New talents shone in the spotlight on the DP World Tour in 2024.
In a year that featured countless storylines, some players stood out more than most as they made their emergence on the global stage.
A Swede was left celebrating being recognised as an award-wining rookie. A fellow Scandinavian joined him in accessing the PGA TOUR. And an unheralded Englishman went from delivering groceries to a return to the Major stage.
Here, we take a look at three players who impressed with their performances on the 2024 Race to Dubai and have reason for optimism at the start of a new year...
Jesper Svensson
Age: 28 | 2024 Race to Dubai ranking: 10 | Official World Golf Ranking: 106
The latest in the line of Swedish talent to burst onto the scene and the newest recipient of the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award.
A former international amateur teammate of Ludvig Åberg, he turned professional in 2019 and won his first title in the paid ranks a year later on the Nordic Golf League.
In his third season playing on the Challenge Tour, he won his first title at the B-NL Challenge Trophy in the Netherlands as he went on to graduate to the DP World Tour.
From there, he has reached new heights. After runner-up finishes in two of his first six starts on the 2024 Race to Dubai, the 28-year-old made his DP World Tour breakthrough with a play-off victory over Kiradech Aphibarnrat at the Porsche Singapore Classic in March.
His early season form saw him earn an invite from the PGA of America to make his Major debut in the U.S. PGA Championship, going on to make the cut at Valhalla Golf Club.
Back-to-back top fives either side of the start of the Back 9 then solidified his standing as one of the leading performers on the Race to Dubai and he closed out his campaign with a top ten on his DP World Tour Championship debut.
Now, he can look ahead to continuing his career progression by playing on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR this year.
Niklas Nørgaard
Age: 30 | 2024 Race to Dubai ranking: 11 | Official World Golf Ranking: 93
Another Scandinavian nation to produce an array of good golfers is Denmark, with Nørgaard taking his career to new heights in 2024.
Since turning professional in 2015, his rise in the professional ranks has been steady but he has emerged to wider prominence since winning his maiden DP World Tour title at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo in September.
Victory at the start of the Back 9 lifted the 30-year-old’s confidence levels and he went on to record top 10 finishes on the Rolex Series – at the BMW PGA Championship and the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship – to seal a PGA TOUR card for 2025.
Known as one of the biggest hitters on the DP World Tour, ranking third for driving distance on the 2024 Race to Dubai, he has risen from outside the top 300 in the world to inside the top 100.
With that comes more opportunities to compete on the biggest stages at Major Championships, while his performances in recent months mean he will form part of the Continental Europe side at the Team Cup in Abu Dhabi at the start of 2025.
With us now into a Ryder Cup year, can Nørgaard continue to catch the eye of Captain Luke Donald and muscle his way into Team Europe at Bethpage?
Joe Dean
Age: 30 | 2024 Race to Dubai ranking: 37 | Official World Golf Ranking: 159
It’s not just landing silverware that can define progress in this game.
Unknown aside from the most ardent observers of the game this time last year, Dean went from playing one-day events to reaching the lucrative DP World Tour Championship in a little over 12 months.
During the time between earning his card through Qualifying School and making his debut in the 2024 DP World Tour season in Qatar, he worked as a delivery driver for UK supermarket Morrisons.
After fears over travelling and a lack of funds to support the costs that come with playing around the world, the Englishman changed his outlook by finishing joint second at the Magical Kenya Open.
From then, he almost won in his rookie season at the KLM Open, losing out to Guido Migliozzi in a play-off that also featured Marcus Kinhult.
But the result was good enough to secure a return to The Open Championship after seven years away at Royal Troon, where he finished tied 25th, before three top 20s in the Back 9 guaranteed his place at the season-ending double header in the United Arab Emirates.
Writing in a Player Blog ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Dean insisted he was taking nothing for granted as he looked ahead to the challenges of trying to build on his success in 2024.
