Five golfers set for a breakthrough in 2016

As the dust settles on another brilliant year of top flight golf, now is as good a time as any to take a look forward to the 2016 campaign.
A number of young players have come from nowhere to make their mark this year - not least Jordan Spieth, of course - so who else out there looks set to, well, maybe not replicate Spieth's success, but certainly make their own breakthrough on their respective Tours next term and maybe even case in upset in the Majors' markets?

Danny Lee
The 25-year-old smashed his way into the top ten of the 2015 FedEx Cup rankings after a fantastic season - amassing a cool $4 million in prize money along the way, and now the golfing fraternity will be expecting big things from Danny Lee next season.

He's already on the cusp of going top ten in the official PGA Tour world rankings, and so Lee's breakthrough aim should be to contend for majors in 2016.
After a surfeit of top ten finishes in 'lesser' Tour events in the first half of the year, Lee's campaign really kicked into gear with that four way play-off win over David Hearn, Robert Streb and Kevin Kisner at the Greenbrier Classic. He finished off his season with a second place finish in the Tour Championship, where he finished four shots behind eventual winner Spieth.

The Kiwi's record in the majors wasn't great - he missed the cut at the US Open and the Open Championship, but an encouraging top 50 spot at the PGA Championship should fill him with confidence.

Danny Willett
What a year Sheffield's Danny Willett has enjoyed. He started the 2015 campaign as a young talent who had yet to fulfil his potential, and he ends the year ranked 25th in the world and with more than three million US Dollars in his pocket.

He got his campaign off to the best possible start by banking his biggest ever payday as winner of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, and he backed that up with a fourth place finish at the Alfred Dunhill Championship just a week later.

A bit of a mid-season lull followed before finishing in third at the World Matchplay - a tournament in which he was unseeded and had to see off the likes of Patrick Reed, Lee Westwood and Tommy Fleetwood to progress, before losing to Gary Woodland in the semi-final. This matchplay pedigree will intrigue the Ryder Cup selectors no end.

More top ten finishes followed before perhaps Willett's finest hour; victory at the European Masters in July. This came just a week after his Open Championship adventure, in which he was just a couple of shots off the lead heading into the last 18.

The 28-year-old finished second only to Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai rankings, and incredibly has turned down a chance to play in America after being offered a full PGA Tour card. The European Tour had better watch out once again; expect plenty of victories for the modest northerner in 2016.

Robert Streb
You could make a convincing argument that Robert Streb made a pretty hefty breakthrough in 2015 - finishing 18th in the FedEx Cup ranks and gliding up to number 31 in the world.

But with just one Tour victory to his name - which came way back in October '14 at the McGladrey Classic - it is about time that the popular 28-year-old made his way into the winner's enclosure more often. There are plenty of players who win once a season and then disappear into obscurity.

But there's not much evidence to suggest Streb is likely to do that. From the period of May to August, he recorded top 20 finishes in an incredible eight out of nine events; a run which included an 18th at The Open (after shooting an opening round of 66) and 10th at the Players Championship.

So the man from Oklahoma possesses both the consistency to challenge for honours in Tour events week after week, and the bottle to do some damage at the majors. Could 2016 be his year? All the signs are there.

Matthew Fitzpatrick
Bagging your first big European Tour event victory at the ripe old age of 21 is the perfect foundation for any golfer to make their breakthrough, and for Matthew Fitzpatrick the sky really is the limit after his triumph at the British Masters.

But it really was no fluke: the Englishman, who was the youngest player in the field, has finished in a top five spot in a nap hand of tournaments on his debut year on the Tour, including a second at the European Masters (behind only a sublime fellow Sheffielder in Danny Willett) and thirds at the Open D'Italia, the Czech Masters and the Lyoness Open. He was also the US Amateur champ back in 2013.

The young man with the wise old head is still yet to enjoy his first taste of major action on home soil (he had burst onto the scene with a top 50 spot at the US Open in 2014), and so next season represents an opportunity for Fitzpatrick to follow up his maiden Tour win with another victory-packed campaign. Then we will know if he is the real deal or not.

Paul Dunne
Paul Dunne is a young man with golfing world at his feet. Aged just 22, Dunne has already earned professional status on the European Tour after an incredible campaign on the Challenger Tour.

After winning the Final Open qualification event for the second year in a row, Dunne incredibly led on the grandest stage of them all after three rounds - shooting the lowest ever score after 54 holes by an amateur, before a final 18 of 78 put paid to his hopes of an audacious debut major win. He would still collect the Silver Medal and a top 30 finish nonetheless.

Unsurprisingly, the Irishman turned pro shortly after, and in his two European Tour events to date has finished very respectably in 19th at the Alfred Dunhill Links and 25th at the British Masters.

A Green In Regulation stat of 70% on Tour so far (Spieth is down at 68% in the US, by way of comparison) stands him in good stead for a fantastic 2016 campaign.