The past three Order of Merit champions – David Micheluzzi, Kazuma Kobori and Elvis Smylie – are all now domiciled on the DP World Tour and played major championships within months of the Australasian season coming to a close.

In a further boost to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia’s international awareness, the first Qualifying School to be held in the US will see an increase in the American flags that populate leaderboards throughout the Summer of Golf.

Starting with next week’s PNG Open at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club, here are seven players under the age of 25 who will hope to use the 2025-2026 season as a launching pad for their professional careers.

Harrison Crowe

A familiar name to Australian golf fans whose victory at The National Tournament to close out the 2024-2025 season was his second on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia. Winner of the 2022 Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in Thailand, Crowe won the NSW Open the same year, the first player to win it and the NSW Amateur in the same year in more than 80 years. Has the pedigree to contend in the season’s biggest events having finished eighth on the 2024-2025 Order of Merit.

Phoenix Campbell

Like Crowe, Phoenix Campbell is a two-time winner on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, having won back-to-back Queensland PGA championships at Nudgee Golf Club. He birdied the par-3 18th on his way to winning as an amateur in 2023 and then backed that up by defeating Jak Carter in an enthralling playoff for his first professional win in 2024. Finished 2024-2025 season 21st on the Order of Merit.

Quinn Croker

A graduate of the Future Tour following some outstanding performances as an amateur across the 2023-2024 season, Croker’s best finish last year came in the final event, a tie for third at The National. Possessing incredible length and a soaring ball flight, the tall Queenslander is poised to be one of the breakout players of the coming season.

Jimmy Zheng

Kiwi countryman Kazuma Kobori delivered the blueprint as Jimmy Zheng seeks to turn medallist honours at Qualifying School in April into a DP World Tour card or better in the season ahead. An Economics graduate from Duke University, Zheng was an All-ACC Academic Team selection three years running and was fifth at the 2024 Western Amateur won by… Kazuma Kobori. Received the Bledisloe Cup as low amateur at the 2020 New Zealand Open… three years before Kobori achieved the same.

Jayce Hargrove

One of eight players to earn status for the 2025-2026 season via the international Final Qualifying School held in Georgia in July. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University after transferring from Texas Tech, the Texan-born Hargrove won the Silver State Amateur and was runner-up at the Easter Amateur during the 2022 season.

Samuel Espinosa

As a product of Pedrana in Spain where he and his family were friends with the Ballesteros family, Espinosa spent time with Seve Ballesteros as a youngster and was coached in his early days by Seve’s brother, Vicente. Espinosa represented his homeland at the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in 2019 and then embarked on a very successful college career in the US, including a third-place finish at the 2022 NCAA Division II championships. Was tied 16th at Qualifying School in Georgia to earn limited status and is entered for both the PNG Open and NT PGA.

Scotty Kennon

Joins the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia on the back of Monday qualifying for a PGA TOUR debut at last week’s Wyndham Championship. Kennon won the Drive Chip and Putt Championship at Promontory Nicklaus Golf Course in Utah in 2014 and he and his older brother Jackson and sister Cassie filled their spare time as kids caddying at acclaimed Bandon Dunes Resort. Kennon finished tied 13th at Qualifying School in the US after completing his fourth year at Wake Forest University No.27 in the PGA Tour University rankings.