Opening Drive: Ten players to watch in 2025 on PGA TOUR

The 2025 PGA TOUR season is here. After taking a two-month break for the holidays, pro golf returns at The Sentry for the start of another calendar year season.

All the usual favorites return for the second year of Signature Events, beginning in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii. We’ll be headed to a few different venues, too, with Oakmont hosting the U.S. Open, Royal Portrush holding The Open Championship and The Philadelphia Cricket Club serving as the site for the Truist Championship while Quail Hollow preps for the PGA Championship.

There’s no slowing down once the season starts. So before the whirlwind begins, here’s a look at 10 players to keep an eye on. Some are obvious, others are less so. But all will have a hand in shaping how the 2025 season is defined.

1. Scottie Scheffler

Scottie Scheffler will dominate the narrative of 2025, whether he continues to dominate the game or starts to slump, though don’t hold your breath on that. Scheffler’s 2024 was the best year on TOUR since Tiger Woods’ domination in the mid-2000s, winning at a clip only a few have replicated in the modern era. He is, however, starting the season injured after suffering an accident on Christmas Day that required surgery on his right hand.

If the No. 1 player had a weakness last year, it was his putting inside 10 feet, ranking 139th on TOUR. Though it seems he’s already shored up the issue. Scheffler debuted a new claw putting grip during the Hero World Challenge that he uses on shorter putts. It led to immediate results, leading the field on putts inside 10 feet and ranking third in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.

That’s a scary development for the rest of the TOUR, who struggled to keep up with Scheffler even when the short putting was an issue. So what’s in store for ‘25? Can Scheffler make it three in a row at THE PLAYERS or go back-to-back at the Masters? Those will be the early-season storylines to follow.

2. Xander Schauffele

This list won’t just be a rehashing of the world’s top-10 players, but Xander Schauffele is a clear-cut choice for No. 2. In most other years, Schauffele’s season would easily win him Player of the Year. In 2024, it garnered less than 10% of the vote.

That’s life for every player not named Scottie Scheffler, though Schauffele remains the biggest threat to unseat Scheffler at the top of the sport. Schauffele was noticeably looser and more comfortable over the second half of 2024 after finally getting the major monkey off his back and winning the PGA Championship. He cruised to a victory at The Open Championship a few months later and finished top five in each of the FedExCup Playoffs events.

Schauffele has largely been immune to slumps. He hasn’t finished outside the top five in the FedExCup or the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Total in the last five seasons. The only missing piece in previous years was the wins. He grabbed two big ones last year, can open the door for another prolific season?

3. Jordan Spieth

It was frustrating 2024 for Jordan Spieth, with a nagging wrist injury hampering his play and extending his offseason. He underwent surgery in the fall and says he’s feeling fully healthy for the first time in a few years. That’s good news.

The bad news? He finished outside the top 50, and couldn’t play the fall as he rehabbed his wrist, leaving him without any exemptions into the Signature Events. He’ll be a candidate for sponsor exemptions surely, but will need to play well early in the season to justify the selections. It’s been more than two years since Spieth’s last victory, and he’s amassed only three top 10s in majors over the last five years. Will finally addressing the wrist issues lead to a resurgent year? Or has Spieth settled into his new normal?

4. Viktor Hovland

Entering The Sentry last year, Viktor Hovland was on top of the golf world. He had caught fire with back-to-back Playoffs victories to win the FedExCup. He was an integral part of the winning European Ryder Cup team. He seemed destined for an even better 2024, filled with consistent contention and a popular pick to claim his first major.

Then the bottom fell out, at least as much as it can for a player of Hovland’s stature.

He battled his swing, changed coaches then switched back and didn’t register a top-10 finish until May. He finished T62 at THE PLAYERS and missed the cut at the Masters. His top highlight was a third-place finish at the PGA Championship, but he couldn’t parlay that into sustained success. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open and The Open Championship.

It all added up to an unsatisfying season for a star who was supposed to ascend. So where does he go from here? Can Hovland reverse course? He showed signs of that late in the season, finishing runner-up at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. But was it just a flash or a sign of things to come?

5. Rasmus Højgaard

Twin brothers Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard will play on the same tour again this year, but Rasmus is the headliner of the incoming DP World Tour grads after finishing No. 1 in the Race to Dubai – PGA TOUR Eligibility Ranking. He impressively outdueled Rory McIlroy at the Amgen Irish Open this fall, shutting down the hopes of a home-country triumph. It was an impressive display and sign of the talent that will now play weekly on the PGA TOUR.

The first year of the pathway between the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR proved fruitful. Matthieu Pavon and Robert MacIntyre both won, while several others kept their card for 2025. If the incoming class has similar success, Højgaard will likely play a part in it.

6. Max Homa

Max Homa knows more than most that progression is not linear. The 34-year-old went through struggles early in his career, bouncing back and forth between the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour before finally finding his footing in 2019 and becoming one of the game’s biggest stars.

As such, he’s likely better equipped to handle how he finished 2024 than others would be. After a strong start to the season that included his first real shot at a major (T3 at the Masters), Homa’s driver swing failed him in the final months. Wayward and frustrated, Homa stumbled to the finish, failing to card a top-30 over the final few months of the FedExCup season.

To Homa’s credit, he’s not maintaining the status quo. The American moved on from longtime swing coach Mark Blackburn in the fall. Will all the pieces fall into place quickly? Or will it be a learning curve?

7. Akshay Bhatia

Still just 22 years old, Akshay Bhatia is three years younger than Ludvig Åberg and a year younger than most recent PGA TOUR University No. 1 Michael Thorbjornsen. It’s easy to forget because he’s been in the pro golf scene for several years, but had Bhatia taken a traditional path, he’d just be turning pro out of college.

That he has already won twice on TOUR is one of the more underrated storylines in all of golf. It earned Bhatia a spot on our list of “players who made a leap” in 2024, and it’s conceivable he could end up on it again 12 months from now because of that youth.

The American took a massive leap in 2024 improving from one of the worst putters on TOUR the year before (183rd in SG: Putting) to an above-average putter last season (33rd in SG: Putting) once he changed to a broomstick-style putter. He made the TOUR Championship for the first time in his career and was in consideration for a Presidents Cup pick. He will be in the mix for a Ryder Cup pick this fall, too.

8. Justin Thomas

The American realized a semblance of his old form in 2024, advancing to the season-ending TOUR Championship after missing the Playoffs entirely the year before.

Yet it still fell below the lofty standards of the two-time major winner. Thomas notched a career-low 10 top 25s and failed to win, just his third season on TOUR without a victory. Returning to the winner’s circle will be central to 2025, as will earning a spot on the Ryder Cup team.

Thomas teased a longer driver at the Hero World Challenge and found immediate gains. He led the field in SG: Off-the-Tee and driving distance. That could be a differentiator for Thomas in 2025, though he will also need to find a solution on the greens. He tinkered with his putter throughout the season but failed to find a sustainable solution, ranking 174th in SG: Putting. No matter how long he gets off the tee, Thomas won’t return to his pre-2022 form without improvement to his putting.

9. Michael Thorbjornsen

Thorbjornsen very nearly finished inside the top 125 last year, despite joining the TOUR in June, and his underlying statistics show the 2024 PGA TOUR University No. 1 is in a prime position for a breakthrough.

Thorbjornsen’s 4.93 birdies per round would have led the TOUR had the rookie played enough rounds to qualify, just ahead of Scheffler. That’s a tell-tale sign of an ascending player. It’s easier to coach out the bogeys than coax more birdies into the hole, and with another year of experience with TOUR courses and the pro lifestyle, it’s likely Thorbjornsen will cut down on the mistakes.

Thorbjornsen was in the unfortunate position of following Åberg, who finished atop the PGA TOUR University ranking the year before him. The Swede saw immediate success, winning in his first abbreviated season and making a Ryder Cup team. Thorbjornsen didn’t match that, but he more than held his own, including a runner-up finish at the John Deere Classic and back-to-back top 10s to close the FedExCup Fall. That’s the progress you’d hope to see from a young player acclimating to the TOUR, and it signals good things to come for an underrated player heading into 2025.

10. Matt McCarty

It was a 2024 to remember for McCarty, who became the first player to win three times on the Korn Ferry Tour and then on the PGA TOUR in the same season since Jason Gore in 2005.

By winning in just his third PGA TOUR start at the Black Desert Championship, McCarty, 26, equaled the feat of Russell Henley, Seve Ballesteros and Bob Gilder. Only Garrick Higgo (second) and Jim Benepe (first) won faster.

That booked his spot in this week’s Sentry, while the rest of the Korn Ferry Tour grads will have to wait another week to make their season debuts. That illustrates the gap McCarty has already created between him and his peers. Will that continue in 2025?

McCarty was second in driving accuracy on the Korn Ferry Tour last season with above-average distance. He gained strokes in every category in his brief stint on the PGA TOUR a year ago. That’s a recipe for sustained success, signaling McCarty’s breakthrough was more than just a hot streak.