This article is part of our Golf Draft Kit series.
A new crop of rookies are ready to join the PGA Tour by virtue of either finishing inside the top 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List or by being one of the top 10 players -- who are not otherwise exempt -- in the final DP World Tour Race to Dubai Rankings.
Below is a rundown of the first-year PGA Tour players, ranked by 2026 projected earnings.
| Golfer | Age | 2026 Projected | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marco Penge | 27 | $3,850,000 | Penge had a true coming out party in 2025. He won three times on the DP World Tour and challenged Rory McIlroy until the end for the Race to Dubai title. Penge's efforts landed him No. 1 on the DP World Tour Eligibility Rankings and will get him a PGA Tour card for 2026 and spots in THE PLAYERS, The Masters and The Open Championship. Penge has been one of the best drivers in the world and he led the DP World Tour in SG: Off-the-Tee in 2025. That will be a big weapon he can bring to PGA Tour setups. He was also 11th in GIR percentage and 36th in SG: Putting. The transition to the PGA Tour has been a difficult one for DP World Tour players in recent years, but Penge has all the tools to suceed at age 27. |
| Johnny Keefer | 24 | $3,600,000 | The 24-year-old Baylor University product was guided by a pair of wins at the Veritex Bank Championship and the NV5 Invitational en route to clinching |
A new crop of rookies are ready to join the PGA Tour by virtue of either finishing inside the top 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List or by being one of the top 10 players -- who are not otherwise exempt -- in the final DP World Tour Race to Dubai Rankings.
Below is a rundown of the first-year PGA Tour players, ranked by 2026 projected earnings.
| Golfer | Age | 2026 Projected | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marco Penge | 27 | $3,850,000 | Penge had a true coming out party in 2025. He won three times on the DP World Tour and challenged Rory McIlroy until the end for the Race to Dubai title. Penge's efforts landed him No. 1 on the DP World Tour Eligibility Rankings and will get him a PGA Tour card for 2026 and spots in THE PLAYERS, The Masters and The Open Championship. Penge has been one of the best drivers in the world and he led the DP World Tour in SG: Off-the-Tee in 2025. That will be a big weapon he can bring to PGA Tour setups. He was also 11th in GIR percentage and 36th in SG: Putting. The transition to the PGA Tour has been a difficult one for DP World Tour players in recent years, but Penge has all the tools to suceed at age 27. |
| Johnny Keefer | 24 | $3,600,000 | The 24-year-old Baylor University product was guided by a pair of wins at the Veritex Bank Championship and the NV5 Invitational en route to clinching the No. 1 spot on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, earning not only full status for the 2026 PGA Tour season, but also exemptions into THE PLAYERS Championship and the U.S. Open. Keefer paced the KFT in both scoring average and par-breaker percentage, racking up nine top-10s and 15 top-25s across 23 starts. He ended his 2025 campaign with a T7 at the PGA Tour's RSM Classic where he averaged six birdies per round, already flashing upside at the next level. |
| Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen | 26 | $2,525,000 | Neergaard-Petersen was one of the most consistent players on the DP World Tour with 14 top-25 finishes, but it took a heroic final five holes at the DP World Tour Championship to be able to clinch a PGA Tour card with a T3 finish in Dubai. Neergaard-Petersen has already has already proven he can compete on the PGA Tour with a runner-up at the Puerto Rico Open and a T12 at the U.S. Open in 2025. He's a terrific ball striker ranking sixth in SG: Off-the-Tee, 18th in SG: Approach and 17th in GIR percentage last season. Neergaard-Petersen has as much upside as any of the 10 DPWT players graduating to the PGA Tour in 2026. He's just 26-years-old and ranks inside the top 50 of the DataGolf Rankings. |
| Kristoffer Reitan | 27 | $2,225,000 | After three years primarily having to play off the Challenge Tour, Reitan got his DP World Tour card back in 2025. He made the most of it to say the least, as he racked up eight top-6 finishes, including a win at the Soudal Open. All those high finishes helped him finish third on the DP World Tour Eligibility Rankings and secure his PGA Tour card for 2026. Reitan ranked eighth in SG: Off-the-Tee, 38th in GIR percentage, 43rd in scrambling and 34th in SG: Putting on the DP World Tour last season. He finds himself inside the Top 70 in the DataGolf Rankings and will hope to be able to transition quickly to the PGA Tour grind. Reitan is an interesting prospect at age 27. |
| Haotong Li | 30 | $2,150,000 | Li has played all over the world on a variety of tours, but he will spend his first full season on the PGA Tour in 2026. He earned status given his play on the DP World Tour last season that included eight top-10 finishes. Most of his damage was done early in the season, but he did have a standout performance at The Open where he finished T4. Given Li is a global player and one of the hardest workers in golf, he should be able to adapt to the grind of the PGA Tour. Last season he ranked 18th in SG: Off-the-Tee and fourth in SG: Approach. That type of ball striking will certainly play on the PGA Tour. |
| Chandler Blanchet | 29 | $1,950,000 | Blanchet collected his second KFT win of the 2025 season at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in October, improving his position to No. 2 on the Points List after emerging from the finale with the two-stroke victory. Although he's not particularly long off the tee, Blanchet ranked top 6 among his KFT peers in each of driving accuracy, GIR percentage and putting average. Turning 30 years old in January of 2026, Blanchet now becomes an intriguing rookie on the PGA Tour after missing only three total cuts on the KFT in 2025. |
| Christo Lamprecht | 24 | $1,725,000 | The 6-foot-8 Georgia Tech product and former No. 1 amateur in the world appeared in the 2024 Masters Tournament before spending his 2025 campaign on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he won the Pinnacle Bank Championship. Lamprecht went on to close the season with three consecutive top-20s from the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship through the KFT Championship as well, landing ninth on the final Points List. He paced the KFT in driving distance, averaging 331.1 yards per measured drive, but Lamprecht's short game needs polishing at the next level. |
| Jordan Smith | 33 | $1,575,000 | Smith has been one of the regular DP World Tour players for the last handful of years, and now he will get his chance to take up full PGA Tour membership. Smith put together a season in which he had six top-10s and 13 top-25s. He also made the cut in both of his major starts. Smith ranked 20th in SG: Tee-to-Green and eighth in GIR percentage on the DP World Tour. The ball striking has always been there for the 33-year-old, but the putting can be very streaky. Smith has the game to be able to adapt to PGA Tour setups and could find himself in contention a handful of times. |
| Emilio Gonzalez | 28 | $1,290,000 | Gonzalez clinched a PGA Tour card for 2026 with his win at the Korn Ferry Tour's Albertsons Boise Open in August of 2025, ultimately finishing fifth on the KFT's Points List with seven top-10s in 25 starts this past season. He also ranked top 15 among his peers in GIR percentage, putting average and scrambling, but the 28-year-old was relavitvely short off the tee. |
| Keita Nakajima | 25 | $1,190,000 | Nakajima did everything but win in 2025 logging a trio of runner-up finishes on the DP World Tour. He added another solo fourth at the Betfred British Masters. Those top finishes helped him to land amongst the top 10 in the DP World Tour Eligibility Rankings, which will give him full status on the PGA Tour in 2026. Nakajima ranked 24th in SG: Off-the-Tee, 15th in driving accuracy, 20th in scrambling and 36th in SG: Putting on the DP World Tour last season. He's only 25 years of age and has some potential, but the transition to the PGA Tour is likely to be a difficult one. Keeping his card for 2027 would be an accomplishment. |
| Adrien Saddier | 33 | $1,090,000 | Saddier picked up his first DP World Tour win at age 33 at the Italian Open. He nearly added another at the BMW PGA Championship, but had to settle for second. Those were two of his eight top-15 finishes on the DP World Tour in 2025 and helped him to earn a PGA Tour card for 2026. Saddier didn't stand out in any one area from a statistical perspective last season, but more for the fact of how solid he was all the way through the bag. That puts him in a decent spot to be able to try and find his footing on the PGA Tour next season. |
| Zach Bauchou | 29 | $1,040,000 | Bauchou has made the cut in just one of seven prior PGA Tour starts, but he'll be a full-time rookie in 2026 after a 2025 Korn Ferry Tour campaign in which he won September's Simmons Bank Open to vault inside of the top-20 on the Points List late in the year. The Oklahoma State University product finished the season with 11 top-25s across 24 events played, but he ranked just 85th on the KFT in total driving and 64th in birdie average. |
| Daniel Brown | 31 | $990,000 | Brown orginially just missed the cut in the DP World Tour's Top 10 Eligibility Rankings, but he will take the spot vacated by Laurie Canter, who is passing on PGA Tour membership to return to LIV Golf. Brown had a strong 2025 campaign with 10 top-20 finishes, including a victory at the BMW International Open. The 31-year-old gained strokes across the board last season on the DP World Tour, but the transition to the PGA Tour will be a big test for him. Brown introduced himself in 2024 at the Open Championship when he took the lead into the weekend before ultimately finished T10. |
| John Parry | 39 | $960,000 | Parry has been on the grind on the DP World Tour and Challenge Tour for the better part of 15 years. Now at age 39 he will get his shot on the PGA Tour will full status. Parry is coming off a season in 2025 where he logged seven top-10 finishes, including a win at the Mauritius Open. The Englishman was one of the better iron players on the DP World Tour ranking fifth in SG: Approach. He was also top 30 in SG: Around-the-Green and scrambling. There's not a lot of upside here in salary cap leagues, but consistent iron play goes a long way on the PGA Tour. |
| Davis Chatfield | 26 | $940,000 | Chatfield finished runner-up twice on the KFT in 2025 to ultimately earn a PGA Tour card for the first time ahead of the 2026 campaign. The 26-year-old Notre Dame product has zero previous experience at the top level, but Chatfield paced the Korn Ferry Tour in driving accuracy and he ranked ninth in par-4 scoring average. He'll likely need to continue relying on his short game, which limits his ceiling against much stiffer competition moving forward. |
| S.T. Lee | 30 | $910,000 | A former regular on the KPGA and Asian Tours, Lee spent his 2025 season on the Korn Ferry Tour where he racked up six top-10s and 11 top-25s, highlighted by a runner-up effort at the LECOM Suncoast Classic. He'll be a 30-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour in 2026, having ranked top 10 on the KFT in both scoring average and total birdies this past season. |
| Kensei Hirata | 24 | $890,000 | Hirata opened his 2025 Korn Ferry Tour campaign with a runner-up effort at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic, and he also posted a mid-summer stretch of T3-T2 at the NV5 Invitational and the Utah Championship to secure a top-20 position on the Points List. As a result, the 25-year-old out of Japan will become a PGA Tour rookie in 2026, though his underlying KFT metrics were relatively pedestrian aside from a 71.25 FIR percentage. |
| John VanDerLaan | 29 | $860,000 | VanDerLaan's month of September on the Korn Ferry Tour was a roller coaster, rebounding from a missed cut at the Simmons Bank Open to win one week later at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship, surging from 52nd to 15th in the KFT's Points List where he ultimately landed 17th to secure a PGA Tour card for the first time heading in 2026. The 29-year-old ended his 2025 KFT campaign with 19 cuts made in 25 total starts, and he ranked top-25 among his peers in GIR percentage and birdie average. |
| Jeffrey Kang | 34 | $850,000 | The 34-year-old USC product has appeared in just five PGA Tour events throughout his career, but he'll be a rookie in 2026 after notching a pair of runner-up finishes to go along with eight top-25s on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025. Kang leaned on a hot putter throughout the season, ultimately ranking third among his peers in putting average and 12th in birdie or better conversion percentage. However, Kang's ball striking is a concern at the next level, having ranked 133rd in total driving and 73rd in GIR percentage on the KFT. |
| Pontus Nyholm | 27 | $810,000 | Nyholm managed only two top-10 results throughout 26 events played on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025, but he made them count, tying for eighth at the AdventHealth Championship a week before winning the Visit Knoxville Open with an eagle on the first playoff hole to defeat No. 1 KFT player Keefer. The 6-foot-3 Swede ended the season ranked seventh among his KFT peers in driving distance and 14th in par-5 scoring, but Nyholm really struggled to find fairways. His results figure to be similarily volatile as a rookie at the PGA Tour level. |
| Sudarshan Yellamaraju | 24 | $790,000 | Sandwiched between a pair of missed cuts, Yellamaraju emerged victorious at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour back in January of 2025, and he clung to a top-20 spot on the Points List by season's end to secure a PGA Tour card for 2026 when he'll maintain rookie status at the next level. The 24-year-old ended his 2025 KFT campaign with four top-10s and eight top-25s across 21 starts, though he also missed nine cuts and ranked just 85th in both GIR and FIR percentage. |
