This year has, for the most part, been dominated by the biggest stars.
Rory McIroy kicked things off with prestigious wins at Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass and Augusta National.
Scottie Scheffler grabbed the baton to win the PGA Championship and the Open.
Bryson DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose also enjoyed success as did – eventually – Xander Schauffele.
But who were the breakthrough stars of 2025?
Here’s the eight best.
1. JJ Spaun
Ahead of 2025, the Californian had finished top three on the PGA Tour just six times in 10 seasons, but this year alone he has done so on another five occasions.
He did have a win in his back catalogue – the 2022 Texas Open – but he’s bettered that, and in spectacular style, this year. He very nearly did so when pushing Rory McIlroy into a play-off at the Players Championship and he definitely did so when winning the US Open in June. He also impressed on his Ryder Cup debut, winning two of his three matches.
He ended 2024 ranked 119th in the world and ends 2025 inside the top 10. Undoubtedly the breakthrough player of the year.
2. Ben Griffin
The North Carolina native might have won this title in any ordinary year. As it is, he gets marked as Spaun-lite because his transformation was much the same but it lacked the major championship sparkle.
In his case, he’d had three top three finishes before 2025 and has added four of them this year including victory in the New Orleans pairs event and then again at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Like Spaun he made a Ryder Cup debut (winning one of his two matches). He ended last year ranked 65th in the world and ends 2025 in the top 20.
Not quite up to Spaun’s standard but he wins the romantic vote because just a few years ago he gave up the game and took a desk job. Having second thoughts was worth it!
3. Marco Penge
The PGA Tour remains a level above the DP World Tour, which explains why England’s Marco Penge can only be ranked third despite winning three times.
Those victories came after he needed to make birdie on his last hole of the 2024 season to maintain his card and also after he served a three month ban (one month suspended) for betting infringements. The first victory came in late April and he kept his foot down, narrowly missing out on Ryder Cup selection.
His world ranking leap is sensational. From outside the top 400 at the start of the year to well inside the top 50 – and he’ll play 2026 on the PGA Tour.
4. Chris Gotterup
The Maryland performer served notice of his potential with victory in last year’s Myrtle Beach Classic but he then went 20 starts with just two top 40 finishes (and not one top 20) and ended 2024 ranked just 191st in the world.
He was consistent in early summer and then took to the linksland like a native, winning the Scottish Open and finishing third in the Open. He even added a top 10 in the lucrative Tour Championship and ends the year well inside the world’s top 50.
5. Cameron Young
Can we count the 28-year-old New Yorker as a breakthrough golfer? He did have, after all, seven top three finishes on the PGA Tour before the start of the year.
The problem was that they were all seconds and thirds. The win was elusive, as was a steady putting stroke. But his work on the greens picked up in early summer and with it came confidence.
The winning breakthrough came in July’s Wyndham Championship and he followed it by top-scoring in the Ryder Cup with three points in four matches. He’ll be a major threat in 2026.
6. Ryan Fox
The Kiwi – son of the great rugby All Black fly half Grant – was a four-time winner on the DP World Tour including the flagship BMW PGA Championship in 2023, so his quality was never in doubt.
Any kind of success in America had eluded him however. In fact, he’d managed just three top 10s in 53 starts ahead of May’s Myrtle Beach Classic. He won that event and some might have shrugged because it was a weak field. So he backed it up with a second triumph in the Canadian Open.
7. Michael Brennan
Last year’s first edition of the Bank of Utah Championship was won by Matt McCarty. It was just his third start on the PGA Tour and he already had three wins earlier in the year on the second tier. This year the same event was won by Michael Brennan, also on his third start at the top level and also after three wins earlier in the year (in his case on the third tier).
McCarty is a short-hitter who has mostly struggled since. Brennan, however, is a different kettle of fish. In fact, he’s a huge hitter and in 2026 will surely add to his reputation.
8. Robert MacIntyre
Like Young, it feels a little odd to count the Scot as a breakthrough star and yet there is a sense that he has yet again taken a step up in class. Because being a three-time winner on the DP World Tour ahead of this year is good. And winning twice on the PGA Tour in 2024 is better. His Ryder Cup debut was excellent, too, in 2023.
But in 2025 he very nearly won the US Open and, while he didn’t win as many points in this year’s Ryder Cup, his influence on the result was arguably greater. He rode that wave to land the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and ends the year a world top 10 player.
Read next: What happened to Collin Morikawa? The story behind a gradual decline
The post The biggest breakthrough stars from the 2025 season appeared first on Golf365.
Article Link: The eight biggest breakthrough stars from the 2025 season