You already know about the Major champions like Rory McIlroy but what about some of the other players on the DP World Tour with hopes of making 2026 a year to remember?
Whether they are Ryder Cup winners looking to win a first Major Championship, rising stars of European golf chasing a maiden DP World Tour title, established pros targeting a return to the winner’s circle or those looking to re-assert themselves, there is always much to play for.
Here, we pick out nine players – all in the field at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic – who will be worth watching out for over the coming year.
A burning Major drive
Tommy Fleetwood
The Englishman is bidding to build on a career-best 2025.
For so long, a PGA TOUR title eluded him but that all changed when he won the Tour Championship at East Lake to also be crowned the FedExCup Champion.
Consistency has long been the bedrock of his career, but having since added an eighth DP World Tour title at the inaugural DP World India Championship and registered two top threes in his subsequent three starts between the start of one year ending and a new one dawning and there is no doubt in saying he is in the form of his life.
Up at a career-high third on the Official World Golf Ranking, Fleetwood will be among the pre-tournament favourites whenever he plays but scrutiny will be no higher than at the Majors. There can be no denying they are his next obvious goal.
While 2025 was full of highs, including a starring role for Team Europe at Bethpage in the Ryder Cup, his form at golf’s four pre-eminent individual events was not what he’d have hoped for with his best result a tie for 16th at The Open.
Across his 41 appearances at Majors, Fleetwood has two runner-up finishes and a further five top five finishes across all four. One of his near misses came at Shinnecock Hills in the U.S. Open in 2019. Where does the U.S. Open return this year? Yes, you guessed it.
So, after his milestone PGA TOUR success last year, could he record another landmark achievement this year? Everyone knows he’s good enough to.
Viktor Hovland
Another of European golf’s best known stars.
Like Fleetwood, he is established among the elite of world golf, but the Norwegian will also know that Major recognition is often what defines a player.
Coincidentally, his career-high in the world rankings like Fleetwood is also third – achieved after winning the Dubai Desert Classic in 2022.
His standout campaign though came a year later, when he won back-to-back FedExCup Playoffs events, including the Tour Championship, to become a FedEx Cup winner. Another similarity with Fleetwood.
However, while striking a golf ball appeared the easiest of tasks during his formative years in the paid ranks, golf was far from effortless in 2024 and for a good part of 2025.
Hovland spent much of 2024 searching for answers, changing coaches and becoming stuck in a cycle of swing issues.
But through hard work and perseverance, he rediscovered some form towards the latter part of 2025, helping Europe win the Ryder Cup on U.S. soil and claiming three top ten finishes worldwide across his final five starts of the year.
In fact, it was on the Major stage at last year’s U.S. Open where he reminded everyone of his talent with a third-place finish.
That was his fourth top five at a Major, all of which have come in the last four years.
Can he make the next step and be hoisting aloft Major silverware in 2026?
The pathway stars chasing DP World Tour breakthroughs
Angel Ayora
Having seen fellow 2024 HotelPlaner Tour graduates Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Martin Couvra claim a maiden DP World Tour title in 2025, the Spaniard will hope to follow suit this year.
He may be just 21, but there is no doubt it will surely only be a matter of when, not if.
To the naked eye, his swing appears to have no flaws. Many a former professional turned pundit have already been effusive in their praise.
Across his rookie DP World Tour season, he amassed ten top ten finishes – a Tour high.
Two of those came in the elevated DP World Tour Play-Offs, against world-class fields, something which should ensure he is full of confidence as he looks to continue his progress up the world rankings.
Jacob Skov Olesen
It’s easy to forget that the Dane only turned professional after earning his DP World Tour card through Qualifying School in 2024.
Having already racked up enough points on the Global Amateur Pathway Rankings to earn himself a HotelPlanner Tour card, he finished in the top 20 and ties at INFINITUM in Spain to accelerate his move into the paid ranks.
The Dane - the first player from his country to win The Amateur Championship - was the only graduate of the Qualifying School from 2024 to make it to the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in November.
In a campaign that saw him record six top tens, he finished 41st on the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World.
With the experience of a first full season under his belt, it would come as no surprise if the left-hander was the latest talent from Denmark's conveyor belt to win on the DP World Tour.
Wenyi Ding
The Chinese is another beneficiary of one of the pathways on offer to make it onto the DP World Tour.
He topped the inaugural Global Amateur Pathway Ranking in 2024, following an impressive season that included victory in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.
While that earned him a spot in the Masters and The Open Championship for the following year, the lure of turning professional was too strong and he made his debut in the paid ranks on home soil at the Hangzhou Open on the HotelPlanner Tour at 19.
Across his rookie campaign on the DP World Tour, he secured two top tens and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the first event of the DP World Tour Play-Offs by one spot.
Despite that dissapointment, he came close to a maiden DP World Tour title at the BMW Australian PGA Championship - the opening event of the 2026 season - in November and arrives in Dubai in the top ten on the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World.
Age is just a number
Andy Sullivan
It's too simplistic to say golf is a young man's sport, but it's also fair to say it doesn't get any easier the older you get.
And while the prospect of turning 39 in May means Sullivan is by no means ancient, the continual emergence of talent means longevity on Tour becomes all the more impressive.
This year marks the Englishman's 15th as a professional, during which he has won four titles on the DP World Tour and the signs are that a fifth - and first since the English Championship in 2020 - could be just around the corner.
His season-end finish on the Race to Dubai of 30th was his best since his last title-winning campaign, with two of his six top tens coming in back-to-back events over his final three starts.
And he maintained that momentum with another at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player last month, moving him in the right direction for a return inside the world's top 100.
A chance to re-establish
Jordan Gumberg
The American will be hoping to avoid a repeat of his dramatic finish to last season.
Were it not for a hole-out eagle on the final hole of the final regular DP World Tour event of the season - the Genesis Championship - he would not be here this week in Dubai. More than that, he wouldn't have his full playing privileges this season.
A winner on the DP World Tour at the SDC Championship in South Africa in 2024, he arrived in South Korea knowing he needed to finish 14th or better to move the right side of the top 115 on the Race to Dubai Rankings. Up until his very final shot, it appeared that was to prove too tall a task.
So, after playing a season-high 34 events last year - with his lone top ten coming in his final event of the 2025 campaign - this year offers a chance for him to find some consistency.
After all, he didn't hold full staus on Tour when he won almost two years ago, having played limited schedules on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica and Korn Ferry Tour before he joined the HotelPlanner Tour in 2022.
Future stars
It is worth highlighting the Hero Dubai Desert Classic plays its part in providing a platform for young, emerging talent to tee it up on golf's Global Tour.
Over recent years, Ludvig Åberg, Michael Thorbjornsen and David Ford have all been invited to tee it up at Emirates Golf Club.
All three have finished top of the PGA Tour University rankings in the past three years, with two-time Ryder Cup winner Åberg becoming a world-renowned global player since playing in Dubai at the start of 2023.
This year, two new amateur talents - Christiaan Maas and Ethan Fang - have a chance to play among the world's best. While not members of the DP World Tour, they could soon become regulars.
Christiaan Maas
This week sees the South African, currently a student at Texas University, make his eighth start on the DP World Tour and his first Rolex Series appearance.
On his most recent start, the 22-year-old finished in a tie for fourth at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and he now has his first taste of playing outside his homeland on the DP World Tour.
At the World Amateur Team Championship in Singapore in October, Maas won the individual title by ten strokes and he led South Africa to an eight-stroke victory in the team competition.
Ranked second in the PGA TOUR University Class of 2026, a potential PGA TOUR card is in his sights upon the conclusion of the collegiate golf season.
Ethan Fang
The American is third on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, two spots above Maas.
The Oklahoma State University student became only the second American to win The Amateur Championship since 1979, earning his debut at The Open Championship at Royal Portrush last year.
That was his debut on the DP World Tour, with the 20-year-old having since made his first start in the United States at the Procore Championship in September.
After countryman Ford, who has PGA TOUR membership in 2026, held a share of the first-round lead at the Dubai Desert Classic last year, Fang will himself hope to mix it with the best.
