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As the PGA Tour for 2023 resumes with The Players Championship at Sawgrass, a number of youngsters have caught the eye, some with their meteoric rise throughout 2022, while some have been breakthrough stars at some major tournaments.
While a good number of young players have impressed on various PGA Tours so far, a large number of high-profile names have been snatched by the cash-rich LIV Golf.
This gives even more of an opportunity to these youngsters to prove their mettle and shine on the big stage. We picked five of them who have the potential to win big in 2023: the five on the rise in 2023.
Five PGA youngsters to watch out for in 2023
#5 Collin Morikawa
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The 26-year-old had begun his PGA career by making 22 consecutive cuts. Only the legendary Tiger Woods had more with 25. He has only had a few years under his belt in the professional circuit 9hye went pro in 2019), but has already won the PGA Championship in 2020 and the Open Championship in 2021.
Those are some pretty impressive stats for a golfer his age. He also has five PGA Tour wins under his belt as well as four European tours. Morikawa's strength lies in putting; irons are his strong point, while he is average with his driving.
This is slightly unorthodox for youngsters, who normally have a strong approach to driving to begin with. Already ranked amongst the top 10 golfers in the world, he is easily a strong favorite for many tournaments. The former world number 2 had a lean patch in 2022 but will look to keep all that behind and notch up some big wins this year.
#4 Ludvig Aberg
Currently ranked one by the PGA TOUR University, the 23-year-old Swede still holds the status of an amateur. If he, however, maintains this position until May, he will be earning himself a tour pass for the rest of the season: an immediate jump to pro golf. He is also world number one in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
He is also the recipient of the Ben Hogan Award 2022 for being the nation's top college player (Aberg is a senior at Texas Tech). At 6 feet, he is strong with the driver. He is also a winner of the 2021 Jones Cup Invitational as well as the 2022 Big 12 Championship.
It may take some time for him to settle into pro golf, but he certainly has the drive to win big too.
#3 Rasmus Hojgaard
The Dane is just a little over a week shy of just his 22nd birthday, but he is already turning heads with his stellar performances. He had nine consecutive top-30 finishes last year, where he also finished 16th in the DP World Tour Rankings.
If he keeps up with his performances this year, he could earn one of the 10 PGA Tour cards available for the top finishers on the DP World Tour. Having turned pro in 2019, when he was just 18, Hojgaard won 3 DP World Tour titles before he was even 21.
He also had two top 10 PGA Tour finishes last year: sixth at the Corales Puntacana Championship and T10 at the Genesis Scottish Open. A strong driver as well as a putter, he has the potential for a great 2023 with the PGA.
#2 Sahith Theegala
The 24-year-old is currently ranked 29th in the PGA Tour world rankings, and is a recipient of the Haskins Award, the Ben Hogan Award, and the Jack Nicklaus Award, all in 2020.
By doing so, he became just the fifth person ever to win all three awards in the same year. He had five top 5 finishes during the 2021-22 season and had 433 birdies that season - the most for any player.
He finished second in the 2022 Travelers Championship, only two strokes behind winner Xander Schauffele, and was placed third at the Phoenix Open. Pretty much an all-rounder, but on his day he is difficult to beat.
#1 Tom Kim
The South Korean is just 20, but he has already won the PGA Tour twice: the youngest to do so in almost a century. Plus, he is the only player since Tiger Woods to have won the tour multiple times before turning 21.
Added to that are his victories on the Asian Tour and the Korean Tour (both twice). He began the season last year ranked 131 and is currently 17th in the world. His most impressive performance was at the Wyndham Championship in August last year, where he made a quadruple bogey on the opening hole but still managed to win by 5, earning him a spot in the Presidents Cup team.
Kim is more of a technical player, not relying on power as most young golfers do, but rather tees on finesse.
