Breakfast Ball #46: The Next Crop of European PGA Tour Stars

It is time for a cooldown in the golfing calendar. There is snow across the US and Europe, the two major tours are finished (in my mind, at least), and it is one month until Christmas. Time to start the shopping, folks 🎅 

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Exciting Prospects and Wily Veterans Among Those Making the Jump to the PGA Tour in 2025

Players who finish in the top 10 of the DP World Tour (DPWT) rankings and don't already have PGA Tour membership automatically earn PGA Tour cards for the following season, a policy implemented after the tours formed their strategic partnership in 2022. This year, Bob MacIntyre and Matthieu Pavon translated that opportunity into wins and a place in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings. The final list of 10 players that will be making the jump was finalized last weekend at the DPWt Championship. Let’s learn a little more about them, with a focus on the Europeans as always.

You may have read about Rasmus Højgaard in the newsletter a couple of weeks ago. His twin brother Nicolai graduated from the DPWT in 2023 and played on the European Ryder Cup team. Now, Rasmus will join his brother on the PGA Tour and make a push for the 2025 Ryder Cup team after finishing second in the Road to Dubai rankings behind McIlroy. He has the skill profile to go to the US, be a success, and make next year’s team.

Paul Waring was 48th in the rankings going into the second last event of the season. This year was his 17th consecutive season on the DPWT, where he had only picked up one win during his career. However, the 39-year-old turned on the style two weeks ago and won the HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship, vaulting him to 5th in the Road to Dubai rankings. Now, in his 18th season as a pro golfer, he will play on the PGA Tour.

Jesper Svensson and Matteo Manassero are both making the remarkable rise from the Challenge Tour to the PGA Tour in two years, but in very different ways. 2023 was Svensson’s first season on the DPWT after a number of years grinding in the Nordic Golf League and the Challenge Tour. The 28-year-old was ranked 708th in the world as recently as May 2023, but will play on the PGA Tour in 2025 after winning the Porsche Singapore Classic earlier this year. Svensson averaged 318.7 yards off the tee this season, which would have been third best on the PGA Tour. He should be able to use that to his advantage in the US.

On the other hand, Manassero won his first European Tour event at 17 and was one of the greatest golf prodigies of his time. In a chase for perfection, he made significant changes to his swing and lost his way. Manassero ultimately dropped to 1,805th in the world rankings and considered quitting golf, before starting again on the Alps Tour after Covid. He completed his rise back to the top with a win at the Jonsson Workwear Open earlier this year, and will be a very popular promotion to the PGA Tour.

Niklas Nørgaard is a late bloomer. The 32-year-old spent his first seven years as a pro golfer in the Nordic Golf League and on the Challenge Tour before finally making it to the DPWT in 2023. He is one of the longest hitters in golf, averaging 322.4 yards off the tee in 2024. Just four years ago, his driving accuracy was 20% below the average tour player, but he has increased that every year since to be just 4% below the average in 2024, which is extremely impressive given his power.

2018 Ryder Cup player Thorbjørn Olesen will be returning to the PGA Tour for the second year in a row. Olesen originally got a PGA Tour card through the DPWT last year, but struggled in the US this year and turned his attention back to the DPWT in August. Three top ten results in his last five starts was enough to get his card back.

With three events to play in the 2024 season, Antoine Rozner was firmly out of the picture in 50th place in the DPWT rankings. However, he finished the season with three top ten finishes including a T3 at the DPWT Championship, and will play on the PGA Tour with fellow Frenchman Matthieu Pavon next season. Rozner is 31 years old and a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Perhaps the most exciting talent to get a card is also the last European to clinch a spot: 21-year-old Tom McKibbin. McKibbin delivered under pressure, sinking a birdie on the final hole of the DPWT Championship to edge out Jordan Smith and claim the final PGA Tour card. Hailing from Holywood Golf Club in County Down, Northern Ireland—the same club where Rory McIlroy honed his skills—McKibbin ensures that this small but storied club will now boast two representatives on the U.S. tour.

Joining him as the final qualifiers are South Africa's Thriston Lawrence and Japan's Rikuya Hoshino. Impressively, seven of the ten players who earned their PGA Tour cards through the same route last year managed to retain them for 2025. Here’s hoping this year’s class can match or even surpass that success.

Other News and Results

• The PGA Tour ratified significant changes to the tour structure last week that will go into effect in 2025 👊 

  • The tour reduced the number of fully exempt members from 125 to 100 and the standard size of tournament fields from 156 to 144

• Maverick McNealy won the final PGA Tour event of the year at the RSM Classic for his first win on tour after 142 starts 🏆️ 

• A T17 finish was enough for Henrik Norlander to jump inside the top 125 on the FedEx Cup rankings and gain full PGA Tour status for 2025 🇸🇪 

  • Norlander came into 2024 with only conditional status after missing out at the final stage of Q-School last year, but did enough with limited starts to win

• Unfortunately, promising talent Adrien Dumont de Chassart did not do enough to retain full status, ultimately finishing the year in 139th place 🇧🇪 

  • Hopefully the Belgian can recover his form next year as a conditional member of the PGA Tour, where he will get approximately 15 starts

Coming up this week on Tour

• The DP World Tour has the second event of its 2025 season at the ISPS Handa Australian Open

  • The tournament will take place across two courses the first two days and finish in Kingston Heath, which was just ranked as the 22nd best golf course in the world by Golf.com

If you have any feedback for the newsletter or would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! Email [email protected] or message us on Twitter/X at @BlueHorizonGolf. Thank you for reading!