 12 victories, 107 Top 10 finishes and 776 paychecks.
They’ve also entered their names in B.A.S.S.’s ultra-exclusive Century Club five times for weighing in 100 pounds of bass during a four-day event.
No question about it…Cook was right.
“They’ve absolutely been everything I expected them to be, and I think the best is yet to come from that rookie class,” said Cook, who has earned $652,905 in just 61 tournaments with B.A.S.S. “I know personally, I’ve learned a pile of things since then. In 2019, I was just out of college fishing, and besides the Opens the year before, all I had ever known to get me prepared for the Elites was Nation and team tournaments. I’m still learning today.”
Even after winning Rookie of the Year — a title that has gained so much prestige it was recently sponsored by Dakota Lithium Batteries — Cook admits he found the learning curve on the Elite Series every bit as steep as he was warned. His first Elite Series victory didn’t come until 2022 when he topped the field at Santee Cooper Lakes and entered the Century Club with 105 pounds, 5 ounces.
He caught the bulk of that winning total sight fishing for bedding bass — and earlier this year, he nearly scored back-to-back Elite Series wins off spawners at Santee Cooper before ultimately finishing in third place. He’s now firmly entrenched as one of the top sight fishermen in the world.
Cook wasn’t the first member of that rookie class to earn an Elite Series win. That honor went to Texas pro Frank Talley at Lake Guntersville in 2020. Another member of the 2019 class from Texas, Lee Livesay, followed with a victory two tournaments later on Chickamauga Lake and he’s since earned additional blue trophies on Lake Fork in 2021 and 2022 — both with Century Club performances.
Patrick Walters, a 2019 rookie from South Carolina, picked up his first Elite Series victory at Fork in 2020.
So far, 2023 has been dominated by the 2019 rookie class with Louisiana pro Tyler Rivet earning his first Elite Series win at the season-opener on Lake Okeechobee and Oklahoma pro Luke Palmer visiting the winner’s circle for the first time at Santee Cooper in late April.
Both talked after their victories about how hard it is to get to the top off the mountain at pro fishing’s highest level.
“When you start out in this business, you just don’t understand how much you don’t know,” Rivet said. “I worked hard and learned a lot — and even then, I wouldn’t have gotten there if hadn’t been for the great help I got from people who had been here longer than me. The Elite Series is so competitive you couldn’t do it on your own.”
Palmer had scored at least one Top 10 performance in each of his previous four seasons on the Elite Series. But after his win at Santee Cooper, he admitted there were moments when he doubted whether he belonged.
“You work your whole life and you start second guessing yourself and you wonder ‘Am I good enough to do it?’ I was good enough one time and one time is better than no times,” Palmer said. “Against this group, one time is pretty good.”
In addition to individual tournament victories, the 2023 AOY standings are being dominated by anglers who made their appearance on the Elite Series in 2019. Entering the fifth event of the season — the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake — South Carolina pro Brandon Cobb leads the Progressive Insurance Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings with 387 points.
Cobb was labeled a “newcomer” instead of a rookie in 2019 because of his previous earnings on other major trails. But he announced himself emphatically that season with two Elite Series victories. Other newcomers from the 2019 fraternity included 2019 AOY winner Scott Canterbury of Alabama and monster Canadian sticks Chris and Corey Johnston and Jeff Gustafson — the latter of whom just won the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota in Knoxville.
Cook is directly behind Cobb in the current AOY standings with 369 points, while fellow Class of 2019 rookies Rivet, Palmer and Livesay all rank in the Top 15.
Cook says being the first from the 2019 rookie class to win AOY would top even the feeling he got from hoisting the ROY trophy that historic year.
“I’ve been good friends with Patrick Walters for a long time, and you can just mark it down, he’s gonna win everything before it’s over — Classic, AOY, everything,” Cook said, obviously preparing to zing his buddy. “But I always mess with him that I ruined his perfect record. He will never have Rookie of the Year.
“To be the first from that class to win AOY would be awesome because a lot of those guys are going to do it. It’s not a matter of if, just when. It will happen sooner or later.”
Don’t sleep on Cook’s predictions. He’s been right before.
2019 Bassmaster Elite Series rookie class
(listed by order of finish in the ROY standings)
Drew Cook
Classic appearances: 4
Times in the money: 50
Victories: 1
Top 10 finishes: 13
Century Club belts: 1
Lee Livesay
Classic appearances: 3
Times in the money: 53
Victories: 4
Top 10 finishes: 12
Century Club belts: 2
Patrick Walters
Classic appearances: 4
Times in the money: 62
Victories: 4
Top 10 finishes: 19
Century Club belts: 1
Luke Palmer
Classic appearances: 4
Times in the money: 50
Victories: 1
Top 10 finishes: 9
Mike Huff
Classic appearances: 1
Times in the money: 37
Top 10 finishes: 2
Greg DiPalma
Classic appearances: 1
Times in the money: 56
Top 10 finishes: 3
*Garrett Paquette
Classic appearances: 1
Times in the money: 44
Top 10 finishes: 5
Century Club belts: 1
Tyler Rivet
Classic appearances: 2
Times in the money: 48
Victories: 1
Top 10 finishes: 7
Derek Hudnall
Classic appearances: 1
Times in the money: 42
Top 10 finishes: 8
Ed Loughran III
Classic appearances: 1
Times in the money: 52
Top 10 finishes: 4
Brad Whatley
Classic appearances: 2
Times in the money: 42
Top 10 finishes: 5
*Harvey Horne
Times in the money: 31
Top 10 finishes: 3
*Randy Pierson
Classic appearances: 1
Times in the money: 26
Gary Clouse
Times in the money: 52
Top 10 finishes: 7
*Rob Digh
Times in the money: 28
Top 10 finishes: 1
Frank Talley
Classic appearances: 2
Times in the money: 36
Victories: 1
Top 10 finishes: 3
*Dale Hightower
Classic appearances: 1
Times in the money: 38
Top 10 finishes: 3
*Quentin Cappo
Times in the money: 29
Top 10 finishes: 3
*No longer on the Bassmaster Elite Series
