Ryan Lavner and Rex Hoggard break down their picks for best newcomers of 2025, listing Michael Thorbjornsen and David Puig as two golfers who impressed them the most throughout the year. #pgatour #golf #golfchannel
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Michael Thorbjornsen is ‘a star in the making’ | Golf Channel Podcast
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How about a newcomer? You cannot say Ben Griffin. A newcomer, Rex, who is most likely to stick around and succeed. Now, this is a secondyear tour player, so I expect you’re going to be just as critical as you were Ben Griffin. But, uh, Michael Thor Bjönson, and I I say that only because he he got put himself in contention at the RSM Classic a few weeks ago. Had a chance to spend some time with him and talk about his season, and he dealt with injury. There was things that going going on off the golf course that clearly impacted his play, but you look at the way he ended up finishing the year. He had six top 25 finishes in his last 11 starts. Again, put himself into contention at the last event in the year. Squarely in the hunt to get into those signature events and he does the one thing you have to do really well on the PGA tour. He’s seventh this season on tour and strokes gain off the tea. And and this goes to the conversation we just had about Ben Griffin. This goes to the conversation I wanted to add about Andrew Novak. the idea that not only is he a star in the making, but he’s also a great personality in the making. I had a chance to spend some time with him at the RSM Classic. If you want to listen to a good NFL podcast, look, I’m not trying to drive people away from our podcast, but Andrew Novak’s NFL podcast is really good. I had the chance to spend some time listening to it. I would put Michael in that category. He he’s an interesting person to hear talk about the game. He looks at things a little bit differently than some of the other players of maybe that class. You you covered him in college. No one does it better than you at at the college level. You understood how much talent talent he had coming out. But I love his game and I love the way he’s trending in the right direction. Goldie found the tapes. Michael Thorbjornson was my newcomer to watch at the end of 2024. As I always say, Rex, we’re never wrong just early. There’s so many other players. Your player of the year the last three years has been Xander Shafley. How you doing on that front? Like the last eight. I’m still I’m still like 0 for eight for that one. I I I love I love the Thor pick. I love Marco Pen’s game and what he did in 2025. Aldrich Poter winner on the PG tour. Johnny Kefir, great year on the Cornferryy Tour. Neil Shipley, Michael Brennan, Jackson Kovven, who I mentioned in the PG tour show. I think all of those players are good picks for me. The player who I think has the best chance to stick is David Poo. He’s just 23 years old. He won the Australian PGA a couple of weeks ago. He already has three worldwide victories. Tons and tons of firepower off the tea, averages more than 325 off the tee. Coupled that with a very slick short game and putter. I watched him climb the ranks in college at Arizona State. Completely blown away by his talent. Yes, it’s taken him a few years to sort of find his footing. He was among that initial wave of players who committed to live back in 2022. Big big big believer in his talent. I think he’s a future European Rder Cup player.
