editor ’ s note
who ’ s the goat ?
cody Meyer might not have originated the acronym GOAT , but he was the first to apply it to Andy Morgan during their 2014 Angler of the Year race . The GOAT tag , which stands for Greatest of All Time , stuck with Morgan , and rightly so . Meyer applied it during the second of Morgan ’ s three AOY seasons , and given his performance in the last few years , Morgan hasn ’ t done anything to suggest that he doesn ’ t deserve to be considered the best to ever fish FLW tournaments . But is he ? That ’ s a tough call and a debate that likely can never be settled . If Morgan is a sort of Michael Jordan , then FLW has a Larry and a Magic too .
Funny thing is , in basketball , the pundits love this type of debate , but in fishing – specifically in FLW ’ s tournament circuits – it ’ s not a topic that gets bounced around a lot . I ’ ll bite . With apologies to such great pros as Clark Wendlandt , Larry Nixon ( the greatest to split his career between B . A . S . S . and FLW , perhaps ) and Bryan Thrift , my candidates for FLW ’ s GOAT are Morgan , David Dudley and Scott Martin .
Stats-wise , they ’ re all juggernauts , but the GOAT debate primarily hinges on how you evaluate greatness . Is it consistency ? If so , Morgan ’ s 62 top 10s in 232 FLW tournaments since 1996 is ridiculously good ( he actually has more top 10s from the old Red Man circuit prior to 1996 , but that ’ s as far back as FLW records go ). More impressive is that he ’ s finished in the top 10 in the Walmart FLW Tour AOY standings 11 times … in a row . That streak is still active , by the way .
Dudley ’ s resume reflects his consistency as well . He is FLW ’ s all-time leading money winner , with $ 3.4 million in earnings , and he won three Tour AOY titles before Morgan won his first .
Martin also got his first AOY last year , has finished in the AOY top 10 three years in a row and has won $ 2.5 million . That ’ s about $ 600,000 more than Morgan , who began his pro career in 1996 . Martin started in 2000 .
If you place a higher value on wins , Dudley and Martin are tied with seven , and they each have six $ 100,000-plus victories .
If championships determine greatness , then Dudley and Martin are neckand-neck in that regard too . Each has won the Forrest Wood Cup , though Dudley also won the $ 700,000 Ranger M1 Millennium tournament . Morgan has never won the Cup .
Maybe if Morgan rolls into Huntsville this month and wins the 2016 Forrest Wood Cup on Wheeler Lake we can stop the debate and go ahead and cast his bust in bronze . Or maybe not . Martin seems to me to be the guy who ’ s going to win about a dozen Tour events before he calls it quits . He ’ s also my pick to be the first two-time Cup champ . He ’ s a hammer in tough summer tournaments . Morgan , however , would shock no one if he won AOY No . 4 in 2017 . As for Dudley , he could pull off either feat .
So who ’ s the GOAT ? I guess for now it ’ s Morgan . He ’ s the reigning AOY , after all . But ask me again on Aug . 7 when an FLW superstar is handed the Forrest Wood Cup trophy .
curtis niedermier , editor-in-chief
publisher Irwin L . Jacobs
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FlwFishing . com i august-september 2016