2025 on the DP World Tour highlighted a new wave of talent making their mark at the highest level.
Across the full campaign, and into the early events of the 2026 season played in December, a number of players delivered breakthrough victories, consistent performances and significant steps forward in their careers.
From Marco Penge’s three‑win season that carried him to second place on the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World to Jayden Schaper’s back‑to‑back triumphs in South Africa and Mauritius at the end of the year, these five players produced performances that shaped the narrative of the season and confirmed their status as standout breakthrough stars.
Marco Penge
The ultimate breakthrough season belonged to Penge, who won three times on his way to finishing second on the Race to Dubai in just his second full year on the DP World Tour. Rising from outside the world’s top 400, the Englishman delivered one of the most consistent campaigns of the year, highlighted by victories at the Hainan Classic, Danish Golf Championship, and Open de España presented by Madrid. Those wins, combined with a steady run of five other top tens, lifted him into the world’s top 30 by the end of the season and marked a remarkable turnaround for a player who had only narrowly retained his card in 2024.
His performances also earned him Dual Membership on the PGA TOUR, underlining the scale of his progression. Week after week, Penge demonstrated a level of control and confidence that made him a constant presence on leaderboards and one of the most reliable performers across the global schedule. By the close of 2025, he had firmly established himself as one of the DP World Tour’s standout breakthrough players — a competitor whose rapid rise suggests there is still much more to come.
Martin Couvra
The 2025 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award went to Couvra after a season in which he earned six top‑ten finishes and a maiden victory. The Frenchman arrived from the HotelPlanner Tour with momentum and quickly showed he was ready to compete at the highest level. Three top tens in his first five starts set a strong early benchmark, and his composed performance at the Turkish Airlines Open in May delivered his first DP World Tour title, which helped propel him into the top 15 of the Race to Dubai.
Across the remainder of the year, Couvra navigated a mid-season dip but continued to build on that foundation, finishing tied 13th at the BMW PGA Championship and inside the top 20 at the DP World India Championship.
By the close of the season, he had established himself as one of the Tour’s most reliable young players, and earned the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award by finishing as the leading eligible player on the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World in 19th spot.
Rasmus Neergaard‑Petersen
The 2024 Road to Mallorca champion was winless on the 2025 Race to Dubai, yet he very much announced himself as a player to watch at the top of leaderboards, notching 11 top‑ten finishes before breaking through in the early stages of the 2026 season.
Neergaard‑Petersen spent 2025 establishing himself as one of the most polished rookies on the DP World Tour. His consistency kept him in the mix at several big events, and one of his standout moments came at the DP World Tour Championship, where he earned a place in the final group alongside Rory McIlroy. Though he pushed until very near the end, the composure he showed under Sunday pressure underlined just how quickly he was adapting to elite company. His breakthrough arrived just a few weeks later at the 2026 Crown Australian Open.
It was a performance that showcased the full breadth of his development, and with it arriving on the heels of a quietly outstanding rookie campaign, Neergaard‑Petersen has cemented himself as one of the Tour’s true breakout stars.
Jayden Schaper
Schaper’s rise from promising South African talent to genuine DP World Tour star saw him finally reach his potential in impressive style.
A player who would have already made this list due to a year where he collected nine top tens from 27 starts on the 2025 season, Schaper now confidently sits on it after breaking through in spectacular fashion at the start of the 2026 season.
After years of knocking on the door, he finally claimed a maiden victory at the 2026 Alfred Dunhill Championship, producing a chip‑in birdie at the 16th and an eagle at the first extra hole to defeat defending champion Shaun Norris. That victory unlocked something deeper: a surge of belief that carried him to another play-off triumph just a week later at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, where he holed out for eagle on the second extra hole to secure back‑to‑back wins and close out the year as one of the Tour’s most in‑form players.
If 2025 was the year Schaper announced himself, the early weeks of the 2026 season confirmed he was here to stay, rapidly shifting from rising prospect to one of the Tour’s most compelling breakout stars.
Kristoffer Reitan
Returning to the DP World Tour for the first time since 2018, Reitan graduated from the HotelPlanner Tour and wasted no time making an impact, winning twice in 2025 — once on the 2025 Race to Dubai and once already on the 2026 season.
His first victory came at the Soudal Open, where he overturned a nine-shot defecit with a final round course record 62 and went on to triumph in a play-off. With a second runner-up finish of the year coming the very next week in Austria, Reitan highlighted his ability to hold consistency of form. With five further top tens, he finished eighth on the Race to Dubai Ranking to secure his Dual Membership on the PGA TOUR.
That form shows no signs of slowing either, as Reitan hit the ground running at the start of the newest season. A wire-to-wire triumph at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player underlined his current place in the game, moving him up to 31st on the Official World Golf Ranking and joining Viktor Hovland in leading a new era for Norweigan golf.
