With the 2026 golf calendar getting underway around the globe, what better way to start the year than taking a look at some of the best up-and-coming young talent in the sport. From future Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup studs (everyone’s favourite!) to PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf breakout candidates, these U25 golfers have the game to make serious noise this season.
Below is my personal Top 10 list. The only criteria (besides age) is that I didn’t include any amateurs, meaning guys like Jackson Koivun won’t be featured. Keep in mind, this list isn’t strictly about who will find the most success in 2026: I’m also factoring in who I believe will be a major name in the sport for years to come.
1. Akshay Bhatia (23yrs, 11 months)
Akshay being on this list doesn’t need much explaining. He’s already a multiple time PGA Tour winner (2023 Barracuda, 2024 Valero Texas Open), Co-lead last years Players Championship after 36-holes (Ended T3) and his putting continues to get more consistent. He gained +0.29 strokes and was 35th in putting on tour in 2025 and he gained +0.42 strokes and was 33rd in putting on tour in 2024. Compare this with his 2023 season where he lost -0.59 strokes and was 183rd in putting on tour!! There has been massive improvement.
Akshay has all the talent in the world and definitely is on my list to make the US Presidents Cup team this fall and the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor.
One area from Akshay I think we’ll see some growth in this upcoming season is his results and play in the Major Championships. He’s played all four the past two seasons where he’s missed the cut in 4/8 and finished no higher than T16 which came at the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst. I would put solid money down that we see Akshay get his first major top 10 this year and I think Augusta is where it happens, he is a lefty after all!
2. Michael Thorbjornsen (24yrs, 4 months)
I think Thorbjornsen is going to have a massive breakout year. Everything about him just screams absolute gamer to me and he’s going to contend in majors for a long time. Thorbjornsen was the #1 player in the PGA Tour University rankings in 2024, meaning he received his PGA Tour Card right out of college and turned pro in June of 2024. It didn’t take long for him to show up on the Sunday leaderboard either, finishing runner-up at the 2024 John Deere in only his third start on tour.
The start to his first full season on the tour in 2025 didn’t get off to a great start, where he struggled to find his game. He turned the corner in late April though at the Corales Puntacana where he finished runner up. He once again had a nice fall series in 2025 highlighted by playing in the final pairing on Sunday at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan and ended up finishing solo 3rd.
He heads into 2026 in good form, with a full year’s experience on tour and has seen most of the courses he will be playing now. Currently he’s ranked 72nd in the OWGR and I have no doubts he will come out firing to get into the top 50th in the world and qualify for the 2026 Masters. Bold Prediction: Gets 1st win at Waste Management (if he plays)
3. David Puig (24yrs, 1 month)
David Puig might be less well known to the casual golf fan because he plays on LIV Golf but trust me this guy has all the tools. He’s yet to win on the LIV Golf circuit but I don’t think that will be the case for much longer (Best finish to date T3).
In early November Puig announced he was taking up a card on the DP World Tour in 2026 and in his first start won the BMW Australian PGA Championship. As writing this Puig is playing in the Dubai Invitational where he is T2 after round one and continuing to show signs of great form. He currently sits 113th in the OWGR and would be higher up if LIV awarded world ranking points. I’m hopeful he has some strong results on the DP World Tour to increase his world ranking and get qualified for some of the majors before the LIV season gets underway. Or so that the majors are forced to invite him!
Watch out for Puig to be on team Europe at the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. Certainly seems it’s trending towards being near impossible to leave him off.
4. Jose Luis Ballester (22yrs, 5 months)
Continuing with another Spanish LIV Golfer, Ballester a decorated amateur winning the 2020 Spanish Amateur, 2023 European Amateur and 2024 US Amateur (worst winning outfit ever worn) is probably most famous right now however for pissing in Rae’s Creek during his first trip to Augusta in 2025.
After attending ASU for college golf Ballester turned pro in June of 2025, however instead of taking up membership on the Korn Ferry Tour he immediately signed with the Fire Balls of LIV Golf. It didn’t take long for Ballester to adjust to the pro circuit finishing T2 in his 4th start on LIV. Ballester also picked up his first of what I presume will be many pieces of hardware during early November winning the PIF Saudi International. Since his win he’s continued to show his immense talent finishing T10 at the BMW Australian PGA Championship and T6 at the Crown Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.
He heads into his first full season on LIV in great form and like Puig I believe he will find that first win on LIV in 2026. Ballester has all the tools and demeanour to be a star in the game of golf.
5. Nick Dunlap (22 years, 1 month)
He’s coming off a dreadful 2025 season where his erratic accuracy off the tee with his driver led to major struggles, however I’m still extremely high on Dunlap. He was the 2023 US Amateur champion at Cherry Hills and more notably is already a 2-time PGA Tour winner, both coming in his rookie campaign in 2024. Dunlap notably won his first event at the 2024 American Express as an Amateur; the first to do that feat since Phil Mickelson in 1991. He later followed up his first win with another one at the 2024 Barracuda Championship. However since then Dunlap has only recorded 3 top 10’s in 32 starts and has missed 14 cuts.
2026 will be a big year to see if there’s any signs on improving off the tee for Dunlap, he needs to cut out the BIG MISSES! and if there is Dunlap could be poised for a year like he probably more envisioned his sophomore year going. One quote from Nick Dunlap that really stuck with me came this past fall at the World Wide Technology Championship, when he found himself in contention: “I should still be in college, so I’m just trying to learn as much as I can.” Some will forget the only reason Dunlap is on tour right now is because of his rare accomplishment of winning as an amateur. With this very unexpected win came an immediate full 2-year exempt PGA Tour membership. If he had simply finished second that week their’s a good chance he’d still be attending the University of Alabama playing out his Senior season right now and trying to finish at the top of the PGA Tour University Rankings.
We know the talent is there and I think he will start to show us just how high his ceiling can be again this season and why he’s one of the top up and comers in the sport.
6. Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard (24yrs, 10 months)
Yes I am cheating my list a tad and grouping the Hojgaard twins together but to be fair they are basically the same person. You could also make the argument that this is too low on the list for them given their undeniable talents but I think it’s warranted given their older age (for this list) and their struggles so far on the PGA Tour.
Both brothers have already accomplished so much for their young age such as participating in Ryder Cups. Nicolai was apart of the 2023 winning European team in Rome and Rasmus apart of the 2025 winning European team at Bethpage. Although neither was able to secure a full point in their respective Ryder Cup years, making the team was obviously still such a big accomplishment for them. Additionally in their professional careers Rasmus has racked up 5 wins already on the DP World Tour and Nicolai has 3.
By winning multiple times at such young ages the golf world got real excited for them and expectations for these future young twin stars grew, especially for their inevitable move across the pond to the PGA Tour. So far though they both haven’t found the quick anticipated success many people predicted. It’s tough to say they’ve disappointed or let fans down so far because they are still so young, and inexperienced on the PGA Tour… But last season which was Rasmus’s rookie season on tour, he didn’t record a top 10 until the fall (T3 Sanderson Farms). For Nicolai it was technically year 2 on the tour but could argue year 2.5/3 (played a lot in 2023 as a Special Temporary Member). Nicolai’s 2024 campaign on the tour got off to a great start finishing runner up at the Farmers Insurance Open but since then has only finished in the top 10 two more times. (Not factoring in their runner-up finish together at the Zurich team event)
Rasmus now hasn’t won anywhere since 2024 and Nicolai since 2023. The 2026 season will be a big year for both of them. They both seemed to be rounding into better form near the end of 2025 calendar year over on the DP World Tour. It will be interesting to see if either can establish themselves as big time threats on the PGA Tour this year, and if the steps toward stardom it seemed they were both destined for a couple years ago start to happen. We know both have big time game, just hope we get to see it again this year.
If I had to pick one to breakout my money would be on Rasmus.
7. Tom McKibben (23yrs, 1 month)
The fresh 23 year old, Tom McKibben comes from Northern Ireland. He played exclusively on the DP World Tour in 2023 and 2024. He had 9 top 10’s in 27 starts (2nd his best finish) during the 2024 DP World Tour season which was good enough for him to earn his PGA Tour card at the end of 2024 via the pathways system between the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. However McKibben didn’t take up his PGA membership and instead went and joined Captain Jon Rahm and Legion XIII in the LIV Golf league. In his rookie season on LIV he recorded 4 top-10 finishes in 13 starts (T4 was his highest) and this past November while playing on the Asian Tour he won the Link Hong Kong Open; which earned him a spot in this years Master’s field!
It will be intriguing to see if McKibben is able to have a breakout season on LIV this year, presumably he will be more comfortable out there in year 2 and breaking through during the off-season for a win again (first win since June of 2023) especially one that got him into the masters surely can’t hurt his confidence moving forward.
8. Aldrich Potgieter (21yrs, 4 months)
Potgieter, the Bomber from South Africa is up next on my list. Coming off his rookie season on the PGA Tour he didn’t take long to clearly show what his strengths are; leading the tour in average driving distance at 325 yards.
Most betting people will remember Potgieter for his failure to convert at the Mexico Open where he was one of the most tipped value plays on the charts going in and ended up loosing in heartbreaking fashion to the one and only Brian Campbell in a playoff. No offence to Brian Campbell how he won not once but twice last season (2025 John Deere) blows my mind, all props to him but I still can’t fathom it. Potgieter at least to himself (maybe not some bettors) made up for his playoff loss a few months later in June at the Rocket Classic; winning in a playoff against Max Greyserman and Chris Kirk.
Potgieter has serious holes in his game (chipping!!!; again haunts Mexico Open Bettors) and is a bit of a one trick pony currently, however if he can improve and continue to work towards rounding out his game he will be a big threat most weeks with his natural power. He is still so young and to already have a PGA Tour win he is someone you must watch out for.
9. Luke Clanton (22yrs, 2 months)
Let me start by saying what Clanton came out an did on the PGA Tour while an Amateur was awesome; for those unaware as an Amateur these were some of his top finishes in a few months span: T10, T2, 5, T2. Insanely impressive and consistent results especially for an amateur. It was these results that genuinely got me fired up and excited when I saw his name in the field. Him getting the final point he needed in the PGA Tour University Accelerated Points Program at the Cognizant Classic last year was a great moment too.
Even though he’s been no where close to the same golfer since turning pro in June of 2025 I’m thinking this will just be a minor slump, there’s to much talent and experience in contention on Sunday’s already for him not to return to that standard. His poor results recently can be attributed to his putter and short game; for a stretch he lost strokes in 6 consecutive tournaments with the putter and in 8/9 events around the green. His best finish as a pro is T29 at the Sanderson Farms in October, with majority of his finishes being in the 50 to 60th range or the torturous word to pro golfers a missed cut.
Let’s hope he starts to show signs of trending back to his amateur form sooner rather than later; The US needs a stud young hotshot on tour (Ryder Cup?!)
10. Angel Ayora (21yrs, 3 Months)
I had a lot of options to go with here and easily could have made this list 15 golfers but I wanted to include someone playing on the DP World Tour. It came down between Angel Ayora and Jayden Schaper but I decided to go with the younger option in Ayora. Schaper has the better resume, is extremely talented and currently red hot winning back to back tournaments but this list is also about predicting further down the road.
Ayora the third Spanish golfer on this list (serious talent coming out of Spain right now) turned pro in November, 2023 and started out playing on the challenge tour in 2024 (called the HotelPlanner Tour now) where he won the Rosa Challenge Tour tournament before graduating to the DP World Tour in 2025. Ayora didn’t win on the DP World Tour last year but he made the golf world aware of his game and future potential stardom; notching 10 top-10 finishes during the year (highest being T5, on three separate occasions). The putter is the area of his game he struggles with on a consistent basis, he was 131st on tour loosing on average -0.17 strokes per round in putting during the 2025 season. Will be interesting to keep an eye out if there is any improvement in that in 2026. I think it’s only a matter of time until Ayora breaks through on the DP World Tour and I believe he will have a strong enough season to earn his PGA Tour Card for the 2027 season.
Honourable Mentions:
Caleb Suratt (21yrs, 10 months): Suratt is an insanely talented young American golfer. He turned pro February, 2024 and immediately signed to play apart of Jon Rahm’s team on LIV Golf. His best finish on LIV is 3rd but has also had some great results on the Asian Tour with a few runner up finishes. He was last man out for my list.
Michael Brennan (23yrs, 11 months): Brennan exploded onto the scene this past summer playing on the PGA Tour Americas winning 3 times in a short span and securing his Korn Ferry Tour Card for the 2026 season, however during the fall Brennan received a sponsors exemption into the Bank of Utah Championship and ended up turning that into a win! That win gave him his PGA Tour Card for 2026 and he bypassed the Korn Ferry Tour entirely. I may be stupid and some will think I’m crazy for leaving him off my list but there’s so much young talent out there
Tom Kim (23yrs, 7 months): Crazy how young Tom Kim still is feels like he’s been around for a decade now and in all honestly it feels wrong to leave him off of my list; you know with him already being a 3-time PGA Tour winner…. But the form hasn’t been good for a year+ and hasn’t been super relevant recently. I also just don’t see the upside with his game going forward as I do with others. I hope he proves me wrong.
Jayden Schaper (24yrs, 10 months): Like I mentioned above Schaper enjoyed a red hot finish to his 2025 with his last three results being T2, Win, Win on the DP World Tour. Insane three-week run for him that hopefully can continue into 2026 and give himself a shot at locking up his PGA Tour Card for 2027.
David Ford (23yrs, 4 months): Ford finished 1st in the 2025 PGA Tour University Rankings meaning he received his tour card for the last half of the 2025 season and 2026 season. Ford has struggled since turning pro but showed signs during the fall series at the Bank of Utah Championship (finishing T3). Will be interesting to see if he can adjust more to the pro game in 2026
There are still so many other great young players out there that I could see building fantastic resumes over the years in the game of golf; it was so so hard to narrow it down. Can’t wait to follow along and see how the individuals on and not on this list fair in 2026 and if any are able to truly breakout into bona fide stars.
