Top 10 Players to Watch: No. 1, Norman Xiong

It was a spectacular amateur and collegiate career – albeit brief – for Norman Xiong, and now it’s time to take his talents to the next level.

Xiong, 20, finished second at Final Stage of Web.com Tour Q-School, just one shot back of medalist honors. He turned professional earlier in 2018 and played six events on the PGA TOUR. Although he would miss the cut at each one, he was undeterred going into Q-School. Xiong was co-medalist at his First Stage site before finishing T14 at his Second Stage site to move on to Final Stage.

Top 10 Players to Watch: No. 10, Braden Thornberry | No. 9, Kevin Dougherty | No. 8, Callum Tarren | No. 7, Doug Ghim | No. 6, Harry Higgs | No. 5, Taylor Moore | No. 4, Andy Zhang | No. 3, Danny Walker | No. 2, Tyler McCumber

Xiong has drawn comparisons to Tiger Woods – his coach at the University of Oregon, Casey Martin, who played with Woods at Stanford, said as such in April 2018 – and after signing with the Ducks in late 2016, he played well enough to win the Phil Mickelson Award as the nation’s top freshman.

He had a laundry list of accomplishments while at college, capped off by winning the Jack Nicklaus Award as the Division I men’s golfer of the year, and the Haskins Award as the most outstanding collegiate golfer in 2018.

Although Xiong topped out as No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, he’s No. 1 on the Web.com Tour’s Players to Watch list for 2019.