IF there has been one word to define European golf in 2025, it must surely be “redemption.” Nowhere was that more apparent, of course, than at Augusta National in April when Rory McIlroy completed the Career Grand Slam. A little less than five months later, Tommy Fleetwood claimed salvation of his own when, after 13 top-three finishes on the PGA Tour without a win, he finally lifted a trophy at the Tour Championship.
Both of them will compete in the final fortnight of action in the 2025 season that includes this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links and next week’s DP World Tour Championship on the Earth Course at Jumeirah.
But the sense of 2025 absolution goes beyond the star names, and there are four players in the top seven of the Race to Dubai with remarkable tales of their own to tell, ones that remind us of the perilous snakes-and-ladders nature of professional golf.
Let’s kick off with Marco Penge, who needed a birdie at his final hole of the 2024 season to save his card. He completed the par breaker but weeks later was banned for three months (one month suspended) for breaking betting regulations. In retrospect, he insists the experience made him “a better person,” and it certainly turned his performances around after a change of coach and an adaptation of routines to accommodate his ADHD.
The Englishman won in China on his seventh start back and has added two more victories since then, and he was also second in the PGA Tour co-sanctioned Scottish Open. He heads into the final fortnight of the season ranked second in the Race to Dubai and the man most likely to challenge McIlroy’s lead. He also sits second in the season’s Strokes Gained Off the Tee rankings between Jon Rahm and McIlroy. In just six months he’s gone from head scratching to heady company.
Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan ignited his own career revival in the same week as Penge, finishing runner-up to him in China. A month later he thrashed a final round 62 from nine shots back of the lead to force a playoff that he won in the Soudal Open and a 60 on the following Sunday very nearly pinched the Austrian Alpine Open. Eight top-six finishes has him ranked fourth in the Race to Dubai, and he is all set to join his friend Viktor Hovland in the States.
And yet just 18 months ago he was bereft of ideas. The son of a supermarket tycoon, he had no financial concerns, but he was unable to contend on any tier, never mind at the top, and was considering becoming a YouTube influencer. “I wasn’t enjoying it and making no progress,” he said in Austria and then explained that shortly before last year’s Challenge Tour Grand Final, he talked with his psychologist. “I decided to stop holding myself back, to let my talent out a little bit.” He won that Grand Final, and next year returns to America, where back in 2018 he played the US Open and shot 81-77. He’ll be in better shape this time.
Adrien Saddier is another man transformed. He first played the DP World Tour in 2012 and through his first 194 starts had recorded just five top five finishes. Since March, however, he has doubled that tally, including a first win in June’s Italian Open and a playoff defeat in the BMW PGA Championship. Ahead of this year, the Frenchman’s best seasonal ranking was last year’s 64th, which was an improvement on his second-best of 87th a year before. So he was trending, but absolutely no-one would have predicted his current fifth place.
Finally, there is John Parry, for whom this is a tale of four end-of-years. He ended his 2021 season at the third-tier Europro Tour Championship, where he failed to break 72 once in three rounds. But he had done well enough all season to earn a return to the second tier and in November 2022 finished second at the Challenge Tour Grand Final to bounce back to the main tour. After two ladders, though, he hit a snake, failing to retain his card, but the dice were about to run for him again. Three wins on the second tier in 2024 had him back on the main tour, and he concluded the year with victory in the Mauritius Open. It was the second of five top threes, and he is over halfway up a long ladder that ends on the PGA Tour.
It’s giddy stuff, but what of this week’s action? Yas Links has proved popular with the players. It’s as linksy as you can get in the desert and was designed by Kyle Philips, who creates courses that are fun to play and fun to watch golf on. We should be in for a treat. Here are three to watch.
Alex Noren
The Swede was mighty impressive when winning the British Masters and BMW PGA Championship in August and September before stumbling a little when back on the PGA Tour (twice making fast starts then fading). We can forgive that because he’s in a good place this week. First up, his only previous visit to Yas Links earned a top five after a slow start. He’s also a very fine performer on other Philips designs, winning at PGA Sweden National and The Grove, and going low at Kingsbarns in the Dunhill Links. He’s also a past winner at Castle Stuart and Le Golf National, which are modern layouts with linksy pretensions.
Grant Forrest
The Scot carded a third-round 65 at Yas Links in 2023 to head into the final round one shot back of the lead before finishing T10, and he shot another 65 there last year. He also took a liking to the Philips-crafted Bernardus in the Netherlands when eighth in the 2023 KLM Open. More recently his links credentials have been confirmed with a top five at Royal County Down, victory at Trump International in Aberdeen, and a third top 12 finish at the Dunhill Links (where he has twice carded 65 at Kingsbarns).
Brandon Robinson-Thompson
The Isle of Wight golfer found a bit of form when T15 last time out in India, and he has low scores in him. His only previous start on a Philips design saw him open with a 65 when sixth at PGA National Oak in Prague. He’s won in Egypt (Middle East tick) and at Machynys (modern links tick) on minor tours, and earlier this season he was the solo first-round leader in Bahrain and shared it in Qatar.
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