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Five young stars to look out for this season

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Pro-punter Paul Krishnamurty marks the card of a quintet of emerging Europeans

Last week saw the opening event of the 2007/2008 European Tour with a high-class limited field in Shanghai. As this week's UBS Hong Kong Open marks the first full-field 'rank and file' event, it seems an opportune moment to assess the the chances of five outstanding young players being tipped to make their mark in the forthcoming season.

Europe, rather than America, has emerged as the perfect place for young golfing talent to flourish. Relatively speaking, there's been a dearth of emerging young American stars coming through in recent years, whereas our Ryder Cup side looks stronger than ever. Recent European dominance in that trophy has already forced a re-appraisal of their longstanding 'underdog' status, but the long term looks even brighter. It is possible to pick a plausible, competitive 2012 Ryder Cup side from players currently under the age of 30. In fact, an early win from one of these five highly touted prospects will probably see punters rushing to back them to qualify for the 2008 side.

Of the five under the spotlight here, its impossible not to get extremely excited about Rory Mcllroy. His achievement in earning a Tour card from just three professional starts, two of which he could easily have won, cannot be understated. He looks the real deal, and in my view the most likely long-term threat to Tiger Woods. An experienced judge like Andrew Chandler has assessed him as the best 18 year-old he's ever seen. I do expect Mcllroy to win sooner rather than later and wouldn't turn my nose up at his usual quotes around 30 - 40, though not this week on his Asian debut. As for the most ambitious short-term targets, I think the Order of Merit is simply asking too much, too young ... but stranger things have happened than Ryder Cup qualification.

Mcllroy certainly isn't the first to be touted as a youngster to challenge Tiger. Ten years ago, an English teenager by the name of Zane Scotland won a competition to find "Britain's answer to Tiger Woods". It all looked to be going according to plan when he became the youngest ever Open qualifier in 1999, but injuries sustained in a car crash curtailed his progress until last year. Even if it doesn't quite compare to Mcllroy, Scotland also registered a very fine achievement in earning his card and a top-100 spot in the Order of Merit from just nine starts. Still generally available at big odds in most tournaments he starts, I'll be looking out for Zane in tournaments where attacking play and low scoring are the order of the day.

Perhaps the biggest impression will be made by Martin Kaymer (pictured), who I expect to win at least one tournament in 2008. The young German was outstanding in his rookie year, rewarding big-price traders on a number of occasions. The only thing that prevented him from winning - most memorably in Sweden - was inexperience. In typical rookie style, the putter struggled under pressure on the final day, cumulating the effects of inexperienced course management and scrambling deficiencies. Kaymer is expected to improve in each area as he gains experience, which will knock several shots off his scorecard. Again, a Ryder Cup place is an ambitious, but not entirely implausible ambition.

Oliver Fisher probably started last season with at least an equal reputation with Kaymer, without making the same immediate progress. The youngest player to represent Britain in the Walker Cup, and the youngest ever qualifier from the Euro Tour Q-School, Fisher's reputation has been public for some time. He showed plenty of promise in his rookie season on his way to retaining that card, but never really looked like making the breakthrough. His talent is obvious, but for the meantime I'd like to see greater evidence of an ability to string four good rounds together before parting with cash at anything shorter than triple figure odds.

Finally, Joost Luiten is also the subject of much hype as he prepares for regular outings on the main European Tour. Luiten nearly pulled off the shock to end all shocks by winning the KLM Open at his local course in Holland, and certainly looked an outstanding prospect. Having won twice from just six starts on last season's Challenge Tour, his profile looks very similar to Kaymer's a year ago. He still looks very erratic and unlikely to consistently challenge yet, but well worth a crack at 100/1+ odds under the right conditions. Like the others though, I'm not sure this week's Hong Kong Open is the most likely venue for that breakthrough win.

* Who do you think are the best up and coming European Tour stars? Has Paul missed anyone out? Do you agree with his assessment of each player's chances?