The world of golf is constantly evolving, and in 2025, there are several new players determined to make their mark. There are plenty of players looking for success during the year; will Tiger win major number 16? Will Rory McIlroy get back to his best after an unsettled 2024? And what will Team USA and Team Europe look like ahead of an electrically-charged Ryder Cup at Bethpage State Park?
There are many players with an exciting 2025 ahead of them, whether they’re seasoned pros on the tour or rookies trying to make a name for themselves. But if you’re a betting person, you might want to keep an eye on the players on this list and also take a look at the top betting sites for golf that can be found all in one place on the trusted WSN, giving players honest reviews and comparisons to keep them informed.
Scottie Scheffler
The 2022 and 2024 Masters champion is already favorite to win the third green jacket of his career at Augusta come April 2025. In fact, the world number one is also favorite to win The Players Championship, The Open, The US Open and The PGA Championship. It’s safe to say the bookies are expecting a big year for the 28 year old.
Scheffler is all but certain to be the star man for Team USA when the Ryder Cup takes place in September, in the shadow of where Scheffler grew up. If the USA want to recapture the trophy they lost to Europe in Italy in 2023, then captain Keegan Bradley will need Scottie Scheffler to be at the very top of his game.
Scheffler is sure to be the top pick for a lot of bettors, but the number one golfer in the world has his own unique ways of paying his lost bets on the golf course when playing with friends.
Ludvig Åberg
If Keegan Bradley is hoping Scottie Scheffler is at the top of his game at Bethpage, he’ll no doubt be hoping for the exact opposite from Ludvig Åberg.
The 25-year-old Swede burst onto the professional scene in 2023 after a stellar college career that saw him win the Ben Hogan Award, given to the best college player in the United States. He became only the second Team Europe player to be called up to the Ryder Cup after Sergio García, in the same year that he turned pro. In his rookie appearance in the tournament, he picked up two points, including sharing a devastating 9&7 win with Viktor Hovland over Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka – the biggest winning margin in an 18-hole match in the competition’s history.
Incredibly, Åberg made his majors debut at the 2024 Masters, where he finished second behind Scheffler – a measure of revenge for the American.
After such a seismic rise to the top of the golf world – Åberg is the current world number five – it’s no wonder that he’s being tipped for even more success in 2025. Having won the Genesis Invitational in February, and with it a cool $4 million, the future certainly looks bright for Åberg as he hunts down his first major win.
Hideki Matsuyama
Ranked sixth in the world, Hideki Matsuyama marked his place in history when he became the first Japanese player to win one of golf’s four majors when he took home the green jacket at the 2021 Masters. Matsuyama’s results in majors since then might not make for great reading but he has two top 10 finishes in the US Open to his name following his Masters success, and he’ll be looking to build on that following a good start to 2025.
Matsuyama finished 35-under at The Sentry (formerly known as the Tournament of Champions) in Hawaii to claim a $3.6 million prize. Xander Schauffele was the favorite for that tournament, with several names ranked above Hideki Matsuyama to win, showing the bookies don’t always get it right. There would have been some savvy bettors picking up a pretty penny thanks to Matsuyama’s success.
Matsuyama has again been somewhat overlooked in the oddsmaking for The Players Championship after two top 10 finishes in 2023 and 2024. He and the rest of the field will have to be firing on all cylinders at TPC Sawgrass to stop Scottie Scheffler from winning the tournament for the third time in a row.
Win or lose that competition, Matsuyama still has a big 2025 ahead of him and will no doubt be looking to add to his solitary major win.
Sepp Straka
When you think of golf, you might not immediately think of Austria, but one man is doing his best to change that.
Sepp Straka has been plugging away for several years, graduating to the PGA Tour from development tours in 2019. Since then, Straka only has two top 10 finishes at majors, but he has won three times on the PGA Tour, following up successes in 2022 and 2023 by winning The American Express (The Desert Classic) in January 2025.
Straka followed up that feat with two top 10s at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The bookmakers don’t have Straka down as one of the favorites for any of the big tournaments in 2025, but more solid performances on the PGA Tour should change that. He’s already made a significant leap in the world rankings, from 36 at the end of 2024 to hovering just outside the top 10, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if he broke through that barrier by the time the year was over.
Blades Brown
Blades Brown is already a record-breaker in the world of golf. Brown smashed the 103-year record held by Bobby Jones when he became the youngest medalist at stroke play in US Amateur history when he was just 16 years old.
With many of the top colleges in the US looking to recruit this star in the making, Brown decided to forego collegiate golf altogether and announced he was turning pro in December 2024. He made his professional debut at The American Express in January 2025, failing to make the 54-hole cut by three strokes. Time is on Blades Brown’s side but he’ll still be hoping to cause a few shocks in 2025.
2025 looks bright for golf
These are the leading players who look like they’ll be making more than a few marks in 2025 – but there’s always a crowded field wanting to win the biggest prizes in the sport.
That makes it a difficult prospect if you’re looking to put money on any of the big tournaments that are covered by the many golf betting sites on the market. Considering our five names to watch over the course of the year might make your year a winning one as well.
