The Five: Stars looking to resolve slow starts to season

The PGA TOUR has reached its fourth Signature Event of the season, now more than a quarter of the way through the year, and some of its top stars have yet to perform.

There’s a delicate balance to strike when evaluating performance thus far. The season is old enough to generate meaningful takeaways, but there’s still plenty of time to right the ship if you’ve struggled or squandered a hot start.

As the PGA TOUR reaches Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge, let’s focus on the group who have stumbled thus far, particularly the big names who are outside of the top 100, the new cutoff for TOUR membership moving forward. If these five golfers are still outside the top 100 in July, they will be massive stories. For now, their performances are just worth monitoring as the season rolls along.

Here are The Five stars outside the top 100 of the FedExCup.

1. Matt Fitzpatrick

• FedExCup rank: 111th

The Englishman has sputtered out of the gates, continuing a dip in his play that goes back to last summer. Fitzpatrick hasn’t finished inside the top 10 since a T5 finish at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday last June. His only top-20 finish that span was in a T18 in a 70-man field at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Fitzpatrick finished T24 at The Sentry to begin the year but has not finished inside the top 40 in any of his other three starts.

This week, Fitzpatrick dropped out of the top 60 in the world ranking for the first time since 2015 when he was a 20-year-old playing on the DP World Tour.

Fitzpatrick’s issues in 2024 stemmed mainly from the worst driving year of his PGA TOUR career (ranked outside the top 100), but that was not the culprit in the early part of 2025. Fitzpatrick is back inside the top 30 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, but is outside the top 100 in Approach, Around the Green and Putting. The performance on the greens is most surprising as Fitzpatrick regularly ranks as one of the top putters on TOUR.

2. Viktor Hovland

• FedExCup rank: 121st

Hovland’s inclusion on this list is partly because the Norwegian has played much on TOUR in 2025. He’s played just three events, but none have been particularly notable. Hovland finished T36 at The Sentry, T22 at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and was one of just 18 players to miss the cut at The Genesis Invitational.

By Hovland’s own admission, he is not where he hopes to be. And unlike some players, Hovland prefers not to play when he struggles. He believes he gains more from practicing at home rather than playing through it. Hovland has played just four worldwide events since the TOUR Championship last September.

Hovland is back in the field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, a tournament he’s had success at. Hovland was runner-up to Scottie Scheffler in 2022 and finished T10 in 2023. Bay Hill is a course that requires strong play from tee-to-green, which hasn’t been Hovland’s issue this season. His performance on the greens has held him back. Hovland ranks 144th in SG: Putting. Hovland's poor displays on the greens even prompted him to make the first putter switch of his career at Torrey Pines.

3. Max Homa

• FedExCup rank: 132nd

Homa’s struggles to begin the year are well documented. He began the year with subdued expectations given how his play regressed in the back half of 2024 and the changes in equipment and coaching.

Homa is 132nd in the FedExCup and 66th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He’s not currently exempt into the U.S. Open or The Open Championship and will need to improve that world ranking to earn a spot.

Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass are two venues Homa has played well at in the past. He has never finished outside the top 25 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and has two top-10s. He also has two top-15s at THE PLAYERS Championship and three consecutive made cuts.

With each passing week that Homa struggles, the angst around his form will continue to grow. Can he flip the narrative in Florida or will the concerns linger into major championship season?

4. Xander Schauffele

• FedExCup rank: 145th

Xander Schauffele’s availability has put him behind the eight ball, not his form. The world No. 3 has been sidelined since The Sentry with a rib injury, forced to miss some of the top tournaments on the PGA TOUR, including two events at his hometown Torrey Pines.

That surely has to sting for Schauffele, who will now hope to play his way back into competitive form at two of the toughest tests on TOUR. Schauffele is in the field for this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, committing to the event last week despite not playing a full round of golf since he stepped away with the injury. Bay Hill is already one of the most difficult, strenuous events on the calendar. Then, Schauffele is expected to play THE PLAYERS Championship the following week.

The only doubts for Schauffele headed into the week are if he has any competitive rust or lingering effects of the injury. Those factors notwithstanding, there’s no reason to believe Schauffele won’t crack the top 100 soon and return as one of the most consistent threats on TOUR.

5. Michael Thorbjornsen

• FedExCup rank: 162nd

Thorbjornsen’s star hasn’t developed fully since he joined the TOUR last June, but the 23-year-old’s amateur pedigree is enough to earn a spot on this list and garner some questions about his form.

The Stanford graduate has made just two cuts on TOUR this season. He finished T74 at the WM Phoenix Open and T39 at last week’s Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.

That Thorbjornsen has started the year cold isn’t totally unsurprising. In his short time on TOUR, Thorbjornsen has defined the boom-or-bust trope. He missed four of 10 cuts and only finished in the top 30 three times. Those three performances also just happened to be top 10s, including a runner-up at the John Deere Classic.

Thorbjornsen just has yet to catch fire in 2025. He also doesn’t have the benefit of automatic spots in Signature Events, as the other four players on this list earned last year. Thorbjornsen has the most ground to make up, currently 162nd in the FedExCup.