9 Big Names Still Searching For Their First Win Of 2025

In both the men’s and the women’s game, there had been some familiar names claiming many of the trophies so far in 2025.

One is PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy, who has three titles already, including completing the career Grand Slam at The Masters. Then there’s Joaquin Niemann, who has already matched his total of three worldwide victories in 2024, with his most recent title coming at last week’s LIV Golf Mexico City. Meanwhile, in the women’s game, Lydia Ko, won her 23^rd LPGA Tour title at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.

However, for some high-profile players, the opening months of the year had been a more frustrating experience, with a good number still in search of their first victory. Here are the details.

Bryson DeChambeau

The 2024 US Open champion has come close to victory several times this season before falling away. After a T6 in the season opener, LIV Golf Riyadh, his next top 10 placing came in Singapore before he held a two-shot lead going into the final round of LIV Golf Miami. However, a three-over on the Sunday saw him slump to fifth. It was a familiar tale in Mexico City, where he had a three-shot lead after two rounds of the 54-hole contest before succumbing to Niemann and finishing T2.

Those missed opportunities would have been galling for the Crushers GC captain, but by far the most painful would have been his finish of T5 at The Masters. He began the final round at Augusta National two behind leader Rory McIlroy, and briefly held a one-shot lead within the first hour after taking advantage of McIlroy’s early nerves. However, not for the first time that week, his iron play let him down and he fell out of contention as the day progressed.

Hannah Green

The Australian amassed half of her career LPGA Tour wins in 2024 alone, winning three times, with victories at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, JM Eagle LA Championship and BMW Ladies Championship. Those wins offered the promise of even more success in 2025, but so far, she has yet to add to her tally.

A missed cut at the Chevron Championship aside, Green’s form hasn’t been bad, but the nearest she has come to a seventh LPGA Tour title was at the Founders Cup, where she placed T4, with two other top-10 finishes along the way.

Nelly Korda

After Korda finished T16 in her first start of 2024 at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, she rallied late to edge out Lydia Ko in her next event, the LPGA Drive On Championship, and simply kept on winning, with her fifth successive title coming at the Chevron Championship.

The run had to end at some point, and at did, with a T7 at the Cognizant Founders Cup, but that proved an anomaly as she then claimed her sixth win of the season in just her eighth start at the Mizuho Americas Open. Her seventh victory of 2024 came at the Annika Driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, but in six appearances so far this year, she has yet to add to her 15 LPGA Tour titles.

She came close in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, placing second as A Lim Kim won by two, but that is the high point of her year so far.

After finishing T14 at this year's Chevron Championship, she admitted she isn’t at her best, saying: “Don't have my best stuff right now but grinded through the weekend and hopefully I can continue building on this.”

Collin Morikawa

Morikawa didn’t win on the PGA Tour in 2024, but he confirmed a stunning return to form with several close calls along the way, including placing top of the Official World Golf Ranking leaderboard at the Tour Championship. That didn’t hand him the title because of the starting strokes afforded to winner Scottie Scheffler, but he admitted afterwards he was happy to finish top of the “fake” leaderboard, and who could blame him?

After all, it would have been encouraging to know he outperformed Scheffler, who was having a dominant season, particularly as it came after Morikawa had compiled some impressive results, including runner-up to Scheffler at the Memorial Tournament two months earlier.

While that form saw him safely back inside the world’s top 10 after a slump throughout much of 2023, he hasn’t yet won a title this year either. He has certainly come close, finishing runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama at The Sentry, before leading the way for large periods of the final round of the Arnold Palmer before succumbing to Russell Henley. Because of that, his wait for a seventh PGA Tour title – and first of the year – continues.

Jon Rahm

Like 2024, Jon Rahm has been a model of consistency on the LIV Golf League this season, with every start resulting in a top-10 finish. However, a year ago, Rahm converted two of those into victories, albeit not until July, on his way to winning the Individual Championship – something he hasn’t been able to do so far this year.

Away from LIV Golf, any hopes Rahm had of winning a second Masters title were also dashed when he finished T14 at Augusta National.

Rahm will be looking for another strong second half to the season as he aims to add more professional titles to a resume that already has 22, the most recent of which came in September at LIV Golf Chicago.

Xander Schauffele

Only Xander Schauffele in the men’s game got close to Scottie Scheffler’s achievements in 2024, winning two of the four Majors as well as producing some brilliant performances elsewhere, such as runner-up at the Wells Fargo Championship and the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

While that form opened up the potential for a brilliant 2025 for Schauffele, he suffered an early setback with a rib injury and has only recently found anything approaching the game that brought him so much success in 2024. That included T8 at The Masters, hinting that another glorious year could yet unfold for Schauffele, but with his defence of the PGA Championship title around the corner, he’s still waiting for it all to click into place.

Scottie Scheffler

Scottie Scheffler was just one win behind Nelly Korda by this time last year, with four, after victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players Championship, The Masters and the RBC Heritage. More success came at the Memorial Tournament and the Travelers Championship, while he also won the Olympic gold medal and his maiden FedEx Cup title.

To cap a remarkable year, Scheffler then won the Hero World Challenge as his form began to draw comparisons to the event’s host in his prime, Tiger Woods.

A little like Schauffele, though, Scheffler’s start to the year was hindered by injury, in his case after he cut his hand with a wine glass on Christmas Day. He was back in action by February’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he finished T9, and the rest of the season has gone along in a similar vein, with some excellent rounds and periods of control without ever being able to put something together for the whole tournament and claim victory.

Lilia Vu

After claiming four titles, including two Majors, in 2023, it would have been a tall order for Lilia Vu to match those achievements in 2024. However, despite a back injury curtailing part of her season, she still won her fifth LPGA Tour title at the Meijer LPGA Classic and came close to winning her third Major at the AIG Women’s Open before missing out to Lydia Ko.

There have been glimpses of her best form in 2025 as well, most notably with a T2 at the Ford Championship, but that’s her only top-10 result in five starts so far this season.

Ruoning Yin

Like Hannah Green, 2024 couldn’t have gone a lot better for Ruoning Yin with three victories on the LPGA Tour, at the Dow Championship, Buick LPGA Shanghai and Maybank Championship.

To add to her reputation as one of the best young players in the game, those achievements came the year after she won her maiden Major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

The opening months of 2025 have been generally less assured for Yin, without a top-10 finish in her first seven starts before she put herself in pole position to win her second Major at the Chevron Championship.

During the final round, she was one of four players who took advantage of leader Ariya Jutunugarn’s whiff at the 18^th to head into a five-way sudden-death playoff. On the first additional hole, she had an eagle chance to claim the title, but not only did she miss the putt, the pace meant she had a difficult attempt for birdie coming back. She failed to convert that, too, and ultimately, Mao Saigo was the one out of the five to finish on top.