Ranking the Biggest Breakout Candidates on the PGA Tour in 2015
Every player on the PGA Tour believes his next season will be his greatest, the year he finally breaks through in a big way.
It's not that easy of course. Saying doesn't make it so.
But there is a group of players who seem to have positioned themselves to break through in 2015. Some are young, some are older, but based on their recent performance, they appear to be ready to do some special things.
Do names like Morgan Hoffmann, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Tringale ring any bells?
Check out the following list.
7. Graham DeLaet
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After missing the cut in his first event of the 2014-15 season, Graham DeLaet clicked off five straight top 10s, finishing that streak with T2s in the Farmers Insurance Open and the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
He sprinkled in three more top 10s the rest of the year and made it to the third FedEx Cup playoff event, the BMW Championship. DeLaet needed a top-four finish to advance to the Tour Championship but finished 11th.
This is a guy who played well for the international team in the Presidents Cup in 2013, and much was expected of him coming into this year. DeLaet is 32 years old and in the prime of his career.
Big things should be just ahead.
6. Jonas Blixt
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After recording wins in 2012 and 2013 on the PGA Tour, Jonas Blixt finished T2 at the Masters in April.
With that coming on the heels of a fourth-place finish in last year's 2013 PGA Championship, all of a sudden expectations rose a bit for this 30-year-old native of Sweden. Those were not met, however, as Blixt missed the cut in the U.S. and British Opens.
He finished T35 in the PGA Championship, but overall it was not the kind of year Blixt would have hoped for, especially when he missed the cut in the Barclays, the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events.
Blixt will break through in 2015.
5. Morgan Hoffmann
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Morgan Hoffmann didn't have much of a 2014 season, truth be told.
He missed the cut in 12 of 28 PGA Tour appearances and didn't have a single top 10 in the tournaments before the FedEx Cup playoffs.
But he scraped around enough to post six top 25s prior to the FedEx Cup playoffs and got in...barely.
The top 125 make it and he finished at 124. It was as if a switch got turned on for Hoffmann between the end of the regular season and the first round of the Barclays. Playing just a few miles from where he grew up, Hoffmann lit up The Ridgewood Country Club, finishing ninth.
He didn't do quite as well at the Deutsche Bank Championship, posting a T35, but that finish did get him into the BMW Championship.
Things really heated up at Cherry Hills where he took a run at 59 in the third round before finishing with a 62. A final-round 63 jumped him to 21st in the standings and got him to East Lake Golf Club.
This 25-year-old hits it nearly 300 yards off the tee just like most 25-year-olds but, unlike most players his age, Hoffmann had a chance to compete in four weeks of high-pressure, elite competition at the end of a ho-hum season.
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4. Marc Leishman
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When there's a discussion about Australians in professional golf, the first names mentioned are Adam Scott and Jason Day.
On the second line of that discussion, however, is 30-year-old Marc Leishman who almost moved to the top line of that talk a couple years ago when he was in the hunt at the Masters. Day had the lead late in that one, but Scott eventually won it in a playoff over Angel Cabrera.
Leishman finished T4 in the 2013 Masters and T5 in The Open Championship this year.
This is a big guy who can hit it a long way, but he needs to get a little more accurate both off the tee and into the greens. He's had a taste of contention in majors and he's in his prime.
It's time for Leishman to join the elite of the game.
3. Brooks Koepka
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Brooks Koepka took the road less traveled to the PGA Tour. Instead of trying to qualify for the PGA or Web.com Tours, he chose to play on the other side of the ocean and play on the European Challenge Tour.
That turned out to be a wise choice as he won three times on that circuit, showed improvement in some European Tour events and came back to the United States and earned his way onto the PGA Tour.
Koepka finished T3 in his first event this year, the Frys.com Open. That was the high point of his season, although he did handle U.S. Open pressure at Pinehurst fairly well, finishing T4.
The flip side of that was he missed four cuts and posted no other top 10s.
The 24-year-old can bomb it, as he's ranked sixth in driving distance, but he doesn't hit fairways or greens nearly enough and that will no doubt be his challenge before the start of the 2014-15 season.
Brooks Koepka, a name to watch in 2015.
2. Cameron Tringale
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In Cameron Tringale's five-year career, he has shown steady improvement, capped by a 15th-place in the Tour Championship Sunday.
Perhaps just as important, however, was the telephone call Tringale made to the PGA of America less than a week after the PGA Championship. He was unclear whether a movement he made with his putter in the final round might have been judged as a stroke and asked the PGA to disqualify him.
It wasn't like he was in contention; he actually had a T33, but it was the idea. It says a lot about the 27-year-old.
He missed the cut in his only other major in 2014, The Open Championship. Tringale did play in all four FedEx Cup playoffs and had a T2 at The Barclays.
Definitely one to watch in 2015.
1. Chris Kirk
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Chris Kirk had the biggest year of his career in 2014 with a couple wins, a second and four top 10s.
In two of the four majors, he finished in the top 20. He missed the cut in the PGA Championship.
Perhaps his most significant accomplishment of his very good season was winning the Deutsche Bank Championship and going into the Tour Championship seeded first. He finished with a T4, shooting a 68 in the final round after a third-round 71 derailed his hopes of winning.
Watch out for Chris Kirk in 2015.
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