Three golfers to watch in 2023 on the USPGA Tour.

Hello,

so golf for 2022 is done but we get underway again in Hawaii in the first week of January.

So I have written a piece on three golfers who may leap up the world rankings in 2023.

Good luck Martin

In the latter part of 2022 Rory McIlroy transcended back to the top of the official world golf rankings again after a stellar three-to-four-month period to end the year. In a year that saw Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler lose the top status, due to inactivity and a partial loss of form, we can only guess who may usurp Rory at the top in 2023.

However, let’s look who made an impression in 2022 and can progress to elite level in 2023.
Tom Hoge – has just recently won the QBE Shootout Tournament in Florida, with playing partner Sahith Theegala, who we will come on to shortly. Hoge turned pro in 2011 but the breakthrough year for the thirty-three-year-old was 2022. He rose to an official world golf ranking of thirty-seven in the year. His breakthrough tour win was in June 2022, when he won the prestigious AT & T Pebble Beach Pro Am down on the Californian coast. Before that he went close in January, when he finished runner up in the American Express Championship. In recent months he has had four top twenty finishes, the best of those being a tied fourth place at the Shriners Children Open in Las Vegas. So, Tom looks all set for 2023 to progress into the world’s elite golfer ranks.

Sahith Theegala – 2022 was his rookie year on the tour after progressing through the U.S. collegiate system and then on to the subsidiary Korn Ferry Tour, before graduating to the main thing. An American but of South Asian origin, Theegala burst on to the scene by almost winning the WM Phoenix Open in February when an outsider. Indeed, he held a strong winning position but had a meltdown over the final three holes to finish tied third. He then struggled for a while but came back in early October, for a top ten finish in the Sanderson Farms Championship. Two weeks later he finished tied fifth at the Zozo Championship in Japan and then a tied second place in the Fortinet Championship in November. His win when paired with Hoge, where he sank the crucial winning putt, showed that he is now fulfilling his potential. We can expect him to improve on his current world ranking of 43 in 2023.

Davis Thompson – the twenty-three-year-old rookie is currently 178 in the world rankings and so is a bit left field as a pick to go big in 2023. The six foot four inches big hitter came through the same root as Sahith Theegala to this stage in his career to date. Thompson has had a top ten and top twenty finish in recent months and has been in contention but has struggled in final rounds. The guy clearly has ability though and could be the next one to shoot up the rankings.
Three golfers to watch in 2023.