Opening Drive: Ten new PGA TOUR members to watch in 2025

The PGA TOUR offers several pathways to earn a spot at golf’s highest level, and this year’s crop of new members represents a diverse mix of intriguing young talents from across the globe.

There’s Arizona native Matt McCarty, who became the first player in eight years to earn a Korn Ferry Tour Three-Victory Promotion within a calendar year – then won his second TOUR start as a member. There’s South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter, not yet able to order an adult beverage in the United States, who last year became the youngest player since 1931 to win a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event.

You have Italy’s Matteo Manassero, who took a circular route to earn his first TOUR card – from teenage prodigy, back down to the Alps Tour, up again into the top 10 on the DP World Tour Eligibility Ranking. Add Australia’s Karl Vilips, who went from PGA TOUR University to #TOURBound in just four months, and Texas’ Matthew Riedel, his fellow PGA TOUR University grad who made a nervy 5-footer on the final hole of Q-School to achieve his TOUR dream.

Across the Korn Ferry Tour, DP World Tour, PGA TOUR University and PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, there are several pathways for young pros to earn their seat at the most competitive table in professional golf, the PGA TOUR. Here’s a look at 10 new members to watch in 2025 – and don’t be surprised if a few enter the winner’s circle before long.

Matt McCarty

Other than Scottie Scheffler, no player had more PGA TOUR-sanctioned wins in 2024 than McCarty, whose four victories came in a 10-event span. It was a sizzling stretch that lifted the little-known Santa Clara product into the professional golf spotlight, now and perhaps for years to come.

McCarty, 27, nearly earned his TOUR card via the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour (his second year on the circuit), but he made a quadruple bogey on his final hole of the third round at the season finale, ultimately finishing four strokes shy of a TOUR card. It was maybe the best thing to happen for his career – “I feel like you earn it when you’re ready,” he said a year later.

McCarty focused on three pillars last offseason (distance, wedges and putting) alongside his longtime instructor Dave Williams. For much of the Korn Ferry Tour season, he hovered around the top-30 bubble for a TOUR card. Then he went gangbusters with three wins in six starts, becoming the first player to earn a Korn Ferry Tour Three-Victory Promotion within a calendar year since Wesley Bryan in 2016. Less than two months after his third Korn Ferry Tour title, he won the TOUR’s Black Desert Championship in his second TOUR start as a member, joining Jason Gore (2005) as the only two players to earn a Three-Victory Promotion and win on TOUR in the same year.

McCarty is, in a word, consistent. He is a feel-based player who has worked with just one swing coach (Williams), and his former college teammate Devrath Das has been on the bag for three seasons and counting. The Arizona native focuses on getting 1% better each day – he knows it’s cliché, but the proof lies in the results. McCarty ranked third from last on the Korn Ferry Tour in Driving Distance in 2022 but has moved toward the middle of the pack in the last two years. Couple this improvement with elite accuracy and short game, and it makes for one of golf’s intriguing young talents who could continue to stack trophies in the coming years.

Frankie Capan III

There was no Minnesota miracle about it, as Frankie Capan played some of the Korn Ferry Tour’s strongest golf in 2024 and earned his first PGA TOUR card at No. 3 on the season-long standings.

Capan is a natural athlete – he can kick a field goal up to 50 yards – who spent two years collegiately at the University of Alabama (mentors include Davis Riley) before playing his final two seasons at Florida Gulf Coast. Capan’s caddies in professional golf have ranged from his mom Charlynn (who looped all the way from pre-qualifying through Final Stage in 2022, where he earned guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts) to veteran caddie Damon Green, another mentor who was on the bag as he clinched #TOURBound status during the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Capan was the ring bearer in the wedding of longtime TOUR pro Arron Oberholser, and he has received guidance from Basketball Hall of Famer Kevin McHale, a fellow Minnesotan. He plays a creative style of golf that produces high highs: He shot an opening-round 58 at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Veritex Bank Championship in spring 2024, and his first Korn Ferry Tour title at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship last August came at a venue where past champions include Justin Thomas and Scheffler. It’s an acclaimed resume that has fortified Capan to make a quick impact on TOUR in 2025 – just as his beloved Minnesota Vikings take aim at their first Super Bowl title.

Aldrich Potgieter

For most of the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season, Potgieter appeared well on his way to a PGA TOUR card. He sweated it out down the stretch but finished inside the critical top 30 – and the young South African, not yet of legal drinking age in the United States, will bring his prodigious power to the game’s highest level in 2025.

In 2023, Potgieter medaled at Second Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry at age 19 to earn Korn Ferry Tour starts – less than six months after turning professional and two years after winning the British Amateur at age 17. His blend of size and strength allows him to bludgeon certain venues – he ranked No. 1 on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour in driving distance (336.5 yards), on a circuit that carries no shortage of power players. He won his second start at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, becoming the youngest winner of a TOUR-sanctioned event since Ralph Guldahl in 1931, and he did just enough to finish No. 29 on the season-long standings, becoming the second youngest player (behind Jason Day) to earn a TOUR card through the Korn Ferry Tour.

It’s one thing to bring the hype; it’s another to validate it. Potgieter delivered on both in 2024, and he’ll look to do the same on TOUR in 2025.

Karl Vilips

Known by golf fans for a decade-plus via his YouTube channel, Vilips has quickly shown in professional golf that his game translates to the highest level.

Vilips was born in Australia, quickly took to the game, and began documenting his journey on YouTube with the help of his dad Paul. The father-son duo moved to the United States when the younger Vilips was 11 years old; he began attending Saddlebrook Academy in Florida three years later. Vilips thrived at Stanford, where teammates included Michael Thorbjornsen (No. 1 on the 2024 PGA TOUR University Ranking), and he finished No. 10 on PGA TOUR University to earn conditional Korn Ferry Tour status this past summer.

Vilips initially planned to spend the summer on PGA TOUR Americas, but he took advantage of his early Korn Ferry Tour opportunities and won the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank and Intermountain Health in just his fourth start. He finished No. 19 on the Korn Ferry Tour’s season-long standings (in just 10 starts) to clinch his first PGA TOUR card within four months of turning pro.

Vilips has described his own game as of the bomb-and-gauge variety, but Thorbjornsen assures that his good friend’s skill set extends far beyond that. The scores prove it, as does the PGA TOUR card.

Matthew Riedel

Riedel became the second member of the PGA TOUR University Class of 2024 to earn a PGA TOUR card, draining a 5-footer on the final hole at Final Stage of Q-School to finish in a three-way T4, squarely on the number to advance via the top five and ties. The Vanderbilt alum, who finished No. 4 on the PGA TOUR University Ranking, will join Stanford’s Vilips in progressing from campus to TOUR within eight months.

Riedel grew up in the Houston metroplex as the youngest of three siblings, and he relished the challenge of planning his summer tournament schedule via a budget that his parents provided. Perhaps at times he was overlooked on the Vanderbilt squad (teammates included Gordon Sargent, who will join the TOUR in summer 2025 via PGA TOUR University Accelerated), but he finished second at the SEC Championship in April and contended in his fifth Korn Ferry Tour start after turning pro, finishing second at The Ascendant presented by Blue.

Riedel, 24, finished No. 77 on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List in just 13 starts, and he qualified directly for Final Stage of Q-School via his top-five finish on PGA TOUR University. In a field of 170 players that included several TOUR winners and veterans, he proved his best game is enough for the highest level – no learning curve required.

Braden Thornberry

There was a time Braden Thornberry was considered one of golf’s rising next stars. With one of the greatest rounds of 2024 on the Korn Ferry Tour season’s final day, he earned his spot at the highest level – which one seemed predestined – after some years of uncertainty.

Thornberry played collegiately at Ole Miss and ascended to No. 1 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, with amateur achievements including the 2017 NCAA Division I individual title and 2017 Haskins Award as the United States’ most outstanding collegiate golfer. He turned pro in 2019 and shared medalist honors at Final Stage of Q-School that fall (during the nine-year period where top finishers at Q-School earned Korn Ferry Tour status in lieu of PGA TOUR cards).

Thornberry came up just short of a PGA TOUR card via the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals, then lost status after the 2022 season (at No. 109 on the standings) and made just one Korn Ferry Tour start the following year. He regained status for 2024 via Q-School, produced steady results for much of the season and delivered a final-round 66 at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance (the day’s low round) to earn his maiden Korn Ferry Tour title, move from No. 51 to 16 on the season-long standings and stamp his first PGA TOUR card. The wait was worth it.

Rasmus Højgaard

Højgaard nearly earned his PGA TOUR card through the DP World Tour pathway in 2023, but a late surge by Matthieu Pavon at the DP World Tour Championship knocked Højgaard out. It could have devastated him, but he returned for a 2024 campaign that left little doubt as to his rising level of prominence in golf’s world order.

On the back of his win at the Amgen Irish Open, where he fended off Rory McIlroy, Højgaard finished second in the DP World Tour Eligibility Ranking and is headed to the TOUR. Oh, and he will reunite with his twin brother, Nicolai, in the process.

Højgaard, 23, has already won five times on the DP World Tour. He won his first title at 18, becoming the third-youngest player to win on the DP World Tour. Højgaard amassed seven top-10 finishes on the 2024 DP World Tour and did not miss a cut. Although he’ll be a first-year TOUR member in 2025, he has already amassed 22 starts on the circuit (with 12 made cuts) and shouldn’t experience much of a learning curve in his acclimation process.

Højgaard is a big-time talent with sky-high potential, and although he’s the second in his family to earn #TOURBound status, he projects for the same level of staying power for years to come.

-Paul Hodowanic

Takumi Kanaya

He’s a familiar name in worldwide golf circles, but Takumi Kanaya will be a first-year PGA TOUR member in 2025 after earning his card at Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.

The Japan native burst onto the international golf scene as a teenager, winning the 2018 Asia-Pacific Amateur to qualify for two majors. He made the cut at the 2019 Masters at age 20, won on the Japan Golf Tour as an amateur that same year, and featured as No. 1 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking for 55 weeks. He cracked the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking in late 2021 and has won seven times on the Japan Golf Tour, including twice in 2024.

Now at age 26, Kanaya will take his talents stateside. He advanced through Second Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School in California a week before his banner showing at Final Stage in northeast Florida, finishing solo third in the event that awarded TOUR cards to the top five and ties of 170 players.

Matteo Manassero

Playing on the biggest stage once seemed like Manassero’s birthright. At 16, he finished T13 at the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry, where he played the first two rounds alongside then-59-year-old Tom Watson. Manassero made the cut at the 2010 Masters, was among the top 30 in the world and racked up four quick DP World Tour victories.

Then Manassero vanished, a prodigy suddenly overcome by doubt. One bad week led to the next, and soon he lost his DP World Tour status and even briefly stepped away from the game.

Upon his return, Manassero, who dropped all the way to world No. 1,805, bounced between the Alps Tour and Challenge Tour. He called Francesco Molinari, the ne plus ultra of Italian golf, for guidance. Manassero made big changes in 2019, he said, and the game came back. He won twice on the Challenge Tour last season, and in March broke a nearly 11-year win drought with his fifth DP World Tour victory at the Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa.

Now he’s back in the majors and set to return to the PGA TOUR for the first time since he was a Special Temporary Member in 2014. Manassero who works with Søren Hansen (coach of Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard), is 31 now, and his wild ride will now include dual membership.

-Cameron Morfit

William Mouw

The son of egg farmers, William Mouw has quickly cracked the code of professional golf, and he earned his first TOUR card at No. 10 on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour’s season-long standings.

Mouw grew up in southern California, where his parents Billy and Michelle own Billy’s Egg Farm, and he spent ample time working the farm in his formative years. The wake-up calls were often pre-dawn, yet he’d find time to juggle academics and the farm while also developing his golf skills. He played collegiately at Pepperdine, finished No. 6 on the 2023 PGA TOUR University Ranking, and carded top-25 finishes in four of his first five Korn Ferry Tour starts that summer. Mentally and physically, he was ready for life as a pro.

At age 24, Mouw is mature beyond his years. He’s already married, resides less than a half hour from the family farm, and he approaches his career with poise and professionalism. His stats suggest a player who is good at everything but not TOUR-level exceptional at any one area, in line with his consistent results across the last two Korn Ferry Tour seasons. That could translate well to the rigors of PGA TOUR competition.