BEN An might have won the DP World Tour season-ending Genesis Championship in South Korea late in 2024, but a two-metre birdie putt an hour earlier on the 72nd hole, made by a player few golf fans had even heard of, had much greater significance.
Had Marco Penge missed that putt on the 490m par-five 18th hole at the beautiful Jack Nicklaus Golf Club, he would have finished 111th on the tour’s Order of Merit and missed out by one place on retaining his card for the following season.
And that would have denied the Englishman the chance to put together a spectacular 2025 season that delivered him three victories, placed him second to Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai, saw his world ranking rocket from 440 to 29, and earned him a place on the lucrative US PGA Tour.
Penge, a 27-year-old whose father Angelo was born in Italy, gave Australian fans a glimpse of his talent when he played in the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland a few weeks ago.
Despite carrying a painful neck injury that limited his preparation, he shot rounds of 70, 65, 70 and 71, then boarded a jet to fly to South Africa for the rich Nedbank Challenge at Sun City.
It’s heady stuff for a man whose career was at the crossroads little more than a year ago.
Penge, who was introduced to golf at the age of five, was a scratch golfer by the age of 13 and won a host of junior tournaments. He turned professional in 2017 at the age of 20 and, two years later, won his first professional title – the Irish Masters on the PGA EuroPro Tour.
Marco Penge, a visitor to Australia and the BMW PGA Championship in November, will compete on the PGA Tour in 2026 after an outstanding 2025 season on the DP World Tour.
That earned him membership of the Challenger Tour, but it wasn’t until 2023 that he won again. He claimed the Portuguese Open, followed by the Challenge Tour Grand Final, which earned him a place on the DP World Tour.
Then, after serving a three-month suspension for betting on golf tournaments, he proceeded to put together a stunning 2025 season.
He finished third in the South African Open in March, won the Hainan Classic in April, the Danish Golf Championship in August, the Spanish Open in October, and finished second in the Scottish Open. Those performances were good enough to place him second on the tour’s Race to Dubai.
Penge struggles to make sense of the dramatic improvement.
“I mean, obviously, time,” he said. “At the start of the year I had to put my head down and rearrange a couple of bits within my team and the way I work.
“I had a coach change and just had time to really work as hard as I possibly could and do what I wanted to do. The big one for me is obviously the structure that I have in place.
“I’ve been super consistent this year. It’s hard to think of a round a golf where I didn’t play very well, whereas last year it was more the opposite.
“I’ve become a father as well, so I probably just matured as a person and learned so much from my first year playing the DP World Tour.
“Your first year as a rookie is not easy, it’s a new environment for you to find your feet and give myself the chance to play well on this tour.”
Penge, who holds a position with Mizuno and uses the manufacturer’s clubs, faces a frenetic 2025. His win in the Spanish Open gained him starts in the US Masters and the Open, and his success on the DP World Tour earned him a US PGA Tour card.
Long hitting Englishman Marco Penge, a rising star on the world golfing scene.
He plans to play in that tour’s first two signature events, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational, as well as the Players Championship, and as many other events as he can.
Penge missed the cut in Elvis Smylie’s 2024 Australian PGA and was only 27th in the Australian Open the following week to conclude a less than impressive first season on the DP World Tour.
“Obviously looking forward to playing in all majors next year and play against the best players in the world,” he said. “The standard is different when you’re playing against the best guys.”
But he won’t be turning his back on the DP World Tour.
“Yes, I’m playing the PGA Tour next year, but I still want make sure I’m in Dubai at the end of the season with a chance to win the Race to Dubai,” he said. “So I’m going to be trying to play as much as I can when I can.”
Indeed, his commitment to the DP World Tour was one of the reasons he played at Royal Queensland.
“I love playing golf, so I was in Dubai a couple of weeks ago and halfway from home to here and obviously had the opportunity to come and start the season in Australia. I didn’t really have a second thought about not coming.
“I played this course last year and really enjoyed it with my family so I wanted to come back and have that experience again and kind of kick off as fast as I can in the new season.
“Hopefully I’ll be playing as much as I can on the DP World Tour. It won’t be the last time you see me.”
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