Around this time two years ago, Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Pierceson Coody were the belle of the pro golf ball. It’s what we like to do at the start of a new year. Much like NFL Draft Day, the early days of the PGA TOUR season are filled with endless optimism of what might be – and who might be the next breakthrough star. We comb through the list of rookies, pick out those who have the brightest profile and hope.

This year, Johnny Keefer and Neal Shipley are capturing the attention. Last year, it was Aldrich Potgieter and Karl Vilips. Two years ago, it was Dumont de Chassart and Coody.

It made complete sense at the time. Dumont de Chassart had turned pro just months before, jumping onto the Korn Ferry Tour midseason and immediately winning his first start. He lost in a playoff the following week, then added four more top-10 finishes in a row to transform from a Korn Ferry Tour newcomer to #TOURBound in less than two months. Coody won twice to coast to a card in his first full season on the Korn Ferry Tour, a warning sign that the former world amateur No. 1 was ready to realize all that potential.

Then, they flopped.

Dumont de Chassart dealt with the nagging complications of a wrist injury that changed his mechanics and zapped his confidence. Coody fought long bouts of inconsistency, particularly early in the season. He made just two cuts by the time the calendar reached April, well outside the top 175 of the FedExCup. Both players made late-season surges, but neither did enough to maintain their cards as rookies. In the constant churn of the PGA TOUR, they were cast aside with a quick demotion back to the Korn Ferry Tour.

Once hyped, they’ve now become unheralded. Both made quick work of their return to the Korn Ferry Tour and locked up their TOUR card once again. They made a return at the Sony Open in Hawaii to little fanfare.

With a second chance in hand, will it go any differently this time around? Is it plausible that they are the next breakthrough performers, ready to remind us that chasing the newest shiny toy is fun but often misguided? Or that the real candidates are the players the golf world gave up on prematurely?

Let’s start with this: Both Dumont de Chassart and Coody believe they are better now than they were two years ago. You’d be hard-pressed not to find a burgeoning young pro who doesn’t reiterate some version of that statement, but not all have the broader context to support it. Dumont de Chassart and Coody do.

Dumont de Chassart’s rookie season never got off the ground in 2024. He injured his wrist in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship the previous fall, a tournament that had little implications on his future with a TOUR card already locked up. The effects of that lingered into his rookie year. To compensate, he changed his grip completely. He was learning a new way of life on new courses with a new ball flight and new swing feels.

“I just was low on confidence, ultimately,” Dumont de Chassart said.

The Belgian struggled to decide how much time he should spend on the course versus the range. With low confidence in his swing, it naturally shifted more to the latter, which improved his swing marginally but harmed the true wizardry that made him a tantalizing prospect to begin with: his short game and putting. It also hindered his preparation for the golf courses, which were all new to the rookie.

By the time Dumont de Chassart got a grasp of his game and life on TOUR, it was too late. He finished in the top 25 of his last two starts, including a career-best T3 in Bermuda, then nearly re-earned his card immediately through Q-School, ultimately falling short by two shots.

He embarked on his second stint on the Korn Ferry Tour with excitement, not disappointment, emboldened by his form.

“I was talking to my fiancé, actually two days ago, and I'm like, 'I'm glad I didn't make it through Q-School last year," he said. "That just gave me more time to get back and get those nerves of being in contention and trying to win a tournament.”

That happened in October. Battling the top-20 line that would earn him a promotion, Dumont de Chassart shot back-to-back 61s in the first two rounds of the Compliance Solutions Championship in Oklahoma and steered it home on the weekend to get his first win and secure his card.

“It just comes down to preparation and more self-discipline, if I can really focus on doing the little things that I need to do to be prepared. Sometimes it's hard because you might not be hitting the ball the way you want to, you might not chip it the way you want to, and you want to stop and call your coach and try to fix it instead of having that mindset to just find a way to get it done,” Dumont de Chassart said. “... That's what I did in Tulsa.”

Coody didn’t go through the same mental or physical swoon Dumont de Chassart experienced. Coody represents a different subsect of the rookie experience, one in which a few bounces of the ball change career trajectories. Even after a poor start to 2024, the Texas grad had a chance to erase it all at the ISCO Championship over the summer. He played his best golf of the year to get into a five-man playoff and survived the first two playoff holes. Then Harry Hall pulled off the improbable, chipping in on the third playoff hole to steal the show. A runner-up finish is still usually good enough for a player to keep their card, but with fewer FedExCup points available for the Additional Event, Coody didn’t jump high enough. He sat around the top-125 bubble all fall but missed four of his last six cuts to finish at No. 131.

“I just felt like every week was so important, almost overly important,” Coody said of that time.

It left Coody in a precarious spot. He held strong enough conditional status to get into a dozen or so PGA TOUR events, but also knew it would be harder than ever to crack the top 100 with no guaranteed schedule. Meanwhile, playing any TOUR events would take away from his pursuit of earning his card via the Korn Ferry Tour. Which tour should he devote his time to? Coody decided on both, dedicating himself to a hellish summer with few weeks off as he chased status any way he could. Coody ended up making 17 PGA TOUR starts and 15 Korn Ferry Tour starts. Up against players who committed full-time to one tour or the other, Coody still cracked the top 20 in the Korn Ferry Tour Points List and nearly reached the top 100 of the FedExCup (he settled for 110th).

That paints rosy arguments for resurgence from both Dumont de Chassart and Coody. But the recent history of players who flamed out of the TOUR, then returned and thrived, is sparser than you may think. Brian Campbell did it last year, winning twice on TOUR in his second stint in the big leagues. Grayson Murray did it, triumphing at the Sony Open in his return. Michael Kim did it, though he was established on TOUR for years before dropping down to the Korn Ferry Tour and then bouncing back up. The crown jewel in this category is Max Homa, who twice flamed out on TOUR before eventually returning and becoming a top-10 player and Ryder Cup star.

That’s the category of player that many prognosticated Dumont de Chassart and Coody to eventually reach. To do it, they’ll be going against the trend.

One week into the season, there are encouraging signs. Coody finished T13 at the Sony Open, earning more FedExCup points than he did in his first four and a half months as a rookie. Dumont de Chassart also played well, particularly in the first two rounds when he vaulted into contention. A Saturday 73 dropped him back and he finished in a tie for 24th. Still, he only topped that finish three times in his rookie year.

“If I were going heads up against myself two years ago, coming off the Korn Ferry, I'd be pretty confident in myself right now,” Coody said. “I'd bet Adrian would say the same thing. I know that, probably just like Adrian, I have enough talent and enough work ethic to get myself to the PGA TOUR and now hopefully stay out here for a long time.”