[Photo: Getty images]

Australian male golfers enjoyed plenty of victories around the globe in 2025 but the nation closed the year without a golfer in the top 40 on the Official World Golf Rankings.

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Min Woo Lee was one of several winners on professional tours in 2025 and the Perth golfer was Australia’s top-ranked men’s golfer at world No.44 when the calendar rolled into 2026.

Australia’s current men’s world rankings list included Lee, Jason Day (55) and Adam Scott (64) at the top. They are followed by Elvis Smylie (127), Cameron Davis (136) and Karl Vilips (145). Further down are 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith (205), Marc Leishman (223) and Lucas Herbert (237). Completing the list are Jason Scrivener (311), Travis Smyth (363), Wade Ormsby (377), Austin Bautista (423), David Micheluzzi (426), Kevin Yuan (518), Anthony Quayle (531) and Ryan Peake (538).

Lee, a three-time DP World Tour winner, broke through the PGA Tour victory barrier at the Houston Open in March last year – where he stared down Scottie Scheffler. Vilips also claimed a maiden PGA Tour title at the Puerto Rico Open. In April of 2025, former six-time PGA Tour winner Leishman grabbed his maiden LIV Golf title in Miami on the brutally difficult Doral course, while Ripper GC teammate Herbert was utterly dominant during his wire-to-wire win at the International Series Japan. Ormsby also jagged a win on the Asian Tour and Peake earned one of the stories of 2025 by triumphing at the New Zealand Open – later securing a DP World Tour card alongside Quayle. There were also plenty of senior golf wins by Aussies on the PGA Tour Champions in the US.

At the majors, there were glimpses of brilliance but overall results were lacklustre. Scott was three shots back with seven holes remaining at the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in May and he shared the lead during the final round of the US Open at Oakmont Country Club in June. But Scott finished T-12 at Oakmont and, after the Open Championship a month later, 2025 became the first year since 2009 that Australians collectively managed just one top-10 result at the major championships (Jason Day’s T-8 at the 2025 Masters). In July, Australian Golf Digest editor Steve Keipert dug the statistic up from his cumulative majors record book.

Certainly, Australian golfers played great golf in certain weeks, but no tour pros in the top 40 on the OWGR is a real surprise.

What must be acknowledged is LIV Golf doesn’t receive world rankings for its events, so Smith, Leishman, Herbert and Jones have less access to points than their countrymen on the PGA and DP World Tour.

There is plenty to be optimistic for 2026, particularly with Smith – arguably Australia’s best golfer when he’s on – coming close to a victory in a great Australian Open field at Royal Melbourne last month. There’s a strong chance that launches him back to world-beating form this year. Lee is also becoming more consistent and improving his iron play, while Vilips is on the rise and still only a PGA Tour sophomore. Smylie, at just 23 years of age, also appears to be close to really taking off.

Australian men’s golf has always been cyclical and perhaps 2025 was just one of those sub-par years. Leishman played some of his best golf in 2017 and 2018, when the Warrnambool lad was the shining light during those two lean seasons (by Aussie standards). From 2019 to 2024, Australian pro golf enjoyed a massive surge highlighted by Smith’s maiden major win at the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.

Hopefully, the cohort is on the cusp of another glorious purple patch.