by A recent ESPN+ post listing out the best NBA, college, and high school basketball players by age caught our attention this week, and we decided it would be fun to try this exercise with golfers as we head into 2025. From a pool of men’s and women’s amateurs and professionals, we listed out the best players right now ages 18-50. Well 51, did you really think we’d stop one short and not highlight the #Cleeks All-Star who won a pair of senior majors this year?
18. Jasmine Koo
The USC freshman finished 13th in her collegiate debut, then rattled off three straight wins to end the fall. Don’t forget her T-13 finish as the low amateur at the Chevron Championship last year.
19. Wenyi Ding
After a stellar freshman year at Arizona State, Ding turned professional and joined the DP World Tour through the Global Amateur Pathway and earned a top-five finish in his second start back in November.
20. Lottie Woad
21. Jeeno Thitikul
22. Ruoning Yin
After two wins late in 2024, the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA champion is up to No. 2 in the Rolex Ranking, and yet it still feels like her best golf is ahead of her. I expect more consistently great results in the new year.
23. Haeran Ryu
24. Ayaka Furue
25. Ludvig Åberg
After bursting onto the professional scene in 2023, Åberg had a tremendous 2024 but failed to bag a victory. Still, after five top-five finishes, all in premier events, you can expect big things from the Swede this season.
26. Nelly Korda
The most pressing question for the world No. 1 is how do you follow up such a dominant, career year?
27. Tie: Collin Morikawa & Lydia Ko
This is a busy age group with Viktor Hovland and Sahith Theegala also lurking, but Ko’s Hall of Fame clinching win at the Old Course brought her into the mix alongside Morikawa, who had a great year that we’d think differently about had it not been for the next player on this list.
28. Scottie Scheffler
See Nelly Korda.
29. Jin Young Ko
30. Jon Rahm
31. Xander Schauffele
There is a lot of competition at 31 years old with the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, and Cameron Smith also in this bracket. On his career year in 2024, Xander told The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig, “I was actually feeling ready to win.” Schauffele’s consistency has only been rivaled by Scottie Scheffler in recent years and there is no reason to believe he slows down this season.
32. Hideki Matsuyama
33. Tommy Fleetwood
Talor Gooch wants an asterisk on this one.
34. Brooks Koepka
35. Rory McIlroy
You can’t start a year without wondering whether this is the one when Rory’s major championship drought finally ends. And with venues like Oakmont and Quail Hollow on tap, you like his chances. And yet…
36. Rickie Fowler
37. Shane Lowry
38. Keegan Bradley
More than a decade into his PGA Tour career, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain has not lost an ounce of passion. His tee-to-green game is as strong as ever and he takes advantage of hot putting weeks. With Ryder Cup duties upcoming, it would be hard to imagine him having a career year but if anyone can do it, it’s Keegan.
39. Chris Kirk
40. Jhonattan Vegas
41. Kevin Na
You could argue Brendan Steele here but Na is a better bet for content so he gets the nod. And yes, this is the part of the exercise where it gets rather silly.
42. Louis Oosthuizen
Mainly interested in horses these days but he’s still quite good.
43. Suzann Pettersen
Retired, but after seeing her final appearance at the Solheim Cup as a player and her two entertaining Captaincies, I’d still be very afraid to see Pettersen on the other side of the tee.
44. Tie: Adam Scott & Sergio Garcia
Two very rich men who took very different paths late in their careers, but both are still names you’ll consider in your major championship pools. And let the record show that we wrote that these two were tied before realizing that both ended with the exact same Strokes Gained figure (+1.13) in 2024.
45. Lucas Glover
46. Matt Kuchar
47. Paul Casey
A benefit of there being very few good 47-year-olds.
48. Charley Hoffman
See Paul Casey.
49. Soren Kjeldsen
50. Cameron Percy
After winning PGA Tour Q-School by a whopping five shots, Percy heads to the old folks tour looking for a little late-career revitalization.
51. Richard Bland
The final mention on our list, it’s no secret that Blandy has had a career resurgence over the last few years.
This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
