One of the biggest surprises of the 2015 Elite Series season has been seeing the struggles of Todd Faircloth, one of the steadiest veterans on the tour. After opening the season with a ninth-place finish at the Sabine River, where he won two years ago, Faircloth went five straight tournaments without drawing a check.
It got worse before it got better. In the fourth and fifth blanks in that slump, Faircloth finished 96th at Kentucky Lake and 80th on the St. Lawrence River. It's just strange to see Faircloth's name down that far in any Elite Series event.
"It’s been the roughest year of my career in probably 10 years," he said yesterday. "I hit a stretch there where I didn’t get a check, and I had a pretty good string going where I hadn’t missed two checks in a row in a while."
Faircloth was 81st on the AOY points list before Chesapeake Bay.
"My goal coming into Chesapeake was to get a check in the next two tournaments," he said. "That was all. I wasn’t even thinking about the Classic, or the Top 50 or anything like that. I just wanted to end the season on a good note."
A 17th-place finish at Chesapeake Bay bumped him up to 63rd place in the AOY standings. Suddenly, based on his performance this week, Faircloth is tied with Gerald Swindle in 40th place entering today.
It looks like Faircloth will have a chance to extend his consecutive Bassmaster Classic berths to eight in a row. He's made it every year since 2007.