Five golfers to watch in 2024: Two Scots, sport's rising star, American with personality and French pocket rocket

The Scotsman golf correspondent picks out the players he feels can shine this year

It’s that exciting time of the year as golfers, having enjoyed the very short break the vast majority get these days, start to crank up their games again for a new calendar campaign.

For Bob MacIntyre, that will start in Hawaii next week as he sets out as a PGA Tour card holder while, on the DP World Tour, it’s a double-header in Dubai to get 2024 underway for the Caledonian contingent. Gemma Dryburgh, meanwhile, will be back in action on the LPGA later this month as she bids to be involved in the Solheim Cup for the second year running as it moves to even years due to the Ryder Cup now being played in odd years again.

With current Masters champion Jon Rahm having been added to its ranks for the new season, it also promises to be a fascinating year ahead for the LIV Golf League, which even Rory McIlroy, once its biggest critic, now reckons is here to say. Players at lower levels in the paid ranks will also be starting to lick their lips about starting afresh while, in the amateur game, winter training camps in the US and South Africa will help prepare Scotland’s top players for the season ahead.

Ludvig Aberg, pictured during the first round of The Sentry event in Hawaii this week, has taken the professional game by storm. Picture: Michael Reaves/Getty Images.

It may already been underway as Hawaii stages The Sentry, the traditional PGA Tour curtain-raiser this week, but, before the 2024 campaign really starts to get going, here are my five players, listed in alphabetical order, to watch around the world this year:

Ludvig Aberg

I’ll be honest here and admit that I didn’t initially buy into the hype last summer about the Swede being a genuine Ryder Cup contender, but, boy, did he prove me wrong in the final few weeks of the qualifying campaign, capped with a sensational breakthrough win on the DP World Tour in the Omega European Masters in Switzerland. He deserved his captain’s pick for Luke Donald’s team in Rome and, as has been the case with everything he’s faced so far in his career, took that monumental test in his stride. He’s since become a first-time winner on the PGA Tour as well by landing the RSM Classic and, though 2023 will certainly be a hard act to follow, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the 24-year-old, who turned down an offer to join LIV Golf during his break, can’t continue going from strength to strength.

Gemma Dryburgh

Gemma Dryburgh, pictured fist bumping her caddie last year, will be looking for another strong season on the LPGA Tour in 2024. Picture: Yoshimasa Nakano/Getty Images.

The Scot may have felt out of her depth a bit when she first played on the LPGA Tour in 2018 but not any more. She gained huge confidence from landing a breakthrough win on the circuit in Japan in November 2022 and it spoke volumes that she made the cut in all five of the women’s majors, some of which she was teeing up in for the first time, last year. The 30-year-old didn’t let Suzann Pettersen down after landing one of her captain’s picks for the Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin in Spain in September and it will be one of her big goals in 2024 to be back wearing European colours in that event in Virginia in mid-September. Establishing herself in the top 50 in the world will be another target and, based on what we’ve seen from her the last couple of years, that is certainly achievable.

Grant Forrest

Having first come across him when he was winning junior events, it makes me feel old knowing he’s now 30 and also married as well after tying the knot to Christy, a lovely young lady, at Archerfield Links over the festive period. The Scot was the first to admit that, on the back of landing a maiden DP World Tour win in the Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews the previous year, his 2022 campaign was disappointing but, to his credit, last year was much more like it as he chalked up six top-ten finishes. He can be quite hard on himself at times but that’s just because he wants to keep improving and, having shown he’s not scared to take control of his own game in times of adversity, I believe the best is still to come from the Pencaitland-based player over the next few years.

Max Homa

Grant Forrest, pictured in action in last year's acciona Open de Espana presented by Madrid at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, will be aiming to build on a strong 2023 campaign. Picture: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images.

Primarily through coming across him in the Genesis Scottish Open over the past couple of years, I’m now a big fan of the American. First and foremost, he’s an exciting player to watch and a good one, too, as followers of the PGA Tour already knew as he racked up six title triumphs in less than four years on the US circuit. It was also great to see his game can travel, as evidenced by a brilliant maiden win on the DP World Tour in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa in November. He’s got personality to boot and that quality is something that should never be under-estimated, especially at a time when the game needs players who aren’t just either muscle men or robots.

Tom Vaillant

Having been keen to include a Challenge Tour graduate on my list, I could easily have gone for Englishman Marco Penge as he looks ready to fulfil his huge potential as an amateur. Instead, I’m picking out the 22-year-old Frenchman as he also caught my eye during the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A in Mallorca in November. At 5ft 6in, he’s a pocket rocket with the heart of a lion and don’t be surprised if the Cannes-born player emulates Matthew Baldwin, Tom McKibbin, Daniel Hillier and Todd Clements after they all landed wins on the DP World Tour in 2023 straight after graduating from the ultra-competitive second-tier circuit.