For the purpose of providing insight on lesser-known young talents, I excluded players with 5+ top 10 finishes on Tour last season. Therefore, Scottie Scheffler, Sungjae Im, Will Zalatoris, Sam Burns, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, and Joaquin Niemann will not be seen in my guide below despite their obvious talent.
Sahith Theegala- some may know his name already and some may not, but all golf fans will soon find out about the latest athletic phenom from Chino Hills, California. He is just 24 years old, and after an extremely successful collegiate career at Pepperdine University, he is starting to find his stroke on the PGA Tour. While a T33 and a T25 in his last two tournaments may not jump off the page, the fact that his name was near the top of the leaderboard on day three in back-to-back tournament is impressive, and doing so at Torrey Pines with a stacked field during the Farmers Insurance Open only strengthens his breakout case.
Cameron Young- Young, a New York native and a product of Wake Forest’s strong golf program, has impressed thus far this season, posting a T20 and a T40 in his last two tournaments. Young, like Theegala is 24 and is looking to make his name after a successful year on the Korn Ferry Tour. He clearly has the talent to break through as he shot 19-under in a win at Augusta while at Wake Forest. It takes a special player to have that kind of success at Augusta, the type of player that can break through in 2022.
Maverick McNealy- McNealy might be the most known prospect of the three, but he still only had two top 10s in 26 starts last season. However, things might be going a little differently for him in 2021-2022. He has made 7/8 cuts with his lowest finish being 38th in those cuts that he made. The Stanford product, who was formerly the number one ranked amateur in the world, has all of the tools to put it all together in 2022 in search of his first win on the PGA Tour.
