A Winning Bond

The Paul brothers have the chance to make history by winning on two different professional golf tours in the same week. The 31-year-old identical twins are both in the top-five in their respective tournaments. Jeremy is four shots behind Joel Dahmen at the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic, and Yannik trails by two shots at the DP World Tour’s Volvo China Open in Shanghai. 

The German brothers have excelled all over the world in recent seasons with Jeremy winning the 2024 Bahamas Great Exuma Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour, and Yannik notching a DP World Tour victory at the 2022 Mallorca Golf Open. Could they each nab their second major professional victories the same week?

Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard, identical twins from Denmark, made history by winning consecutive events on the DP World Tour (European Tour) in 2021. Rasmus won the Omega European Masters and Nicolai won the following week at the DS Automobiles Italian Open. 

Australian siblings, Min Woo and Minjee Lee, are the first brother and sister to win on separate tours over consecutive weeks. Min Woo was cooking in 2023 when he won the Asian Tour’s Macau Open, and he inspired Minjee to win the following week at the LPGA’s BMW Ladies’ Championship. 

The Paul brothers could take family golf achievements to the next level this weekend.

The German duo turned pro in 2018 and spent three years playing the mini tours together. They motivated one another, held each other accountable, and made life on the road more fun. 

“I wish everyone could experience how it is like to have a twin brother because it’s like having a best friend who has the same interests and has the same ideas about life, and if you have someone like that who you can always call, that’s invaluable,” Yannik said on Any Given Monday last season. “Even if we play in the same event, I have no desire of really beating him. I obviously want to win the event, but I want him to do well. We want to succeed together.”

While the Pauls hoped they could advance up the professional golf ladder in perfect lockstep together, they knew that wasn’t realistic. The brothers would often play well at different times and expected that one would earn tour status before the other. Then Yannik earned a DP World Tour card for the 2021 season. 

“We knew at some point we’d be split a little,” said Jeremy. “We didn’t expect to be split on different continents on different tours, and be so far apart from each other.”

At the end of 2022, Yannik broke through and won by two shots in Spain at the Mallorca Golf Open. 

“Seeing your brother have success and doing well, that is very motivating to me,” said Jeremy. "Also, it almost feels like I am having that success. It’s tough to put into words, but when he’s playing really well, I get confidence. It’s basically like I am playing well. It’s like I’ve had that success.”

By the time his brother won in Europe, Jeremy was deep into his first season on the Korn Ferry Tour. He’d wake up and check his brother's scores before his own tournament rounds.

“If he’s ahead or doing really well, that gets me in a great mindset,” said Jeremy. “Because he’s usually playing East of us, when I wake up in the morning I check to see how he did. If he played well, I’m excited and motivated to start the day. If he doesn’t play well, I can feel his emotions, and it’s like I didn’t play such a good round.”

The first event of the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season, the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay, concluded on a Wednesday. Jeremy was tied for the lead when he teed off in the final round. Yannik was in the United Arab Emirates where it was 10 p.m., and had a morning tee time for the opening round of the Dubai Desert Classic the following day. Yannik went to bed after his Jeremy teed off but was restless and nervous for his brother.

“It was a really short night for me,” Yannik said. “It was 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. when Jeremy won in the Bahamas. When I got to the golf course for the first round, everyone came up to me and they were like, ‘I’m so happy for your brother that he won!’”

In early October of 2024, Yannik finished T2 at the Open de France, one shot behind winner Dan Bradbury. Six hours later in French Lick, Indiana, Jeremy finished T9, four shots behind winner Braden Thornberry at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. That was the closest they’d ever come to winning in the same week. 

Sleep might not come easily for the brothers tonight, but if Jeremy wakes up to his brother hoisting hardware, you can bet on an inspired final round.

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