European Tour Players to Follow: Steve Palmer highlights golf's rising stars

Adrian Meronk

The strength in depth in worldwide golf these days means fantastic young talents such as Min Woo Lee, MK Kim, Nicolai Hojgaard and Kristoffer Reitan have only partial status on the European Tour and will struggle to gain access to many events.

They should be respected whenever they get a gig, but punters looking for improving youngsters to follow on a regular basis in 2020 are better advised to consider those with full playing rights.

Adrian Meronk has a busy year ahead of him, courtesy of fifth place in the Challenge Tour rankings last season, a campaign which included victory in the Open de Portugal in September. The power-packed German-born Pole is 26, has a decent Stateside college career behind him and shaved more than 300 places off his world ranking in 2019, posting 11 top-ten finishes.

Matthew Jordan

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and 23-year-old Wirral lad Matt Jordan has already shown he is capable of handling the European Tour by finishing fifth in the Dunhill Links Championship in September. That fine effort came after he led the British Masters through 18 holes in May before ending up in 15th place.

Jordan was superb as an amateur, then graduated immediately from the Challenge Tour, winning the Italian Challenge in June and finishing ninth in the CT rankings. The European Tour maiden boasts a formidable record on links terrain and should be particularly on the radar of punters whenever he tackles that type of track next year.

Sami Valimaki

The 21-year-old Finn can be compared to a greyhound who has been butchering his opposition in lower grades and will get the chance to test himself against a better class of rival in the year to come.

Valimaki has won four times on the Pro Golf Tour this year – three of those victories coming from the middle of August onwards – and he carried that form to European Tour Q-School to finish tied for eighth there. He has rapidly gone from a third-level tour to the pinnacle of golf in Europe, but a respectable amateur career and his Q-School composure suggests he can overcome the upgrade.

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