What do you think of when you think of the year 2025 in professional golf?
It may be Rory McIlroy finally exorcising his demons at Augusta and completing the career Grand Slam. Or it may be Scottie Scheffler establishing himself as the preeminent golfer of his generation with two more major titles.
But I would like to propose a third consideration when looking back on 2025 in golf: the breakouts of Ben Griffin and J.J. Spaun.
Coming into the 2025 PGA Tour season, Griffin and Spaun were essentially no-names who probably couldn't be picked out of a crowd by the average golf fan. By the end of the year, the two became some of the most talked-about names in golf.
Griffin, meanwhile, became the model of consistency with his excellent play throughout the summer, winning three times on Tour this year, joining McIlroy and Scheffler as the only players to win at least that many times this season.
Spaun, meanwhile, made early headlines with his playoff loss to McIlroy at The Players, before saving a brutal U.S. Open Sunday with his putt on the 18th to win at Oakmont, ending the year over 100 spots higher in the OWGR than where he was one year prior.
Both Griffin and Spaun enjoyed spectacular 2025s and are looking to build upon their great years in 2026. Now that we are looking ahead to next year, it's time to start trying to identify who is going to have a breakout campaign this coming PGA Tour season. We know who has earned their cards; now, let's try to pinpoint who will establish themselves as a star in the game of golf.
My main criteria for who is eligible for consideration for this list is two-fold: 1) they did not win a PGA Tour event last season, and 2) they did not make the Tour Championship, meaning guys like Garrick Higgo and Aldrich Potgieter, who I had originally considered for this list, will not be eligible.
I also want to give a quick honorable mention to Jackson Koivun, who doesn't make the list because he has decided to return to Auburn for 2026, delaying his full-time entry into the PGA Tour. He's going to have limited opportunities to prove himself more, but based on his play in 2025, I wouldn't be surprised if he won a PGA Tour event as an amateur this year.
I am looking for guys who either flew under the radar because of their playing on other tours, or guys who seem primed to bounce back from a disappointing 2025. Whether or not they hit the heights of a Ben Griffin or J.J. Spaun, only time will tell. For now, let's take a look at who I think can raise their profiles the most in 2026.
Marco Penge
This first pick may be cheating my system a little bit, but this is my list, and I can do whatever I want when it comes to picking my players.
Marco Penge had a massive year on the DP World Tour in 2025, winning three times and finishing second to Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai. Penge's best skill by far is his distance off the tee, averaging nearly 320 yards off the tee in 2025 (he would have ranked third behind Potgieter and McIlroy on Tour), but his ability to hit greens in regulation and give himself birdie looks must also be commended.
The 27-year-old Brit hit over 72% of his greens in regulation this past year, a higher percentage than Scottie Scheffler. Considering how many events on the Tour schedule are set up to favor a bomb-and-gouge playing style, Penge is going to fit right in and should avoid any growing pains that come with the transition from Europe to the U.S. Don't be surprised if Penge reaches the top 10 in the world by the end of 2026.
Kristoffer Reitan
Another player from the DP World Tour who earned their PGA Tour Card through the Race to Dubai this past season, Reitan is going to be entering the 2026 season with slightly less fanfare than Penge.
However, the Norwegian is currently on a hot run, having risen all the way from the Challenge Tour in 2024 to gaining full PGA Tour status in 2026. Reitan won twice in 2025 in Europe, riding a strong driver and a hot putter to an eighth-place finish in the Race to Dubai.
Reitan may not have quite the same level of loud skills that someone like Penge does, but I think that his continued improvement with his irons will round out his game and make the Norwegian a very impressive all-around player.
Alex Smalley
Through the first few months of 2025, it seemed like Alex Smalley was going to put together a strong season, especially after a T14 at The Players. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to keep up his early-season form, only recording four top-10s the rest of the year.
When Smalley is on, you can usually count on all four facets of his game clicking in plus-strokes-gained play, and we started to see it again during the fall, with a T4 in Japan and a T3 in Bermuda.
He may end up being a breakout in the same way that Brian Campbell was a breakout, winning two events that didn't have any real big names in the field in 2025. Maybe this year isn't when Smalley takes down something like a Signature Event, but he could end up taking multiple of the Puntacana/Puerto Rico-level events. If he's able to do that, I'd label 2026 as a major success for Smalley.
Matt McCarty
Because of a somewhat disappointing 2025, we forget that Matt McCarty earned the battlefield promotion from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour in 2024 and won the Black Desert Championship (now the Bank of Utah Championship) in only his second start on Tour.
Any struggles that McCarty may have shown this can be chalked up to a rookie getting his footing for life on the PGA Tour. Even still, the 28-year-old showed flashes of his skill, including a T4 in Canada, a T8 at the Wyndham, and genuinely being in the mix after 36 holes at The Masters, leading to a T14 finish.
What McCarty lacks in relative distance, he makes up for everywhere else with his game, ranking well above Tour average in total strokes gained per round. He has plenty of skill to succeed on Tour, and I believe that now that McCarty has the rhythms of Tour life down, he is going to really pop this year.
Johnny Keefer
This pick may take a little while to look like a good call, but as we say around here, we're never wrong, just early.
Johnny Keefer is coming into the 2026 season after leading the Korn Ferry Tour in points, winning twice on the KFT last season. Kind of like Reitan in Europe, Keefer has been consistently moving on to bigger and better things, growing from the PGA Tour Americas after graduating from Baylor in 2023, to already earning his PGA Tour card in two short years.
We saw Keefer a little bit in 2025, where he best showed his skills in a T7 finish at the RSM Classic. This pick is purely on Keefer keeping his momentum rolling, and he hasn't shown us any reason to doubt his skill and ability to keep this run going.