From Grand Final to DP World Tour Championship: The Graduates hoping to shine at season finale

At the start of the 2025 DP World Tour campaign, most of the HotelPlanner Tour Graduates would have settled for keeping their playing rights for next season.

However, there are nine players who will tee up at the DP World Tour Championship on the Earth Course on Thursday that were competing in the 2024 Rolex Grand Final.

Former Road to Mallorca winner Marco Penge, who is vying with Rory McIlroy for Race to Dubai glory in Dubai, said: "I think the HotelPlanner Tour is always classic for European golf and that's where the talent going to come from. I think as a steppingstone, it's always amazing."

Here are how the nine players have fared during the 2025 campaign ahead of the final DP World Tour Play-Off event at Jumeirah Golf Estates, with some commenting on what advice they would give themselves at the start of the year.

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen

• Age: 26
• Nationality: Denmark
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 19
• Notable performances: Second at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters; top-ten finishes at the BMW Australian PGA Championship, Hero Dubai Desert Classic, Hainan Classic, Omega European Masters and Open de España presented by Madrid.

Neergaard-Petersen automatically earned his DP World Tour card after three HotelPlanner Tour victories in the 2024 campaign before returning for the 2024 Rolex Grand Final, where he finished as runner-up and ended the year as Road to Mallorca Rankings winner. He continued that momentum with a tied for eighth at the season-opening BMW Australian PGA Championship before tenth in Dubai a month later. His best performance came in Qatar when he finished one shot behind winner Haotong Li.

Brandon Robinson Thompson

• Age: 33
• Nationality: England
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 51
• Notable performances: Third at Commercial Bank Qatar Masters; fourth at the Turkish Airlines Open; top-ten finishes at Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship and Joberg Open.

Robinson Thompson has worked through the Tours to progress to the DP World Tour this year. He recorded his first top-ten finish in Bahrain when eighth before posting third in Qatar the following week. The Englishman continued his hot form two weeks later with a tied for seventh at the Joburg Open before a brilliant fourth in Antalya in May. On the advice he would give to himself at the start of the campaign, Robinson Thompson said: "Stay patient and keep believing in what you are doing."

Joakim Lagergren

• Age: 33
• Nationality: Sweden
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 22
• Notable performances: Second at the KLM Open and Amgen Irish Open; top-ten finishes at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship, Omega European Masters and Open de España presented by Madrid.

Lagergren came mightily close to securing his second DP World Tour title on his return this season. The Swede lost out to Rory McIlroy, who was on home soil, in a play-off at the Amgen Irish Open in September, just three months after finishing second to Connor Syme in the Netherlands. He had added eighth-placed finishes in Bahrain and Switzerland before fifth in Spain more recently.

Nicolai Von Dellingshausen

• Age: 32
• Nationality: Germany
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 40
• Notable performances: Won the Austrian Alpine Open presented by SalzburgerLand; followed by top-ten finishes at the KLM Open and Italian Open - all in successive events in June.

Von Dellingshausen enjoyed a fantastic June to catapult the German up the Race to Dubai rankings, which included a maiden DP World Tour win. His putting masterclass in Salzburg helped secure victory by two shots, then he came home in seventh in Amsterdam and fifth in Monte Argentario on his next two starts. The 32-year-old said: "Just relieved to be back because I basically made it on the second-last spot. Half a season on the HotelPlanner Tour, I was kind of stuck on both Tours until August. Just being here is just a great achievement. Makes me really proud."

Angel Ayora

• Age: 21
• Nationality: Spain
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 23
• Notable performances: Top-ten finishes at the BMW Australian PGA Championship, Alfred Dunhill Championship, Italian Open, Omega European Masters, Amgen Irish Open, Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Open de España presented by Madrid, Genesis Championship and Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Ayora, who is managed by Javier Ballesteros, the son of Seve Ballesteros, started the season as he meant to go on with sixth in Brisbane before fifth in Malelane the following month. More top-tens followed in Italy and Switzerland, and he then collected his biggest cheque when fifth at the Amgen Irish Open. He finished the campaign in ultra consistent form with four more top-ten finishes in his last five starts, including ninth at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Martin Couvra

• Age: 22
• Nationality: France
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 16
• Notable performances: Won the Turkish Airlines Open; second at the Italian Open; top-ten finishes at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship, Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, Hainan Classic and Austrian Alpine Open presented by SalzburgerLand.

Couvra is another shining star off the French conveyor belt and opened his campaign with seventh at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Two more top-fives came in Bahrain and Qatar before another fifth in Hainan was the precursor for his maiden DP World Tour title in Turkey, where he won on his 15th start at the Turkish Airlines Open, finishing two strokes ahead of Jorge Campillo and Haotong Li at Regnum Carya. The 22-year-old was then runner-up in Italy to cap a brilliant first season, adding: "Just keep improving what you are doing and learnt last year on the HotelPlanner Tour. You don't need to change something to play well on this Tour. Just need to do the same things, just a little bit better each day and see where you are at the end of the year."

Oliver Lindell

• Age: 27
• Nationality: Finland
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 42
• Notable performances: Top-ten finishes at the Italian Open, Nexo Championship, Danish Golf Championship and Amgen Irish Open.

Lindell spent seven seasons on the HotelPlanner Tour before a breakout year in 2024 resulted in him progressing to the DP World Tour. He had to wait until the summer for his first top-ten in Monte Argentino, but then three more in Scotland, Copenhagen and at the K Club in his next four starts saw him catapult up the rankings.

Kristoffer Reitan

• Age: 27
• Nationality: Norway
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 4
• Notable performances: Won at the Soudal Open; second at the Hainan Open and Austrian Alpine Open presented by SalzburgerLand; third at the Nexo Championship; top-ten finishes at the BMW International Open, Danish Golf Championship, FexEx Open de France and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Reitan has enjoyed a stellar season which saw him earn his first DP World Tour title in Belgium. Teeing off three and a half hours before the leaders, he carded a nine under par 62 which forced a play-off against Ewen Ferguson and Darius van Driel, which Reitan won on the second extra hole. Four weeks earlier he was runner-up in China and he shared second in Austria the following week after his victory. A third in Scotland sandwiched top-ten finishes in Germany and Denmark, while successive fifths in Paris and St Andrews came in the autumn. The Norwegian said: "I feel a little bit more calm within myself, but also just a little bit more mature and feel like I can handle those situations that I come up in a little bit better. I think Challenge Tour was a good couple of years for me, maturing wise. So yeah, I think that did a lot. And last year definitely did a lot of good for me."

John Parry

• Age: 38
• Nationality: England
• Race to Dubai Ranking: 7
• Notable performances: Won the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open; second at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and Magical Kenya Open presented by absa; third at the Nexo Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship; top-ten finishes at the BMW Australian PGA Championship and Soudal Open.

Parry returned to the DP World Tour winner's circle for the first time in 14 years at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, carding a final round 64 to surge up the leaderboard, overturning a five-stroke deficit to win by two and take the Opening Swing title in the process. He had finished second the week the before in South Africa and the Englishman was runner-up once again in Nairobi. Parry enjoyed strong performances in Scotland, finishing third in both the Nexo Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship to sit in seventh spot on the Race to Dubai rankings and currently holds one of the ten PGA TOUR cards for next season.