The PBA Tour will enter the back half of the season soon and with just eight events remaining, the PBA Harry Golden Rookie of the Year race for 2018 has been a bit underwhelming.

While there are six players in the running, none of them have put together an impressive resume just yet. If things continue on the current path, an argument could be made not to award rookie of the year this season. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, there’s a lot of bowling yet to be done.

To help dig out from the clutter, we’ve put together some of the early-season stats for the six players currently in the hunt. Keep in mind, it’s possible that a new bowler could come in for the back half of the season and blow us all away.

Here are the six we are looking at in alphabetical order:

Annop Arromsaranon, Thailand

Arromsaranon has bowled in only one event this season. So why is he in contention for rookie of the year? Because he won the only event he competed in and no other rookies have won a PBA Tour title so far this year.

Competing in the PBA International-World Bowling Tour Busan Cup, Arromsaranon defeated PBA star Anthony Simonsen, 221-208, for the victory.

A win is a win, right? Not so fast, my friend. Arromsaranon was awarded a PBA Tour title but his victory came against a field that included a very limited number of PBA players. Including Simonsen, only Jason Sterner, EJ Tackett and Darren Tang even made the cut to the semifinals, which consisted of the top 44 players in the field.

So, while he might have a win, it didn’t come against the usual star-studded PBA field, and he’s only competed in one event. It might be hard to award rookie of the year to someone with that resume.

Things might change, however, if Arromsaranon competes in the PBA International-World Bowling Tour Thailand event in his home country in September. A strong finish there would make his resume sparkle a little more, but he'd still probably need to compete in more events.

Kamron Doyle, Brentwood, Tennessee

A lot of people have had their eye on Doyle for a long time and have been waiting for him to join the PBA Tour. He cashed in a PBA regional at age 12 and then cashed in the U.S. Open at age 14, so the hype is real.

Doyle actually went to Wichita State to compete collegiately but has since decided college bowling wasn’t for him and left to pursue his professional bowling career.

The results so far for Doyle have been a bit of a mixed bag. Of the six bowlers we looked at, he is the highest on the points list in 49^th place, but he hasn’t finished higher than 14^th this season in any event.

At the United States Bowling Congress Masters, Doyle had his highest finish so far this season, making it deep into the tournament before finishing in 14^th place. He also finished 15^th in the PBA Xtra Frame Greater Jonesboro Open and the PBA Parkside Lanes Open.

Mitch Hupe, Wichita, Kansas

Fresh off competing for Wichita State for four years, Team Canada member Hupe has competed in seven events so far this season and ranks 64^th on the PBA Tour points list.

Hupe’s best finish of the season came at the Greater Jonesboro Open, where he just missed the stepladder finals and finished fifth.

While he did finish 19^th at the most recent PBA Tour event, the Parkside Lanes Open, he hasn’t finished among the Top 20 in any other of the events in which he has competed.

Rafiq Ismail, Malaysia

Ismail is an extremely talented left-handed international player from Malaysia who came over and competed in two events so far this season and was impressive in both.

His best finish came at the Greater Jonesboro Open when he finished third, losing in the stepladder finals to PBA champion Tom Daugherty, 218-175. The following week, Ismail finished a respectable 14^th at the PBA Xtra Frame Lubbock Sports Open.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ismail back on the lanes for one or more PBA events the rest of the season, especially at the Thailand event. If he decides to compete in more events, he could be a strong contender for rookie of the year.

Russ Oviatt, Chandler, Arizona          

Oviatt has only competed in four events this season and his best finish came in Lubbock, where he finished in 35^th place.

At this point, it’s hard to see Oviatt as a real contender for rookie of the year based on his stats, but a strong back half of the season could definitely put him right back in the hunt.

Nick Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota

Pate, who has competed in seven events this season, has been good but not great in his appearances.

His best finish came in Lubbock when he made the stepladder finals but lost to eventual champion Chris Barnes, 269-214, to finish third.

Pate, who finished 30^th at the USBC Masters, does have an impressive 60^th ranking in average on the PBA Tour this season with a 213.88 average for 104 games. He also sits in 56^th place on the points list.

What history tells us

When we look back at the past 10 years, history shows us that eight of the PBA Rookies of the Year won at least one title to propel them to the award. The other two—EJ Tackett and Josh Blanchard—made at least two championship round appearances.

Based on that, you would expect winning a title might put any of these players to the top of the list with the exception of Arromsaranon, who as we noted above has one title this year but only competed in one event.

There’s only been one year in PBA history when rookie of the year was not awarded and that happened in 2005. So, it’s pretty rare and extreme for this award to not be handed out.

Right now, it feels like a coin flip as to whether or not anyone will put together a resume worthy of the award. However, when the dust settles after these final eight events, don’t be surprised if one of these guys steps up to earn the recognition.