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The world was still Jon Rahm’s oyster in 2022 despite questions swirling about his performance following a career-defining season the year prior. Entering January as the world No. 1, fresh off a campaign that saw him finish inside the top 10 in 15 of 24 starts while capturing his first major championship at the 2021 U.S. Open, Rahm looked have to retained this momentum in the early parts of the new year. 

Having one of the highest floors in the sphere of professional golf, the Spaniard disappointingly lost in a shootout to Cameron Smith at the Tournament of Champions, showed visible frustration over the conditions at The American Express and scuttled over the weekend at Torrey Pines.

Concerns surrounding Rahm’s short game began to reverberate through the golf world when a relative lull surfaced in early spring that included three top-20 finishes in five starts. Relinquishing his spot atop the Official World Golf Rankings and needing to squash any naysayers, the 28-year-old came to the Mexico Open as a heavy betting favorite and delivered in such a way.

Rahm’s triumph in Mexico propelled him to weekend contention at the U.S. Open and a runner-up performance at the BMW PGA Championship before notching victories at the Open de España and the DP World Tour Championship. Three wins in his final 14 worldwide starts of 2022 saved what many considered a down year for a player of Rahm’s caliber.

“Hopefully, people can stop telling me that this was a bad year,” Rahm said following his victory at the DP World Tour finale. “Three wins worldwide. Three wins on three different continents. Yeah, there wasn’t a major championship, but it was still a really, really good season.”

A really, really good season? Yes. A great season? No. Harsh, perhaps, that is not to say 2023 will be the same as the clip at which Rahm wins continues to be absurd.

His 2021 season showcased quality. Penciling him in for a victory at the Memorial — where he had to withdraw before the final round with a six-stroke lead due to a positive COVID-19 test — and breaking through for his lone major title at the U.S. Open, Rahm was simply dominant.

The golf course, the weather, the competition — none of it mattered. If there was a tournament to be played, Rahm was going to be in contention. That’s how high his floor was, but more importantly, how high his ceiling was.

Rahm’s 2022 was inherently different despite totaling a higher win count. The quality lacked as he contended in only one major championship, and his lone PGA Tour title came against one of the weakest fields of the season. Winning matters, and Rahm checked that box this past year. But in 2023, expect him to return to his ways of two years ago.

While the standard of his wins was downgraded, Rahm remained the standard for success off-the-tee. Gaining 1.025 strokes per round with the driver in hand, Rahm led the PGA Tour in the statistic and was nearly two times more effective than Patrick Cantlay, who ranked 17th on the season, three times more effective than Scottie Scheffler (37th) and four times more effective than Billy Horschel (50th).

The most predictive strokes gained statistic, Rahm’s blend of distance and accuracy off-the-tee will allow him to tally those 2.5 victories a year. It’s a weapon, yes, a difference-maker, for sure, but it is not the club which will allow him to add major No. 2 or possibly No. 3 in 2023.

That honor goes to his putter. Finding something in his setup on the back-nine of his second round at the 2022 BMW Championship, Rahm rolled the rock with the best of them coming down the stretch of the calendar year. Averaging +1.45 strokes gained putting per round over his last five measured events, Rahm returned to the 2021 version of himself.

Whether this is only for a brief stretch or a prolonged period will define Rahm’s 2023. If the former reigns supreme, look for Rahm to nab a couple wins on the DP World Tour, and maybe even one of the newly elevated events on the PGA Tour. However, if the latter prevails, the world No. 5 will have a real chance to end his year as he began the prior: atop the world of golf and with a shiny, new major championship trophy on his mantle.

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South Africa will host two events in March, the Joburg Ladies Open at Modderfontein Golf Club and the Investec South African Women’s Open at Steenberg Golf Club in Cape Town.

The first of five $1 million Aramco Team Series events will then take place in Singapore, followed by two more events in Asia.  The LET will return to Europe in May for the Jabra Ladies Open at the world-famous Evian Resort Golf Club in France, followed by the second Aramco Team Series event at Trump International, West Palm Beach, in Florida.

After a successful launch in 2022, the Mithra Belgian Ladies Open will be played again at Naxhelet Golf Club. Then, in June, the Helsingborg Open will return to the schedule for the first time since 2015 and will be played at Allerum Golf Club. Remaining in Sweden, the LET will move on to Ullna Golf Club for the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed, where the players will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Linn Grant, who earlier this year became the first woman to win a DP World Tour event with a nine-shot victory over a mixed gender field in the co-sanctioned tournament.

From there, the LET will move on to Berlin for the Amundi German Masters at Seddiner See Golf Club, followed by the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open at Beroun Golf Club and then the Ladies Open by Pickala, at Pickala Golf in Helsinki, Finland.

In mid-July, the third Aramco Team Series event will be played once again at Centurion Club near London. In the third week of July, the €1 million La Sella Open will debut on the calendar at La Sella Golf in Alicante, Spain.

In July and August, the Tour will play in four co-sanctioned tournaments with the LPGA, opening in France with the $6.5 million Amundi Evian Championship, the first Major on the LET schedule, followed by the $2 million Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open, the $7.3 million AIG Women’s Open, the second Major Championship in Europe, to be played at Walton Heath in England and finally the $1.5 million ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics, in Northern Ireland, before returning to Dromoland Castle in Ireland for the second KPMG Women’s Irish Open.

Early September will see Hilversumsche Golf Club in the Netherlands host the Big Green Egg Open and then the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open will be played once again at the picturesque Golfpark Holzhausern.

On September 22-24, the Solheim Cup, featuring the 12 best players from the United States versus the 12 best European players, will be held at the stunning Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, where Team Europe is going for the hat-trick. Golf fans are readying themselves for what will be a truly unmissable event.

The Lacoste Ladies Open de France will then return to Golf Barriere in Deauville, ahead of the fourth Aramco Team Series event in Asia in October.

The Hero Women’s Indian Open at DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon will precede the fifth Aramco Team Series event, in Riyadh, at the beginning of November.

Finally, the 2023 season will culminate with the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de Españaat Real Club de Golf Las Brisas, Marbella, where the winner of the Race to Costa del Sol will be crowned.

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Can the toast of the fall become the major championship (or elevated event) debutante of the spring? That’s the question when it comes to Tom Kim, winner of two post-Open Championship events on the PGA Tour and individual champion (if there was one) of the Presidents Cup in September.

Kim has captivated pretty much everyone who encountered him with not only his buttery approach shots and deft short game, but an electricity that is rare in the golf world. His aura, it seems, is nearly as singular and nonreplicable as his game. 

He is, without question, the best youngest star in golf. The 20-year-old (he won’t be 21 until the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club) is ranked No. 15 in the world and on the radar of even the very best players in the world.

Kim is a bit of an oddity, too. In a world where many of the top young players are making their way with distance and speed, Kim is not that long off the tee. Last year, he didn’t have enough rounds to qualify, but his average drive of 301.1 yards would have been T92 on the PGA Tour, and his club head speed of 110.09 would have ranked 177th. This is not the statistical profile of somebody ranked in the top 20 in the world six months removed from his teenage years.

And yet, the thing Kim does best is perhaps the lost art of winning. He wins a lot. In 81 starts in Official World Golf Ranking events, Kim has eight wins. That’s an enormous number that, while buoyed a bit by playing often on lesser tours, cannot be immediately dismissed because Kim has also won twice in 20 starts on the PGA Tour.

In other words, his winning percentage on the best tour in the world (10%) is actually slightly better than his winning percentage on every other tour in the world (9.8%).

I recently joked that Tom Kim is going to be the richest golfer who has ever lived, which is fun to think about until you realize it actually might not be a joke. The PGA Tour floated a document earlier this year that showed how Jim Furyk (17 wins, one major) would have made more than $600 million in earnings — if his career had started in 2023 — from a variety of different PGA Tour revenue streams.

I’m not saying Kim is going to have Furyk’s career, but if he does, he’s probably going down as the richest golfer of all time (on-course earnings only, of course).

All of this begs the obvious question of just how good Kim can be: What is Tom Kim’s ceiling?

Some incredible comps from Data Golf gets things started: Adam Scott in 2001, Jon Rahm in 2015, Joaquin Niemann in 2019, Sungjae Im in 2018, Jason Day in 2008, and Rickie Fowler in 2009. It also throws in Kevin Na in 2004 and Ryo Ishikawa in 2012.

Though I’m enamored with Kim’s presence and his sense of the moment, I tend to believe he’s a bit overvalued right now. He exceeded his expected win total during the 2021-22 season (two worldwide wins, 0.79 expected wins), and he is doing so again in the 2022-23 season (one win, 0.55 expected wins). This is not everything, but if you dig a little deeper into his profile, it tells a story.

Kim’s problem is going to be ball-striking. He’s an elite iron player — like, really great — but he’s so short off the tee that it’s likely going to prohibit him from truly contending at the biggest events. While Kim is incredibly consistent off the tee — his driving accuracy would have ranked fourth last season if he’d qualified — he has trouble gaining strokes on the field because of his length.

This could change. We saw Matt Fitzpatrick transform his distance through speed training and win a U.S. Open because of it. As Kim is currently constituted, though, he is going to have to have extraordinary putting weeks to win golf tournaments. (He did, for the record, at both the Wyndham Championship and the Shriners in his two victories.) Of the top 150 players in the world who have won at least twice in 2022, Kim is by far the shortest player of that group, according to Data Golf.

Is that sustainable? It might be. A good present-day comp for Kim might be Cam Smith, who is extremely average off the tee and actually gained fewer strokes with his driver than Kim did over the last 12 months (mostly because he’s not as accurate).

If you pull the numbers back to the top 150 players ever over the last 10 years, we get an even better picture. Here are the names that look like Kim: Jim Furyk, Luke Donald, Zach Johnson, Graeme McDowell and Brandt Snedeker with maybe a bit of Jordan Spieth.

This group (outside of Spieth) is a great aim for somebody like Kim. I don’t know if he’s going to have the careers that any of them have had, but he certainly could absolutely have Matt Kuchar’s career. He could have Zach Johnson’s career. Can he go beyond that? Unless things change dramatically — and they might given that he’s 20! — that seems unlikely.  

On paper, he may look like Justin Thomas or Rory McIlroy — generational players. But, and not to bum you out because I actually love him, Tom Kim is likely not a generational player.

This has multiple implications for 2023. As the No. 15 player in the world, Kim is probably a bit overvalued. The second, which is related to the first, is that we should consider our expectations of him. Because he won when he did, and because he crushed at the Presidents Cup, some folks are going into this season believing that Kim can (or even will) win three times. However, with the elevated events schedule he’s almost certainly going to play, that’s unlikely.

Kim’s story should be (and is) celebrated. However, will have a much better picture after this season full of expectations and only the big-boy events of just what Tom Kim can be on the PGA Tour.

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Golf has never been in better hands as some of the biggest names in the sport are still on the younger side. Securely in the prime of their careers, these players have been able to etch their names into golf’s history books and will continue to add to their stories in the coming years. 

In 2022, all four major championship winners checked in as golfers under age 30, and the same would be true for 2021 if not for Phil Mickelson’s memorable PGA Championship victory at Kiawah Island. Dating back to 2017, 16 of the last 23 major championship winners were yet to reach 30 with outliers like Tiger Woods’ 2019 Masters triumph and Dustin Johnson’s green jacket win a year later.

Some of those also included Hideki Matsuyama and Brooks Koepka, who have since surpassed age 30. Patrick Cantlay is another player who recently celebrated his 30th birthday, and as such, will not be on the list below.

While the world of golf is divided, for this particular list, the focus remains on the PGA Tour. Cameron Smith should be among this group of players and Joaquin Niemann perhaps on the outskirts, but without playing against the best on a consistent basis, the water in which they tread has only become muddier.

Here’s a look at 10 best golfers under the age of 30 on the PGA Tour and what to expect from them in 2023.

Top 10 under 30

1. Jon Rahm (28): Three wins was considered a down year by most prognosticators, just not by Rahm himself. Winning the Mexico Open, Open de España and the DP World Tour Championship, the man who began 2022 as the world No. 1 ended his year winning three times in his last 14 worldwide starts. Making all four cuts in the major championships, the Spaniard’s best finish was T12 at the U.S. Open where he shot 5 over his last 36 holes. Contention and victory in major championships is the barometer in which success is defined for him moving forward — whether he likes it or not. If able to recreate his 2020-21 where in six major championships he captured five top-10 finishes, including his lone major title at the 2021 U.S. Open, there is a good chance Rahm returns to the top of the golf world in 2023.

2. Scottie Scheffler (26): His coming out party was the spring of 2022, but the rest of Scheffler’s year was still impressive. Winning four times in a six tournament stretch, the Texan captured a World Golf Championship, rose to world No. 1 and donned the green jacket all in less than two months. Scheffler went onto squander late leads at the Charles Schwab Challenge and the Tour Championship where he ultimately finished runner up. A third second-place finished occurred at the U.S. Open where had a near birdie miss on the 72nd hole dropped, a playoff with Matt Fitzpatrick would have been forced. The Presidents Cup was a letdown, but even the best players have lulls from time-to-time. Scheffler will be a fixture on this list for the foreseeable future and given the well-rounded nature of his game, additional major championship trophies are likely to be his.

3. Xander Schauffele (29): This past year was a transformative one for Schauffele, who much like Tony Finau was labeled as a player who shrivels down the stretch of big tournaments. Winning the Zurich Classic alongside Cantlay added to the bizarre nature in which he raised trophies (limited field, no cuts, The Olympics), but Schauffele added to his own total during the summer. Outlasting Sahith Theegala at the Travelers Championship, he returned to the winner’s circle again in his following start at the Scottish Open. A strong showing in the FedEx Cup Playoffs put a bow on a nice season, but similar to Rahm, the major championship acumen we are used to seeing was nowhere to be found. Since 2017, Schauffele has 15 top-20 finishes in 22 major championship appearances. With six of those coming in the form of top-five finishes — and two of those runners-up — Schauffele may have shed one label in 2022 but will likely add another in “best player without a major” in 2023 unless he does something, well, major.

4. Justin Thomas (29): Now 15 times a winner on the PGA Tour, Thomas is firmly among the elite in the game. Placing him fourth on the list may even be a bit harsh, but while the quality of his victories persist, the quantity has lagged behind. It took a herculean effort — and some help from Mito Pereira — at the PGA Championship to nab his second Wanamaker Trophy for his lone title of 2022. Outmanned by Sam Burns at the Valspar Championship and Rory McIlroy at the Canadian Open, Thomas put himself in contention enough to garner a multiple-win season, but was unable to do so. This marked the third season in the last four years where he came away with only one trophy. Those may consist of the 2022 PGA Championship and 2021 Players Championship; however, Thomas is too good a player to enter the winner’s circle one time a year. Expect this to change in 2023.

5. Collin Morikawa (25): Tell most players they would finish inside the top five in two of the four major championships, and they would take it and run. Morikawa? Not so much. Nearly tracking down Niemann at the Genesis Invitational, the two-time major champion looked prime to enter the winner’s circle in the early spring. Not to be, Morikawa finished solo fifth at the Masters before a relatively uneventful start to his summer. Fighting his swing, he arrived at The Country Club for the U.S. Open frustrated with the flight of his iron shots, only to be the 36-hole leader days later. A 7-over 77 in the third round derailed his chance to add the third leg of the career grand slam, but still he battled in the final round to finish T5. Without a worldwide win in over a year, Morikawa is remains a top-tier player. Given the quality of his irons and the implementation of a putting coach, he should have no problem ending this dry spell in 2023.

6. Matt Fitzpatrick (28): The perception of Fitzpatrick changed in 2022. Once a scrawny Englishman in need of a hot putting week to just contend, he transformed into a major champion wielding his driver with the best of the them. While it appeared to happen overnight, consistent speed training sessions and hard work were the cog for Fitzpatrick’s ascension. Joining Jack Nicklaus and Juli Inkster as the only players to win the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open on the same golf course, Fitzpatrick squashed the haters who questioned if he would ever win on the PGA Tour. In total, Fitzpatrick captured 17 top-25 finishes in 24 worldwide starts and showcased his upside that has been on full display in Europe since 2015.

7. Will Zalatoris (26): He is built for the moment, and while the bounces didn’t go his way for much of 2022, they finally did in the end. Zalatoris continued to be one of the best major championship competitors this past year as he lost in a playoff at the PGA Championship and fell one stroke short of Fitzpatrick at the U.S. Open. In 10 major championship appearances, he has three runners-up and three additional top-10 finishes. His ball-striking allows him to factor at difficult golf courses and it did just that at the St. Jude Championship in August. In unison with some timely putting, Zalatoris beat Sepp Straka in a playoff in Memphis to win his first PGA Tour title. The floodgates were promptly shut the following week when he was forced to withdraw during the BMW Championship due to a back injury, and he has not been seen in action since. Back injuries are always scary when discussing golfers, and Zalatoris will be no different. Possessing a wiry frame, he will make his return at the Tournament of Champions and hopefully put any health concerns in the rearview mirror.

8. Viktor Hovland (25): Simply put, Hovland wins. It may not be pretty, it may not be flashy, and it may not happen at the most prestigious tournaments, but still, the Norwegian finds a way to collect hardware on a consistent basis. That has to count for something. Since 2020, he has won seven times worldwide and 2022 showed us he may soon rise to the occasion in the biggest of championships. Alongside Rory McIlroy in the final pair in the final round of the 150th Open at St. Andrews, Hovland ultimately fell off the pace to finish T4. Experiencing his first taste of contention in a major championship, this should only aid him in his future endeavors. His short game has improved drastically from the low point of the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he let that trophy slip from his grasp, and if it continues on this trajectory, Hovland’s underrated win total should only tick up.

9. Jordan Spieth (29): This time next year, he’ll be 30, but still Spieth finds his way onto this list. Since going through the lowest of lows from 2018-20, he has clawed his way back into relevance with wins at the 2021 Texas Open and 2022 RBC Heritage. A member of winning Ryder Cup and Presidents teams the last two years, the next step in the three-time major champion’s return to prominence is to bag a a big one. He has been close with a couple podium finishes in 2021 and given his improvements both off the tee and on approach in 2022, this upcoming year will say a lot about the state of Spieth’s place in the game. The putter will unquestionably have to be on better behavior, and if it is, Spieth could be on the cusp of his first multiple-win season since 2017.

10. Cameron Young (25): He will win in 2023. Finishing on the podium seven times in his rookie campaign — without getting over the hump once — Young consistently put himself in position to win golf tournaments. Variance, luck and perhaps some inexperience hindered his efforts to raise a trophy, but that will no longer be an appropriate excuse in 2023. Finishing second at the Genesis Invitational, third at the PGA Championship and second at The Open, his name became a staple on the first page of the leaderboard in some of the biggest events of the year. His father has left his post at Sleppy Hollow to join him on Tour on a full-time basis and perhaps this familiar face will propel Young to new heights and into the winner’s circle.

Honorable mentions: Sam Burns, Sungjae Im, Tom Kim

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Love and war, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a locked-in Jordan Spieth doubling as Houdini, and the version of him blocking one-foot putts; when discussing the duality of man in the world of golf, one cannot give meaning to the conversation without at least a mention of the Texas rollercoaster.

Ever since traversing through a career valley from 2018-20, when he experienced the lowest of lows for a three-time major champion in his mid-20s, the steady ascension of Spieth back into the spotlight has been on full display. In 2022, Spieth entered the winner’s circle for the 13th time in his career when he got the better of Patrick Cantlay in a playoff at the RBC Heritage. Both players’ approach shots found the greenside bunker on the first extra hole, and when it was confirmed Cantlay’s ball was buried and Spieth’s was lying clean, it all but secured his lone title of the year.

That week in Hilton Head, South Carolina, was just a little snippet into Spieth’s year — and, from a broader perspective, his career. It featured everything that makes Jordan Spieth, well, Jordan Spieth: Hole-out bunker shots from impossible angles, chipping out sideways when a persistent Michael Greller urges, missing 1-foot putts (badly, I might add) and making everyone, himself included, believe the tournament is out of his grasp until somehow it is in the palm of his hand.

“You have a lot of events where you feel like you should have won and someone outplays you or makes the putt or something, and a couple times you have one where you feel like you played good but not good enough to win, and I honestly felt like this was that week,” Spieth said following his triumph at Harbour Town. “I needed a lot of things to go right. I needed to birdie the 18th then needed some help, got some help, dodged a bunch of bullets coming in and ended up in a one-on-one playoff where my lie in the bunker, although not great, was certainly better than Patrick’s. Yeah, it’s a bit of a surprise.”

The rest of Spieth’s regular season was relatively less surprising. He followed his victory with a runner-up performance to K.H. Lee at the Byron Nelson in his next start before capturing top-10 finishes at the Charles Schwab Challenge, Scottish Open and The Open to round out his year.

A strong final round at the Tour Championship propelled Spieth into the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow as the most experienced member of the U.S. Team in a blink of an eye, and the golden boy-turned-man led by example. Garnering a 5-0-0 record in North Carolina, Spieth was perfect alongside Justin Thomas before capturing the first singles victory of his career between the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup.

“I think I just used my example in here of the 2014 Ryder Cup and the 2015 season,” Spieth said on leveraging his Presidents Cup performance for the 2023 season. “I thought Scottie [Scheffler’s] last year into this year, I don’t want to put words into his mouth, but I thought he could probably draw on the experiences of last year’s Ryder Cup into his season this season …

“For me, yeah, I’m really excited about the week that was this week,” Spieth continued. “I thought that I played some of my best golf of the year this week, which was really cool to do it with and for — you know, as a team with these guys … there’s a lot I can draw on for next year.”

Despite this climb, there is still a ways to go to for him to return to his 2015 peak when he won the Masters, U.S. Open and Tour Championship. That begs the question: What should we expect Spieth’s 2023 to look like? Is one win, a strong team performance and a potential run at a major championship the new baseline from which we should define success for him? It is worth pondering how much staying power this new baseline may truly have. 

The romantic — and maybe even the agent of chaos — in me believes there’s more to be had. The talent pool on the PGA Tour has never been deeper. The accolades mentioned above do make for a fantastic season in this era. Yet, for a magician like Spieth who can wave his wand awkwardly on rehearsal and effortlessly just moments later, you can’t help but let your mind drift towards the unimaginable.

This season, the PGA Tour will unveil a new schedule which Spieth will very much be a part of after finishing third in the 2022 Player Impact Program behind only Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Playing in 13 elevated events that will feature the best talent on the circuit, four major championships and a handful of other tournaments, winning has suddenly become even more difficult.

Never an afterthought at Augusta, and proving to be one of the great links golf players of his time, Spieth’s name on the first page of a major championship leaderboard is expected at least once a year regardless of form. When the PGA Tour travels to the state of Texas, the same presence will be assumed from the former Longhorn.

Perhaps this leads to his first multiple-win season since 2017. Perhaps he is without new hardware as he was the three years following. Maybe his name jumps next to four-time major champions like McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Ernie Els and Raymond Floyd. Maybe he does one better and joins the ranks of Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson.

On paper, accomplishing in 2023 what he did in 2022 would merit calling the season a success. However, golf isn’t played on paper, and the projection of Spieth’s next 365 days doesn’t belong on it either.

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January does not mark the start of a new golf season, but it does represent the time and place where golf really begins in earnest for 2023. Most of the best players in the world will be on hand for the Tournament of Champions in Kapalua, Hawaii, and plenty of the next generation of stars and superstars will not be with them.

That’s because next year’s major winners and 2027’s Ryder Cuppers — at least some of them — were toiling on the Korn Ferry Tour last year with no chance of earning the win needed to get to Kapalua. Some of those golfers who earned their PGA Tour cards made their way to the big boy circuit in the fall, and some of them even played quite well.

There will always be intrigue surrounding the top players in the world — the Rory McIlroys, Jordan Spieths and Collin Morikawas. But sport is often built on hope for the future, too. While that’s not as rabid in golf as it is some other team sports, it’s still pertinent and matters for the future. So while we will give plenty of time and energy to the Tournament of Champions when it rolls around, today we’re going to look at a handful of players who were in the minor leagues last year but could have significant years on the PGA Tour starting after the TOC.

1. Justin Suh

I’ve written about Suh extensively, but I remain fascinated by him. He won the Korn Ferry Tour championship in September and was named Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year in November. If you’re looking for some pushback, his best PGA Tour start in seven fall events was a T29 at the CJ Cup, and he only gained strokes ball-striking in one of them (also the CJ Cup). Still, if you look at the list of past Korn Ferry Tour Players of the Year, you’re going to find some absolute studs.

• 2020-21: Stephan Jager
• 2019: Scottie Scheffler
• 2018: Sungjae Im
• 2017: Chesson Hadley
• 2016: Wesley Bryan
• 2015: Patton Kizzire
• 2014: Carlos Ortiz

That’s a lot of PGA Tour champions. The only question for me is whether Suh is going to be, say, Scheffler or Kizzire. One is a nice PGA Tour player who has won at that level before. The other is a major champion and a former No. 1 player in the world.

2. Taylor Montgomery

His run of play from the middle of April to the end of the season was ridiculous. Eight top 10s in 10 Korn Ferry stars fowllowed by six top 15s in seven PGA Tour stars in the fall. His game, at least statistically, doesn’t scream PGA Tour star, but overall Data Golf has him as the highest-rated player in the world (currently No. 28, ahead of Shane Lowry and Hideki Matsuyama and just behind Jordan Spieth) who also recently played on the KFT.

3. Nick Hardy

The former Illinois golfer finished T14 at the U.S. Open in June and had three top 25s on the PGA Tour in June. He has incrementally improved each of the last three years, and a fourth could put him as a top 50 or top 75 player in the world.

4. Carl Yuan

He finished second on the Korn Ferry Tour points list behind Suh. He doesn’t project as strongly as Suh (or, to me, even Hardy), but from a production standpoint, he’s impossible to ignore. In his last 25 Korn Ferry Tour starts, Yuan has a victory and five other top-five finishes.

5. Will Gordon

Gordon finished off his Korn Ferry Tour year with three top fives in his last five starts and finished second in Korn Ferry Tour Finals points behind Suh. He nearly won the 2020 Travelers Championship, and has had some success on the PGA Tour circuit. At 26, he’s certainly not the youngest guy on this list, but he’s quite long off the tee, hits the ball well and his Data Golf ranking (No. 84) suggests that his Official World Golf Ranking (No. 134) has some catching up to do.

6. Austin Eckroat

A fellow Oklahoma Stater, Eckroat thrived as the Korn Ferry Tour season played out. He finished fifth in Korn Ferry Tour Finals points, and Data Golf quietly has him as a top-200 player in the world. Similarly to his former teammate, Viktor Hovland, Eckroat can struggle with his short game but is a tremendous hitter of the golf ball, which — thankfully for him — is the skill the PGA Tour rewards the most.

7. Davis Thompson

You may remember Thompson as somebody who popped briefly at the 2020 U.S. Open when he was still an amateur at Georgia, but his professional career on the Korn Ferry Tour has been impressive. He finished 18th in points but won in June and then had some nice starts on the PGA Tour in the fall (two top 12s). The pedigree is immense, too.  Thompson was a two-time All-American at Georgia, is a former SEC Player of the Year and a former No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

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The European Challenge Tour has announced its schedule for 2023, with Europe’a second tier tour set to feature a record overall prize fund and a minimum of 29 tournaments staged across three continents in 18 different countries.

Players will compete for total prize money of €8.2m, which will begin with the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open in February, the first of four co-sanctioned events with the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.

India returns as a host country for the first time since 2013 with two events in March, the Duncan Taylor Black Bull Challenge followed by The Challenge presented by KGA.

The Challenge Tour also returns to the UAE in April for the first time since 2018 with back-to-back events, including the Abu Dhabi Challenge, as part of the European Tour group’s long-term partnership with the Emirates Golf Federation.

It will then head to Spain in May for the Challenge de España, which will kick-start a run of 20 tournaments in 22 weeks and see the Road to Mallorca travel through 15 countries in Europe, including Italy for the Italian Challenge at Golf Nazionale, the venue which will then host the first two days of the 2023 Junior Ryder Cup in September.

The 2023 season will conclude with the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A, at Club de Golf Alcanada from November 2-5, as the top 45 players on the Rankings battle it out for one of the life changing 20 DP World Tour cards.

Those 20 players who benefit from this formal pathway to the DP World Tour will then be eligible for the DP World Tour’s Earnings Assurance Programme, guaranteeing them minimum earnings of $150,000 for the 2024 season if they play in 15 or more events. The top five graduates will also benefit from the John Jacobs Bursary, similarly designed to provide security and a strong platform for their first season on the European Tour group’s top tier.

The full Challenge Tour schedule for 2023 can be viewed by clicking here.

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