Mid-Year Roundtable: Comeback player of the year

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Editor's note: The PGA TOUR has reached the midway point of the regular season this week at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. Here's who our PGATOUR.COM panel of experts thinks has the early lead in the Comeback Player the Year race.

• Other Picks: Rookie of the year | Player of the year

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T.J. Auclair
PGATOUR.COM Interactive Producer
Pick: Greg Kraft
• Kraft fires 70 to win by one
Three players come to mind here -- Ernie Els, Steve Lowery and Greg Kraft. I'm giving the nod to Kraft, who picked up his first PGA TOUR win at the inaugural Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular. In 2002, Kraft overcame what a mystery illness that doctors misdiagnosed as cancer, going so far as to treat him with painful chemotherapy sessions and removing a section of his lung. As it turns out, the illness was what's known as Valley Fever, which stirs up in soil and attacks the lungs. So his victory completes a comeback that can't be ignored.

Lauren Deason
PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator
Pick: Ernie Els
• Watch Els put it away at The Honda Classic
He didn't exactly go anywhere and continued to perform well internationally, but Ernie Els struggled to gain a title on the PGA TOUR for nearly three and a half years. So when he finally earned win No. 16 at The Honda Classic, it ended an uncharacteristic drought for the Big Easy. "We play out here to win," Els said. "I've won quite a few times around the world. But I guess we get addicted to that feeling and when you don't get your rush, so to speak, you miss it. I definitely missed winning over here."

Melanie Hauser
PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
Pick: Trevor Immelman
• PGA TOUR Today reviews Immelman's win at the Masters
It's hard to find a better comeback than vaulting from the sidelines to your first major. By the time he got to the Masters interview room Thursday afternoon, Immelman was so tired of talking about the virus and the surgery that kept him off the course that when the question came up, he suggested the questioner ask some other reporters who knew the story. Plus, he said, it would take way too long. Sunday night, he was wearing the Green Jacket.

Dave Lagarde
PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
Pick: Steve Lowery
• Watch Lowery beat Singh in a playoff
He seized the day when he got a start in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, erasing conditional status with a feel-good victory in a playoff against Vijay Singh. Now he has full-time status for the remainder of 2008, as well as '09 and '10 to use as a bridge to the Champions Tour..

John Maginnes
PGATOUR.COM Contributor
Pick: Greg Kraft -- for now
• This approach on 17 helped Kraft win in Puerto Rico
Comeback Player of the Year may be harder to pick this year than in years past. Greg Kraft will certainly be in the conversation after suffering from a lung infection a couple of years ago and coming back to win in Puerto Rico. Before he won, it seemed unlikely that Kraft would be able to enter more than a handful of tournaments while playing out of the veteran member category but now he is exempt for two more years. With so many players playing out the year on medical exemptions, though, this could be a close race. Unless, of course, Steve Stricker wins a couple of majors and the FedExCup, and then he could get his third straight.

Scott Pianowski
PGATOUR.COM Fantasy Insider
Pick: Steve Elkington
• Elkington's 2008 TOUR results
He's got checks in seven of nine events, and that includes five top-15 finishes. All that's needed to complete the story is a victory, something that's somehow eluded him for the decade. Don't be surprised if this hurdle is cleared before the summer ends.

Helen Ross
PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
PIck: Trevor Immelman
• Immelman's hard road to the Green Jacket
There were several ways to go with this one -- among them, Steve Lowery and Greg Kraft, who both ended long victory droughts. In December, though, Trevor Immelman had surgery to remove a tumor on his diaphragm and eight months earlier, he had fought a mysterious stomach ailment that caused him to lose 20 pounds off his 170-pound frame. To see him wearing a Green Jacket at Augusta National completed quite the comeback story, don't you think?

Dave Shedloski
PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent
Pick: Steve Lowery
• The shot that sealed Lowery's Pebble Beach win
Steve Stricker already has reached the legal limit on this award, so he's out, and Steve Lowery is our new leader in the clubhouse. After his 2007 season was hampered by a left wrist injury, Lowery registered his third career win, a playoff victory over Vijay Singh at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, to end a drought of more than seven years.