10 Players To Make The Leap on the PGA Tour This Season

I’ve been writing this piece at the beginning of each year for more than two decades.

The premise is simple: I’m selecting professional golfers to make “The Leap” – essentially, an elevation in status from their current ceiling position.

By my own parameters, I can’t/won’t suggest that, say, Scottie Scheffler will win a PGA Tour event or even a major championship in the 2025 campaign because he’s obviously already reached those levels. Such stepping stones can only be reserved here for players who haven’t yet reached them.

I’ll admit that I didn’t realize when I started writing these annual predictions years ago that they’re a lot more helpful to bettors than simply fans of the game. Even if I’m not listing winners for specific tournaments, I can offer some ideas on players to keep an eye on throughout the entirety of the season.

So, let’s get to it. My 10 (alright, 11) players to make “The Leap” on the PGA Tour this season.

10 Players To Make The Leap on the PGA Tour This Season

Ludvig Aberg

The Leap: Major champion

I’m not ready to anoint the ultra-talented Swede as some sort of GOAT or the next Tiger (or even Scottie) or even insist we’re about to enter the Ludvig Era in professional golf. HE does, however, have literally everything going for him. His mentality toward the game is tremendous – he laughs off his mistakes and makes quick decisions on the golf course. And perhaps more than any other player in the world, he makes the game just look so damn easy. 

Watch Aberg for a round and you’ll wonder why every other player doesn’t simply drive the ball 335 down the middle of the fairway every time. If there’s a comp to someone who’s won a major already, it’s not Woods or Scheffler, but probably Jon Rahm, who was similarly all-everything as an amateur and a guy we collectively knew was a can’t-miss superstar. At fifth in the world already and with a runner-up finish at last year’s Masters, there aren’t too many leaps left for Aberg, but he’ll clear that major championship hurdle sooner rather than later.

Si Woo Kim

The Leap: Major championship contender

Before we get into this one, a quick clarification: The Players Championship is not a major. I get it. It sorta looks like one. There’s a great field each year and it’s the highest profile tourney that’s run by the PGA Tour, so there exists a definitive gravitas around it. But it’s just a really important, big-time event – not the fifth major. 

This means that Kim, who won the 2017 edition at TPC Sawgrass when he was just 21 years old, not only doesn’t own a major title, he’s never finished inside the top-10 at a major in 31 attempts. His maturation process might’ve been extremely gradual, but it’s happened. Once known as the player with perhaps the greatest ceiling/floor range on the PGA Tour, he’s become much more consistent, making the cut in 22 of 25 starts last season. There’s often a player at the Ryder/Presidents Cup who parlays a strong performance into subsequent success. Scheffler hadn’t won on the PGA Tour before going undefeated at Whistling Straits in 2021; it wasn’t too long before he became the No. 1-ranked player in the world. There’s something about playing well in those team competitions which can steel a guy for individual events, and Si Woo went from telling me before last year’s Prez Cup in Montreal that he was really shy to (mistakenly) going full night-night in his on-course celebrations. 

I believe it will all help propel him out of his shell and into a limelight he might not have previously wanted as much. Throw in the fact that his peers all marvel at his ball-striking capabilities and it should add up to a few top-10s in the big ones, at the very least – and a very successful season overall.

Sahith Theegala

The Leap: U.S. Ryder Cup team member

Look, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know already, but – surprise, surprise – the world’s 13th-ranked player should also find himself amongst the Americans’ 12 best. What I like most about Theegala is that he follows my No. 1 rule of separating the uppermost elite-level players from the next tier. Which is to say, he can play his best golf anywhere, anytime, whether on the East Coast, West Coast, long course, short course, Bermuda greens or bentgrass. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to play his absolute best every single week, but it gives him more opportunities for success than those who are handcuffed by struggling on specific types of layouts. Following a 1-1-1 record at last year’s Presidents Cup, it’s tough to believe he won’t make the Ryder Cup team this year – and many more to come.

Max Greyserman

The Leap: PGA Tour winner

I’ve been writing this piece for so long that it pre-dates strokes gained statistics, which is a fact that makes me feel both a little prideful and painfully ancient. Back in the old days (as we elderly folk say), I would always examine the PGA Tour’s all-around ranking as an indicator toward future success. For the uninitiated, the all-around is exactly what it sounds like – a combined ranking for a player in all the major statistical categories. It’s no surprise that the best of the best are usually grouped at the top, but there’s usually an interloper playing the “Which one of these guys doesn’t belong?” game. 

That was the case again last season, as four of the top-five spots were held by Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns and Ludvig Aberg. The fifth? That’s right, it was Greyserman, who wasn’t just impressive statistically, but started putting together the results to back his performance, with three runner-up finishes and a fourth from late-July. I don’t believe this was just some run of luck, either – in fact, you could make the case that he was unlucky to have not won any of them, especially the Wyndham Championship. The public often views close calls as some sort of indicator that a player doesn’t have what it takes to win, but players almost always consider them positive experiences, and I expect Greyserman to build on those close ones the next time he gets into contention.

Rico Hoey

The Leap: PGA Tour winner

Think about all the great drivers of the golf ball on the PGA Tour. Consider the exceptional combinations of power and accuracy that exist at the game’s highest level. Now, realize that of them all, nobody had a better combination of these two statistics last season than Hoey. The reigning champion of the Total Driving category, it’s taken the 29-year-old USC product a bit longer to start thriving than many would have suspected. After missing the cut in 10 of his first 15 starts last season, he promptly posted three top-eight results in his next four and didn’t miss a cut in his final 13. 

As with many talented players early in their PGA Tour careers, there appears to be a massive expanse between his ceiling and floor, but it’s clear that his best stuff is very, very good. It’s for that reason that I won’t yet back him for a leap of year-long consistency, but do believe a four-round peak at an event with a slightly inferior field – such as the ISCO Championship, where he lost in a five-man playoff – is absolutely on the radar, and should lead to bigger and better things in the aftermath.

Davis Thompson

The Leap: Top-30 in the FedEx Cup

Hey, I’ll admit it: Some leaps are of the giant-for-mankind variety, and others are small steps for one man. This one qualifies as the latter, considering Thompson only narrowly missed qualifying for the Tour Championship last season, ultimately finishing in 34th on the points list. I was tempted to pick him to make this year’s Ryder Cup team because I believe he owns that type of talent and is going to have a Wyndham Clark-of-2023-like ascension this year, but I’ll hedge and simply insist that I believe his name will be part of that conversation.

Last year’s John Deere Classic winner also had two runner-up results and nearly as many finishes inside the top-25 (13) as outside of it (14). The reason to love his impending prospects from a statistical perspective is that he does a few things really well and nothing poorly, so he’ll only need to “fine-tune,” not “fix.” Thompson ranks 38th off the tee, 38th in approach, fifth around the greens and a respectable 90th in putting last season. I’d expect at least a few of those numbers to improve this year and the results – which were already impressive – are going to improve, as well.

Keith Mitchell

The Leap: Top-30 in the FedEx Cup

You know how TV announcers will say something like, “This kicker has made his last 87 extra-point attempts…” right before the guy invariably misses one? I feel like I’ve been doing that to Mitchell, only for years at a time. There are few players about whom I’m more consistently bullish on their chances to make an annual leap, but Mitchell appears to be stuck in neutral, even when the statistics suggest otherwise. Long known as one of the best drivers in the game, the UGA product ranked 12th in the approach game last season. 

If you’d told me that fact before the year started, I would’ve asked whether he’d win four times or only three. Instead, he posted a respectable four top-10s, 12 top-25s, and 18 made cuts in 28 starts. For a guy who oozes confidence, I think it’s only a matter of time before the physical tools mesh with the mental side, and he steps on the gas pedal toward becoming the player many of us have long thought he will be.

Max McGreevy

The Leap: Top-50 in the FedEx Cup

How good is McGreevy, who’s back for a second run at the highest level? Despite competing in just two PGA Tour events during 2024, he’s ranked an impressive 82nd on the OWGR. You’ve gotta do a lot of damage on some lesser circuits to reach that number and the No. 2 man on the Korn Ferry Tour this past season did exactly that. After posting three top-three finishes in the first six months of the year, he broke through for a victory, then added another and yet another at the Dunlop Phoenix on the Japan Tour, just for good measure. I often like backing players who have competed at the highest level previously, found success after a demotion and have another chance at the big leagues. McGreevy reminds me of Ben Kohles last year, though with a little more in the offensive arsenal. The pick here is for him to reach the BMW Championship, which comes with a huge rich-get-richer bump in the following season.

Justin Lower and Patrick Fishburn

The Leap: Top-70 in the FedEx Cup

With the implementation of so many no-cut, free-money signature events, making a leap into the playoffs has become tougher than ever before – certainly tougher than before the first playoff event was contracted down from a 125-player field. We’ve already witnessed solid regular seasons conclude at the Wyndham Championship over the past few years. 

Selecting players who aren’t already qualified for those signature events is a daunting task, but I’ll take two who showed plenty of promise last season. Lower is entering his fourth year on the PGA Tour after finishing with three top-sevens in his final eight starts of 2024. Don’t be surprised to see him pile up a few more title contentions in those lesser events. Fishburn was a rookie last year and similarly caught fire late, posting top-15s in six of his last 11 starts. It ain’t gonna be easy, but a few surprises are going to sneak into the playoffs, and I like each of these guys’ chances.

Matteo Manassero

The Leap: Top-125 in the FedEx Cup

About a dozen years ago, when I was working for Golf Channel, I came up with a “Golf Draft” that coincided with that year’s NFL Draft. Essentially, a collection of 32 reporters, writers, producers and editors each got a spot in the draft and selected a player for the future. With my mid-round pick, I took Manassero, who was then a late-teen/early-twentysomething phenom. The moral of the story is either that I was dead wrong for the next decade or that I was finally proven right, as the former phenom, who’d once dropped outside the top 1,800 in the OWGR, turned into a late-bloomer on the DP World Tour in recent years. He now owns a PGA Tour card via top-10 off the DP points list and I like the Italian to keep it for a while. 

In fact, I could envision him mirroring the success of Matthieu Pavon, another European export who enjoyed plenty of success in his rookie campaign last year. Thriston Lawrence and Tom McKibbin should similarly do well off that DP list, but in the final year before cards are only doled out to the top-100, these guys will need to ensure that a solid season will keep them on this side of the pond for a majority of the summer.