The five players to watch in the 2025 Australian Open

The Australian Open returns this week to Royal Melbourne for the first time since 1991.

Headlining the event alongside our Aussie stars is Rory McIlroy – Masters Champion and golf’s newest career Grand Slam winner. The Northern Irishman won the event back in 2013 and thinks highly of the event, calling it golf’s fifth major in the past.

McIlroy is currently ranked second in the world rankings and is the only player in the top 40 of the rankings to feature in this event.

This number isn’t a reflection on the field, though, but rather the state of pro golf today, as there is plenty of firepower in this week’s field to challenge the superstar as he kicks off his 2026 DP World Tour Season in Melbourne.

With plenty of winning chances, we've picked out the five players to watch.

Don't forget, you can listen to the event LIVE on SEN and the SEN app.

Odds pulled from TAB – official partner of Aus Open.

The Favourites

Rory McIlroy ($4)

It’s no shock McIlroy is the tournament favourite. McIlroy comes into this week off the back of a career-best season in 2025.

The Northern Irishman will be gunning to add the Australian Open to his 2025 tally - adding to his wins at the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, THE PLAYERS Championship and his home Amgen Irish Open. McIlroy also led Team Europe to an away Ryder Cup win.

It’s hard to look past McIlroy this weekend. The Masters Champ loves to flex his muscles on the DP World Tour and assert his dominance as if winning four back-to-back Race to Dubai wasn’t enough. An advocate for growing the game globally, he will be out there to put on a show and inspire Australia’s next generation of young golfers.

Min Woo Lee ($13)

Min Woo is showing signs that he is returning to his best form with a T5 finish at last weekend's BMW Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane.

The Perth native largely had a year to forget in 2025 besides his maiden PGA Tour win earlier this year, as he failed to make the cut at three majors. Lee has strung together a number of strong performances in the back half of the year, finishing in the top 10 in three events since September.

Lee is on the hunt for his maiden Australian Open win and will be confident he can convert his form into a win, especially with the home crowd cheering him on.

David Puig ($13)

Puig’s win last weekend in Brisbane is his maiden DP World Tour win and first since turning pro in 2022. Major winner, Phil Mickelson, was quick to sing out his praises for the young Spaniard on X, stating ‘The wins are just going to keep adding up for a very long time’.

The Spaniard’s rise has largely gone under the radar as he has plied his trade with LIV Golf since 2022, when he cut short his time at ASU to join the breakaway league.

Don’t be surprised to see Puig challenging again this week – the young star is tipped to have a breakout year on the DP World Tour as he enters his first year as a full member of the tour.

Outsiders

Ryan Fox ($21)

The New Zealander is someone on his day who competes with the very best – winning twice this year on the PGA Tour. Fox is a well-respected figure amongst the pros, having turned pro back in 2012 and plied his trade mostly on the DP World Tour for over ten years before earning a dual membership of the PGA TOUR after finishing fifth in the 2023 Race to Dubai Rankings.

Fox finished in 39th place last weekend off the back of a 2-month break from tournament golf. The Kiwi was still in touching distance of the leaders on Saturday before starting his back-nine with five consecutive bogeys – Fox tidied things up on the Sunday and moved up 18 places on the leaderboard on the final day of play.

A proven talent and level-headed personality that you’d expect will be able to build upon a largely positive return to competitive golf.

Jose Luis Ballester ($41)

Ballester is a very close friend of Puig – both men represent Spain, played at ASU together and now are members of Fireball GC at LIV Golf.

Only a week earlier than Puig, Ballester also secured his first professional win at the PIF Saudi International on the Asian Tour. Making it two professional wins in two weeks for LIV Golf’s team, Fireball GC. Fireball Captain & European great, Sergio Garcia, praised the achievement, saying, ‘I’m excited to see my teammates play that well… and really looking forward to next year and to keep that run going.’

The 22-year-old is also tipped to have a breakthrough year, having only turned pro in June this year to join LIV Golf. Ballester finished seven strokes (T-10) off Puig last weekend in Queensland with a similar fate to Fox – having started the week very strong on Thursday & Friday before a turbulent round on Saturday saw him lose touch with the leaders before finishing off with a strong round which saw the young Spaniard move up 22 places on the final day of play.

In form and full of confidence, expect to see Ballester make plenty of birdies throughout the weekend and continue to make a name for himself as one of golf’s next big stars alongside Puig.

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