by The Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final, supported by The R&A, has a long history of identifying the next generation of golf superstars.
Every player competing next week will compete for one of the life-changing DP World Tour cards on offer, hoping to add their name to a growing list of alumni who continue to achieve greatness in the game. Here are just a few of them…
At last year’s Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final, Frederic Lacroix started the week outside the promotion places but enjoyed a brilliant week at Alcanada to catapult himself to the finish. The Frenchman’s third place finish in Mallorca took him from 25th to 13th in the rankings and he has had an outstanding year since then. After coming close on several occasions, Lacroix claimed his first DP World Tour victory at the Danish Golf Challenge in August, firing six under par in the final round to secure a dominant four-shot victory. The 29-year-old is also expected to compete in the DP World Tour Championship next month.
Tom McKibbin
At 19, Tom McKibbin was the youngest in the field at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final in 2022. The Northern Irishman shot a final round of 66 at the Club de Golf Alcanada, finishing a close sixth and climbing his way up to tenth on the Road to Mallorca rankings and secure promotion to golf’s Global Tour. McKibbin took a breakthrough DP World Tour victory at the Porsche European Open in his first full season on the DP World Tour and followed that up with another outstanding 12 months in 2024, recording eight top-ten finishes in 25 starts.
Rasmus Hojgaard
Rasmus Højgaard made it to the Challenge Tour Grand Final as an 18-year-old in 2019 and then finished tied for 13th when Club de Golf Alcanada made its debut as a season finale venue. With this goal, the Dane qualified for the DP World Tour, and he hasn’t looked back. Now, at just 23 years old, he is a five-time winner on golf’s Global Tour. He has one win and five more top-ten finishes to his name this year alone, and he is expected to compete on the PGA TOUR next season alongside his brother Nicolai.
Victor Perez’s journey to becoming a Rolex Series winner began on the Challenge Tour when he graduated in 2018 thanks to a second-place finish at the season finale. The Frenchman became number four this year and has since won three times on the DP World Tour. The first of these came the following year when he triumphed at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, before adding the Dutch Open to his growing list of honors in 2022. Last year he achieved the biggest win of his career by winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Ryan Fox
The Challenge Tour played an important role in Ryan Fox’s journey to becoming a Rolex Series title winner. In 2016, the New Zealander finished fourth in the rankings, earning promotion to the DP World Tour, where he played for seven consecutive seasons before earning PGA TOUR playing rights in 2023. The 37-year-old is now a four-time winner on golf’s Global Tour. He won a first title in 2019 before adding two more in 2022, including the prestigious Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. He then posted rounds of 69-68-66-67 in 2023 to record the biggest win of his career at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
