The 2026 PGA Tour season is around the corner after a thrilling 2025.
Rory McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam at the US Masters while taking a second Players Championship and winning at Pebble Beach for the first time, Scottie Scheffler solidified his position as the undisputed best player in the world with six wins and Tommy Fleetwood finally got his maiden US victory at the Tour Championship.
The 10 DP World Tour players who secured their PGA Tour cards will all be brimming with excitement while dozens of players will harbour ambitions of finishing in the top 50 in the FedExCup standings to avoid the slog of the FedExCup Fall.
Below we look at 10 players to watch on the PGA Tour in 2026.
Marco Penge
A monstrously long hitter, defying his relatively slender frame, the rest of Marco Penge’s game clicked in 2025 and he looks well suited to life on the PGA Tour.
Penge has always been a long hitter but his improved iron play gave him plenty more scoring opportunities, leading to wins at the Hainan Classic, the Danish Golf Championship and Open de Espana.
There was no sweating over his PGA Tour status in the closing weeks of the season; Penge got the chance to do a recce in Florida with the season ongoing, knowing where his future lay.
Lots of courses on the PGA Tour should suit Penge’s game, and he’ll likely be teeing it up at all four majors.
Penge is 4/1 to win PGA Tour event in 2026.
Michael Thorbjornsen
After an excellent amateur career, reaching the PGA Tour via the PGA Tour University, Michael Thorbjornsen has taken to life in the professional ranks like a duck to water.
In his third start, Thorbjornsen was T2 at the John Deere Classic, and while he’s yet to win in his first 18 months on tour, the 24-year-old has finished T2 at the Puntacana Championship, T4 at the Zurich Classic, T4 at the Rocket Classic and third at the Baycurrent Classic.
An outstanding driver of the ball and a strong iron player and putter, Thorbjornsen is a PGA Tour winner in waiting. Will 2026 be his year?
Luke Clanton
Breaking through on the PGA Tour at the same time as Michael Thorbjornsen, Luke Clanton burst onto the scene with a T10-T2 in his first two outings. He then closed his season with a solo-fifth at the Wyndham Championship, wrapping up his 2024 with a T2 at the RSM Classic.
After four wins as an amateur in 2025, Clanton turned pro, but hasn’t kicked on as many expected. There was much fanfare as Clanton made his pro debut alongside Rory McIlroy at the Canadian Open, only to miss the cut by two shots.
Since turning pro, Clanton has more missed cuts (four) than top-50 finishes (three), but the 22-year-old is an excellent ball-striking, and plenty of eyes will be on him in 2026 to see how he progresses.
Chris Gotterup
Those who knew Chris Gotterup before his PGA Tour days knew just how long he was off the tee. Gotterup ranked fifth in driving distance in his debut season on the PGA Tour and was seventh last season.
A capable putter, too, Gotterup’s biggest handicap was how wild he was. His distance was largely negated by his inability to find fairways, and when he did find the short grass, his iron play was too weak to carve out birdie opportunities.
Nevertheless, Gotterup secured his two-year status with a win at the Myrtle Beach Classic in 2024 before failing to impress the rest of the season.
2025, however, was Gotterup’s breakout year. He tightened his driving up, and although his iron play didn’t significantly improve, his vastly improved driving meant it didn’t really need to.
The 26-year-old posted five top-20s in six events heading into the summer, finishing T23 at the US Open and holding off Rory McIlroy to win the Scottish Open.
Proving that was no fluke, Gotterup was solo third at The Open the following week and ended up finishing T10 at the Tour Championship.
So good was Gotterup in 2025 there were calls for him to make the Ryder Cup team. While he fell short of call-up to Keegan Bradley’s side, he’ll be targeting a third PGA Tour victory in 2026.
Rasmus Neergard-Petersen
After a shaky start on Sunday playing in the final group with Rory McIlroy at the DP World Tour Championship, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen closed eagle-birdie-par-birdie-birdie to secure his place on the PGA Tour by one shot.
His brief stint on the PGA Tour earlier in the year saw him finish second and the Puerto Rico Open and T22 at the Valspar Championship, the latter suggesting he’s capable of performing at proper PGA Tour events.
The Dane strung a number of good results together throughout the season and closed the year T5-T65-T23-T3 and will look to carry that form across the pond.
His first objective will be to keep his PGA Tour card for the 2027 season; beyond that, his excellent ball-striking will likely see him in contention at multiple tournaments.
Jordan Spieth
We’ll likely never see the 2015-2017 Jordan Spieth ever again. The player who had no weaknesses; an excellent long game combined with his magic on and around the greens saw Spieth race to three majors before the age of 24.
Sadly, frequent injury issues have stopped Spieth from finding his game, and while the Texan has briefly flirted with the OWGR top 10 in the last couple of years, he hasn’t been a regular at the elite level of the game for seven years now.
Despite 2025 being the third straight season without a win for Spieth, his game did show signs of life. Without ever actually contending for a tournament, 2025 was the first time since 2017 in which Spieth has gained at least 0.20 strokes in all four SG categories.
If he can finally put his injury issues behind him, it will be interesting to see what Spieth is capable of next year.
Rico Hoey
It’s no exaggeration to say that Rico Hoey has established himself as one of the best ball-strikers in the world in 2025.
Possessing the rare blend of power and precision off the tee, Hoey’s iron play is also excellent. The problems, however, have started when he’s got within 100 yards of the hole. The Philippines-born golfer is a mediocre wedge player and a dismal putter. His shortcomings with the flat stick have held him back throughout the year, but a change in the bag appears to have tidied that part of his game up, and he finished the season T9-MC-T4-2-T21-T22-TBC.
His long game is more than good enough to contend for and win tournaments. If his work on the greens is merely average in 2026, he’ll likely find himself with some silverware.
Garrick Higgo
After winning the Palmetto Championship on his first PGA Tour start (excluding his major championship debut at the PGA Championship the previous month), Garrick Higgo spent a couple of years in the wilderness, falling to 150 in the FedExCup standings in 2024 and heading back to the Korn Ferry Tour.
With limited playing privileges, Higgo made full use of a rare PGA Tour start, winning the Puntacana Championship by a shot in April, securing his status for the next two years.
The big-hitting South African has shown improvement in his approach play and on the greens, closing the season with a superb run of form, finishing T7-2-T4-T4 in his final four tournaments to secure his place in the first two Signature Events of 2026.
The lefty complements his long game with a nice touch around the greens, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him win again next year.
Cameron Young
One of the best drivers in the game when he joined the PGA Tour in 2022, it felt like a matter of time before Cameron Young won not just a PGA Tour event, but a major.
In his first season on tour, Young recorded a remarkable six runner-up finishes but it took until 2025 to finally get over the line.
Still a long hitter, Young’s streaky putting has become arguably his biggest strength.
Young finished the season 1-5-11-T4-T9 and earned a place on the Ryder Cup team where he impressed for Team USA.
Having finally got the monkey off his back, there’s no reason Young can’t win again next year.
Harry Hall
The antithesis of the modern PGA Tour player, Harry Hall is neither long nor accurate off the tee, and his iron play is fair at best. Indeed, the Englishman ranks 226th for strokes gained: ball striking over the last 12 months according to Data Golf, but Hall is able to compete on the PGA Tour thanks to his world class short game.
Few are better than Hall when inside 100 yards and in 2025 he established himself as one of the world's best putters.
In a remarkable show of consistency, Hall closed his PGA Tour season with 12 straight top-30 finishes, and nine of them were top-20s or better.
Perhaps Hall's long game is what will hold him back; his sole win came in 2024 at the alternate ISCO Championship, and for all his impressive play in 2025, he was never quite able to get in the mix for tournaments, failing to register a top-five finish.
But his stellar form means he'll be playing all four majors and will tee it up at the Signature Events, and it'll be interesting to see where Hall's game goes from here.
