The Englishman has led Europe to sensational victories in Rome and New York in 2023 and 2025, and now he has the opportunity to chase a remarkable hat trick.

But where does he fit among the other men who have led Europe in the Ryder Cup since 1979?

Let’s take a look.

1. Luke Donald 2023/25

When Europe lost the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits conventional wisdom didn’t just suggest, it demanded, that the tide had turned and that America was about to enter a sustained period of Ryder Cup dominance.

In one sense, the fact Europe has won the last two matches is not down to Donald because that American generation has gone missing. But the former World No. 1, who stepped up to the role when Henrik Stenson joined LIV, has been a revelation.

Like Michael Caine in The Italian Job he took a team of disparate talents to a great Italian city and grabbed the prize (thankfully they flew home rather than taking a coach). And then he completed a Fairytale in New York.

How does he do it? He is meticulous himself, his stats man Edoardo Molinari’s database is his secret weapon, and the team adores and trusts him.

2. Tony Jacklin 1983/85/87/89

Jacklin took on the role in 1983 when America was ludicrously dominant, losing just once since the Second World War (with one draw). Despite big hopes, the extension of the GB&I team to Europe had made no difference.

The players were lost and Jacklin began the role needing to convince Seve Ballesteros to rejoin the team having fallen foul of selection protocol in a row in 1981. He achieved that coup, made sure the team was treated as equals to the Americans, and made the most of a generation of golden talent.

Europe nearly won in 1983 on Jacklin’s debut. They won at the Belfry in 1985, won again in 1987 (inflicting the USA’s first defeat on home soil), and a tie in 1989 meant Europe retained the trophy.

Jacklin was Europe’s Ryder Cup renaissance man.

3. Bernard Langer 2004

The German was everything as a captain that he was as a player: quiet, meticulous, well-planned, unperturbed.

He was fortunate to go up against Hal Sutton, who captaincy style owed something to Deputy Dawg, but Langer was ruthless.

His team led by five after day one, by six after day two and they won by nine – all on away soil.

4. Paul McGinley 2014

The Irishman was the first of the modern day Ryder Cup captains. If Langer was magnificent at on-course and on-range detail, McGinley added off-the-course qualities which meant inspirational words on the locker room wall, goldfish in the team room, and subtle management of Victor Dubuisson.

The Frenchman was an enigma, but McGinley had a long-term plan which involved caring for Dubuisson’s welfare and partnering him with Graeme McDowell.

At Gleneagles, America won the first session but McGinley and his team didn’t panic, eventually winning by five.

5. Thomas Bjorn 2018

With a short fuse and poor media relations there were some concerns about the big Dane. Others quibbled with his wildcard selections when he ignored youngsters in form, preferring veterans with average recent results.

But – critically – he selected veterans who could add presence to the team room and he also came up trumps with a stats team that was the first to impact on course set-up and partnerships.

When Europe trailed 3-1 after the first session Bjorn was tested. He stuck with the plans, the team won 4-0 in the afternoon, were never behind after that, and won by seven.

6. Sam Torrance 2002

The Scotsman holed the putt that turned the Ryder Cup tide in 1985 and 17 years later he needed to cope with two big events: the rancour of the previous Ryder Cup in 1999 and the delay to the 2001 match caused by 9/11.

He coped admirably, and his standout moment was when he sent Colin Montgomerie out first in the singles. Monty’s chest expanded and American hopes shrank.

7. Bernard Gallacher 1991/93/95

Gallacher had a tough job to follow Jacklin. He was beaten in the bile-tinged War on the Shore in 1991, beaten at the Belfry in 1993, but bounced back with a superb win at Oak Hill in 1995.

8. Seve Ballesteros 1997

Ballesteros was the on-course leader Europe needed in the 1980s but his captaincy was chaotic. Ultimately his team won for him and in spite of him rather than because of him.

9. Ian Woosnam 2006

The Welshman was lucky. His team were up against the likes of Brett Wetterich, Vaughn Taylor and JJ Henry. But they also did an absolute job on the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, as well. You can’t discount a nine point win.

10. Colin Montgomerie 2010

Monty’s biggest difficulty was working out how to play the match when the rain never stopped and the mud rose to absurd levels. The format was tweaked and it cannily helped the Europeans. They squeaked home by a point.

11. Jose Maria Olazabal 2012

A little like his great friend Ballesteros, Olazabal won the Miracle of Medinah because of his reputation (and Seve’s) rather than any great leadership.

12. Mark James 1999

The Englishman gambled. Three of his players didn’t play until the singles and seven played all five sessions. It came close to working, but ultimately failed.

13. John Jacobs 1979/81

Jacobs skippered the first European team and was then unfortunate to go up against perhaps the best American team ever in 1981.

14. Darren Clarke 2016

Clarke did nothing especially wrong, but nothing notably shrewd either. His team was under-powered and never looked like winning.

15. Padraig Harrington 2021

Leading an away team in the post-COVID era was always going to be difficult and Harrington found it so, losing 19-9.

16. Nick Faldo 2008

Faldo was up against a good foe in Paul Azinger, but the Englishman didn’t slip on banana skins as much as go looking for them.

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His charisma and influence made the American one of the game’s biggest trailblazers and his legacy lives on.

Palmer racked up a mighty 62 PGA Tour wins in his storied career and, ahead of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill – the tournament named in his honour – we look at The King’s biggest victory margins.

12 strokes – 1962 Phoenix Open Invitational

It’s fair to say that Arnie was full of confidence when he blitzed the field by 12 in Phoenix. He’d won his first Open Championship (at Royal Birkdale) the previous summer and less than two months after this win, he captured a third Masters.

Palmer shot 64-68-71-66 to shoot 15-under and no-one got anywhere near him. Those in tied second included then tour rookie Jack Nicklaus. This was the middle one of three straight wins in Phoenix (1961, 1962, 1963) for Palmer.

7 strokes – 1960 Baton Rouge Open Invitational

Palmer was in his pomp in 1960, winning eight times, a haul that included his second Masters and first US Open, the latter coming at Cherry Hills in Colorado.

A week before Baton Rouge, Arnie had captured the Texas Open Invitational by two and, despite tough conditions, he rode that momentum to streak to a seven-shot triumph at Baton Rouge Country Club thanks to rounds of 71-71-69-68. A week later he made it three wins in three weeks after a one-shot success at the Pensacola Open.

7 strokes – 1961 Baton Rouge Open Invitational

A year after winning by seven at Baton Rouge Country Club, Arnie had to defend his title at a different venue – Sherwood Forest Country Club. Would that hamper his chances? Not a bit of it.

Remarkably, Palmer matched his feat of 12 months earlier and romped to another seven-shot win, this time shooting 14-under. He set the tone with a 65 and then kicked clear with laps of 67-68-66.

6 strokes – 1962 Open Championship

Major championships are usually tight affairs. Palmer had won his third Masters Green Jacket three months earlier but only after seeing off Gary Player and Dow Finsterwald in a playoff. Three of his other four major wins prior to 1962 had been achieved by one-shot margins and the other by two.

But in the 1962 Open at Royal Troon with the fairways running fast, Palmer sprinted away from the field to win by six after rounds of 71-69-67-69. With crowds flocking to see the defending champion after his one-shot win at Royal Birkdale a year earlier, Palmer turned on the magic, his all-out attacking style being rewarded with the then lowest Open score in history of 276.

6 strokes – 1964 Masters Tournament

Palmer won seven majors in total and four of those were achieved on the hallowed turf of Augusta National. After wins in 1958, 1960 and 1962, Arnie kept up the two-year sequence with his most dominant Masters win.

The then 34-year-old Palmer started with rounds of 69-68-69 to move five clear and a Sunday 70 wrapped up victory by six shots. Jack Nicklaus and Dave Marr finished distant runners-up. Surprisingly, it was to be the last of his seven major victories, all achieved in a heady burst between 1958 and 1964.

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In modern times, just six players have achieved it by capturing all four major championships: The Masters, US Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy joined that elusive club in April 2025 when he won The Masters to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

But how about a different kind of Grand Slam?

We’re talking about having a hole-in-one at four of the most iconic par 3s in the game.

There are plenty of candidates but how about taking the opinion of McIlroy, who was asked the question at the recent AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Rory agreed with the first two and then put forward two more of his own.

7th at Pebble Beach – 106 yards

Perhaps the most picturesque par 3 in world golf. The cliffside 7th at Pebble is only a flick with a wedge in good weather but if the wind is gusting a wood may even be required. It’s situated on Arrowhead Point and surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on three sides. From the tee, it’s a 40-foot drop to the green and bunkers come into play too.

17th at Sawgrass – 137 yards

The Signature hole at TPC Sawgrass is a round wrecker and even a tournament wrecker. Many a tour pro admits that they have the fearsome 17th in mind as soon as they set foot on the course and it’s cost several players victory when they’ve appeared on the verge of winning one of the biggest tournaments in golf – The Players Championship. With its island green, a watery grave awaits and over 1,000 balls have ended in the wet stuff since tracking began in 2003.

12th at Augusta – 155 yards

“Golden Bell” doesn’t look too difficult on the scorecard at just over 150 yards. It features a shallow green, angled from bottom left to top right and forms part of Amen Corner – a treacherous stretch on the back nine at Augusta National. With swirling winds often difficult to judge, Green Jackets have been lost there, with players finding Rae’s Creek in front of the green or the surrounding bunkers and azaleas.

8th at Royal Troon – 123 yards

The hole got its name when golf writer, William Park, said the short par 3 at Royal Troon had a “pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a Postage Stamp”.

The tee shot, from elevated ground, is played over a gully to a long, narrow green set into the side of a large sandhill. Bunkers surround it and despite the “Postage Stamp” being the shortest hole in Open Championship golf, it can play devilishly difficult in the wind.

So, the big question, has anyone made a hole-in-one at all four?

No.

How about at three of them?

No, again.

Okay, two?

Yes! That man is Shane Lowry, who aced the 7th at Pebble Beach in 2025 and had a hole-in-one at TPC Sawgrass in 2022.

In fact, if we replaced Augusta National’s 12th hole with the course’s other famous back-nine par 3, the 16th (Redbud), Lowry would have drained his tee-shot at three of the four holes.

Lowry made his hole-in-one at 16 in the 2016 Masters.

On that revised Grand Slam of hole-in-ones list, he’d need only the Postage Stamp to complete his collection.

The famous Scottish links staged the Open in 2024 so Lowry will have to wait a while yet to get another chance.

In this century, Troon hosted in 2004, 2016 and 2024 so perhaps 2032 could be the next date.

Lowry will be 45 then but that’s nothing.

Although only four aces have been made at the “Postage Stamp” in Open history, in the 1973 edition, Gene Sarazen made his hole-in-one there at the grand old age of 71!

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Golf’s elite will descend on Augusta National in the second week of April seeking to add to their career achievements – or kick off their major-winning with a brand new Green Jacket.

How are the favourites for victory faring after two months of the year?

Let’s take a look.

Scottie Scheffler

The World No. 1 is a two-time Masters champion and he likes an even year having won in 2022 and 2024. He hasn’t done too bad in the odd years, either, finishing T10 in 2023 and fourth last year.

His major championship record is rather outstanding, too. In his last 22 starts in them, he has recorded 16 top 10 finishes and last year he won both the PGA Championship and Open to take his career total of wins to four.

So what of his form? His putting frailties have always been most apparent on Californian Poa Annua greens and so it has proved again in recent weeks. He’s also found himself tripped up on Thursdays – in his last three starts he was outside the 60 after the first round before improving to inside the top 12 by the end of the week.

He’ll need to rid himself of that habit to land a third Green Jacket.

Rory McIlroy

Only three golfers have ever successfully defended the Masters and it makes complete sense. Returning to the scene of any victory is time consuming in all sorts of way – dealing with the media, sponsors and other officials – but Augusta adds all sorts of pre-tournament functions that drain the energy, limit practice time and add distractions.

The best known of these is the Champions Dinner which requires the defending champion to first create the menu and then become the focus of attention.

His form has been so-so, improving when he stopped tinkering with his irons, returned to his old favourites and was then second in the Genesis Invitational. Better form in the coming weeks is to be expected, but the defending champion jinx is likely to continue. The weight of history is heavy.

Bryson DeChambeau

DeChambeau has impressively transformed his Augusta National record in the last two years. Before then he had recorded one excellent first round effort (a 66 in 2019 that briefly earned him a share of the lead) but had failed to record a top 20 finish in seven visits.

It didn’t help that he had told the world that the par for him was probably 66 yet he broke the actual par of 72 just four times in his first 24 laps of the course.

Then he was tied sixth in 2024 and tied fifth last year, on both occasions taking a genuine run at the title. But will memories of how he grabbed the lead on the second green of the final round last year and then promptly imploded linger?

His form had a boost at LIV Adelaide when he went into the final round in a top-of-the-leaderboard head-to-head duel with Jon Rahm. The pair were then caught and passed by a resurgent Anthony Kim.

He eventually finished third, his first top 10 anywhere since the Open last July. The next month should tell us much about his Green jacket aspirations.

Jon Rahm

There’s not doubting the consistency of the Spaniard – he’s logged 27 top 10 finishes in 28 starts at LIV Golf in the last two years and a bit.

But he’s lost the knack of winning there. In fact, you’d say it’s almost downright weird that four of his last five finishes on the rebel circuit have been second places.

Then there’s the matter of his efforts in the majors. Since winning the 2023 Masters he hasn’t added to his total and two majors doesn’t feel enough for a player of his quality.

To all this we can also add that he spurned the chance to build bridges with the DP World Tour last week. We don’t yet know why he rejected a recent offer from them (which Tyrrell Hatton, for example, took).

He might have good reasons, but he will also likely face questions about that relationship in the lead up to the first round at Augusta. If it’s not cleared up before then it’s a potential irritant.

The flipside is that he wouldn’t be the first Masters champion to use unwanted press questions to motivate him to victory.

Ludvig Aberg

The Swede has played in two Masters tournaments and impressed in both of them finishing second and seventh. His long driving, draw shape and towering irons have proved a neat fit with the requirements of Augusta National.

Long-term there is every reason to think that he will be a regular contender for the Green Jacket.

But in the short term he needs to show more than he has done so far this season. Illness has effected his performance but he’ll need to get over it and sharpen up between now and the start of April.

Tommy Fleetwood

The Englishman’s tied third in the 2024 Masters was his first top 10 finish at Augusta National and his eighth in all majors.

It is also the last time he contended in a major which is too long for a golfer of his quality. Following on from his victory in last year’s Tour Championship he ought to start contending again and he’s made a solid enough start to 2026 with top 10s at Pebble Beach and Riviera.

Xander Schauffele

With five top 10 finishes in his last seven starts at Augusta National Schauffle has proved he can play the Masters course. But last year he experienced something of a let down campaign after the glory of his two major wins the year before.

He’s been rebuilding the confidence and will seek to do so again between now and April.

It’s also hard to look past his astounding top 10 rate in the American majors: 14 of them in 26 starts.

Patrick Reed

Ahead of the 2018 Masters Reed had a best of T22 from four starts at Augusta National.

But in recent times he has rubber stamped his course suitability time and time again. In fact, he has finished T12 in five of his last six starts there.

He’s also opened 2026 in blistering style winning the Dubai Desert Classic and Qatar Masters either side of losing a play off in the Bahrain Championship.

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Played on sandy turf that was once beneath the sea it is fast-running with fairways and green shaped by the ocean rather than machinery.

These are the courses that still host the Open but those particular layouts are difficult – or expensive – to play.

The good news is that there are plenty of other options.

In fact, the coast of Scotland, England and Wales is blessed with a variety of standards and prices.

There is also the happy medium: courses that are wonderful to play and also kind to the pocket.

Here’s our pick of five of the best linksland courses that offer tremendous value.

1. Gullane No. 3

Gullane is a special town.

Everyone in golf knows about St Andrews – the greatest golf town of them all – but Gullane, a few miles east of Edinburgh, is the next best thing.

On the outskirts of the town is Muirfield, Open venue and widely perceived to be among the best of them (and maybe the best of all).

But as you enter Gullane from Edinburgh the road sneaks between a wide expanse of golf holes that stretches in all directions including up and over the hill to your left.

These holes are not just one course, however. There are three of them and they all start and end from the edge of a town devoted to the game with shops, pubs and restaurants populated by locals as well as visitors who love to chatter about their latest round.

A hybrid of the Gullane No. 1 and No. 2 has hosted the Scottish Open in recent years and No. 3 is the lesser of the trio, but that’s very much a relative concept because it’s a cracker.

Just to play golf in this neck of the woods feels special and to make the journey up and over the hills is terrific fun. In all directions you see golfers swinging and yet you rarely hear them such is the isolation.

And then there are the views across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh in the west and the Kingdom of Fife in the north.

The only thing bouncier than this stretch of linksland is the bounce in your step.

It’s a little piece of golfing heaven and a weekday round starts at £70 (£80 for the day is a bargain, as is £125 to play No. 2 and No. 3 in the same day).

2. Perranporth

From Scotland to the toe of England – Perranporth in Cornwall – and a test that feels like a golfing rollercoaster.

There are vast sandhills and sweeping fairways, blind shots and dramatic views, rolling greens and tee boxes in the dunes.

The striking Perran Bay can be distracting, but not for long because the course calls for you to hit fun shot after fun shot.

This is what makes linksland golf special: it demands imagination and Perranporth calls for it even more than usual.

Tee times start at £60.

3. Elie

Back to Scotland and another golf town.

The Golf House Club is a rather confusing name for the venue so many just call it Elie for that is where it is – a small town on the south coast of the Kingdom of Fife, a short drive from St Andrews.

It was the club’s 150th anniversary in 2025 and right from the get go you know you are in for a treat.

Like St Andrews and Gullane the course starts and ends right in the town, the clubhouse is a cracker, and the starter famously has a submarine periscope at his (and your) disposal to check that the first fairway is clear for your first blow.

That hole makes its way inland before the course turns back towards the sea, eventually sweeping down to the coast in dramatic style.

Around the turn you sneak alongside the beach before climbing gently back toward the town.

This is a James Braid design and even his average layouts are good – this one is a cracker, full of fun challenges and sneaky traps.

A weekday round starts at £60 (weekend £75).

4. Newbiggin

The north-east coast of England is all too often overlooked by golfers despite having plenty of rugged splendour.

It also, of course, scarred by industry and Newbiggin is no different, with the early holes making their way towards Lynemouth Power Station.

But don’t let that put you off.

Newbiggin is flat but never one dimensional. At one point you tee off over an old coastal quarry. There is also gorse, subtle sloping and double greens to negotiate.

With green fees starting at £30 it’s an absolute bargain.

5. Borth

The coastline of Cardigan Bay is well served by the railway.

Royal St David’s in Harlech and Aberdovey are both a short stroll from stations, but their fine reputations are reflected in the green fees.

Borth is a couple of notches down on those two fine layouts but it represents excellent value nonetheless and is also an easy walk from the station.

It’s a quirky spot, one where the road sometimes attracts stray shots. At other times the beach does so. And there’s even a house that comes under threat from the tee.

But the course sneaks along the coast towards the Llanynys Dune complex with Snowdownia in the distance and the wide Dovey Estuary of another fine backdrop.

Green fees start at £43.

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The 15-time major winner topped the annual Money List standings in 10 different seasons and built his haul to a monstrous $120,999,166.

Ahead of this week’s Genesis Invitational, which Tiger is hosting, there was excitement that Woods could nudge that tally up further.

Asked if playing in April’s Masters was off the table, Woods responded with a one-word answer: “no”.

The 50-year-old hasn’t competed in an official PGA Tour event since July 2024 while he’s made just 11 competitive starts since his car crash in California in 2021.

Woods holds the record for the most consecutive cuts made at The Masters with 24 (1997 to 2024) so could extend that mark further.

But one record he won’t be keeping hold of for long is that No.1 ranking in the PGA Tour Career Money List.

Two active players are closing in on Woods.

And it’s no surprise that the pair in question are Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.

These are the current standings:

1. Tiger Woods $120,999,166
2. Rory McIlroy $108,324,516
3. Scottie Scheffler $102,426,316

So the big question is who will overtake Tiger first?

McIlroy played 16 events last season and won $16,992,418 in prize money.

In 2024, the Northern Irishman teed it up 19 times on the PGA Tour and banked $10,893,790.

While Rory has a near $6m advantage on Scheffler, the Texan is chasing down McIlroy and Woods at a rapid rate.

Scheffler played 20 events last season and pocketed a massive $27,659,550.

In 2024, he made 19 starts and trousered an even bigger $29,228,357.

So, in that two-year-spell, Scheffler’s winnings averaged a staggering $1,458,664 per event.

In the same period, McIlroy averaged a still extremely healthy £796,748 per tournament.

On those numbers, the race to reel in Tiger looks to be a close one.

Let’s do the final bit of math.

Scheffler currently trails Tiger by $18,572,850.

At his current rate of earning, Scheffler will need to play 13 more tournaments to overtake Woods (presuming Tiger doesn’t add to his total).

McIlroy trails Tiger by $12,674,650.

At his current rate of earning, McIlroy will need to play 16 more events to surpass Woods.

But, while Scheffler appears to be winning the race, there is one other consideration – schedule.

If McIlroy repeated last year’s schedule, on the numbers above he’d still be a fraction short of Tiger after the completion of the season-ending Tour Championship in August.

In other words, he might have to wait for the first event of 2027 before getting his nose in front.

But if Scheffler keeps up his rate of earning across 2024 and 2025 and plays in the same events as last year, he’d overtake Tiger at July’s Scottish Open.

One final twist though.

What about 2026? Scheffler has already finished first, third and fourth in three events.

Remarkably, his prize pot this season of $2,973,180 actually lowers his average earnings per event if using January 2024 as the starting point – $1,458,664 per event down to $1,425,263.

So at that updated rate – January 2024 to February 2026 – Scheffler will overtake Tiger at … drumroll … this summer’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

Scheffler, of course, is the defending champion after his win at Royal Portrush in 2025.

So what a week that could be.

If Scheffler wins he’d secure back-to-back Claret Jugs and, at the same time, could become the highest money earner in PGA Tour history.

Situated in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles it has been the golfing home to screen stars such as Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Humphrey Bogart, singers like Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and also to comedy legends Larry David and Adam Sandler in modern times.

But while Hollywood’s finest have been besotted with it, golf’s greatest superstars have a rather more ambiguous relationship with the course.

This week’s PGA Tour event, the Genesis Invitational, has been played at Riviera 60 times since the tournament – originally know as the Los Angeles Open – was created exactly 100 years ago.

In all that time Bubba Watson has won three times with Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Lanny Wadkins and Tom Watson having claimed two wins apiece.

All five are big names but the two greatest golfers of all time – Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods – have not won there.

Not even once!

And guess what? The two greatest golfers in the current generation – Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy – are currently on track to repeat those winless records.

How has it happened? Why has it happened? And is it likely to go on?

Let’s take a closer look.

The Golden Bear and the Tiger at Riviera

The difficulties of the two GOATS at Riviera are all the stranger because the course has a place in both their hearts.

Riviera was the site of the professional debut of Nicklaus in 1962 (he earned $33) and Woods made his PGA Tour debut there when still an amateur, aged 16 in 1992.

In 12 Genesis Invitational (and two PGA Championship) starts at Riviera, Nicklaus was winless albeit he did finish second twice.

Woods was also second twice – in his case from 16 attempts to lift the trophy.

What makes Riviera tricky?

Starting from the tee it favours slightly longer than usual golfers which might explain why, in recent years, Watson has won three times, Mickelson twice and JB Holmes also landed a victory.

But elite approach work is also called for to greens that are slightly quirky in shaping.

And it’s often said that a left-to-right shape is ideal with the long game.

Around the green, a good short game is essential and the final tricky element is provided by the Poa Annua grass on the greens which produces a slightly gnarly surface.

All of those factors make you wonder why Nicklaus found it so difficult – he was an elite manager of his game and hit the ball left-to-right.

In the 2000s Woods also hit a fade and he was, of course, also magnificent in all areas of the game.

They’re not alone

Jordan Spieth is on record as saying that Riviera is among his favourite courses.

But he has played there 12 times and has just one finish better than ninth – when fourth in 2015.

“It just requires all parts of the game and a variety of ball-striking,” he said of the course.

“And then once you’re on the greens, you’ve got to have great speed control. It’s an all-around fantastic golf course that you don’t get away with poor shots at all.”

Is that all there is to it though?

Spieth went deeper in 2021.

“It’s one of those rare weeks where you just can’t get away with firing at flag sticks,” he said. “Precision is so key, but being smart and recognising when even being precise still won’t work out.

“There’s not much rough, but it does take the spin off enough so you can’t get into pins. So you just have to be so disciplined.

“You can’t afford to get short-sided and, like Augusta, you’ve got to work the ball off slopes and into pins.

“It’s why Bubba likes it so much, because of the shotmaking ability that he has and it just brings the feel out in his game.”

The Masters link

Ah, yes: Augusta National.

It is often noted that golfers who thrive at Riviera also play well at Augusta National so Spieth’s point is valid.

In recent times, multiple Riviera winners Mickelson and Watson have even become multiple winners at Augusta – and two-time Riviera champion Mike Weir has also won the Masters.

There’s something else that trio have in common: they’re all lefties.

Hang on, but why did Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods struggle?

Both Nicklaus and Woods were dominant at Augusta in their pomp.

They were smart golfers, too.

And they have proved themselves as winners at both Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach – the two other Californian courses with Poa Annua grass that the PGA Tour regularly stops at.

Ultimately, however, it is a mystery why two such superstars found the task of winning there impossible.

Nicklaus didn’t know the answer. He simply said, in 1994: “I’ve had some pretty good rounds here but never four that were good enough to win.”

Woods was also mystified.

“I know the golf course,” he said in 2023. “I also know I haven’t a lot of success here.”

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy

So what about today’s finest performers?

Scheffler has never finished better than seventh at the course and it is worse than that: he has never been within eight shots of the 54-hole lead either so has never come close to contending.

McIlroy has done better.

He was fourth in 2019 and was fifth in 2020 having been the 54-hole co-leader. But those are his best efforts in eight tries and he hasn’t been within nine shots of the 54-hole lead in his last three visits.

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What the courses below do have in common is that they all hold significant spots on the calendar, some are Signature Events packed with the best players, and the niggle is that we all have to watch them on a yearly basis and they can be very ordinary viewing.

Any rankings mentioned are from the Top 100 Golf Courses website.

1) Pebble Beach

What?! If Jack Nicklaus could play anywhere in the world, then it would be here. What about all those US Opens, with Watson and Tiger thrilling us? What about the 7th? What about the most spectacular run of holes, along the ocean, and those views? The paragliders and the surfers.

But what about the opening tee shot? What about the turn for home where it suddenly becomes increasingly dull?

Maybe it’s the tedious pro-am nature that has taken the shine off Pebble or maybe it’s the exorbitant green fee.

One friend, who plays off +2, commented on his Pebble experience: “Once you’ve gotten over the fact that you’re at Pebble Beach and done the customary walk to the 18th green and taken in the amazing views, you are quickly hit by obligations to part with money at every turn! It is a massive money-making enterprise with countless people dropping a small fortune.

It’s one of the most underwhelming courses i’ve ever played. There are so many bland holes which you get plenty of time to ‘enjoy’ during the six-hour round playing behind someone who has probably only just christened their first set of clubs.”

Yes, it finishes with an enormous bang at 17 and 18 but the holes preceding these don’t belong on a course that sits inside the top 20 in the world, but you can still find events for this course on platforms such as ozoon Canada.

2) East Lake

Things have been tweaked here but it remains a crying shame that the Tour Championship has been returning here since 2004. Over 20 years of the same holes, which are formulaic enough anyway, and good enough for the fourth best in Georgia.

Again, this does not feature in the best 100 courses though it’s closer than others on this list.

If you want history and a clubhouse packed with all the good stuff, then East Lake is remarkable. But it’s another where we’re struggling to piece together different holes – everything still feels like a glut of par 4s that run alongside one another – and the 18th, where players’ drives happily run into the rough, is a dull finish to the course and the PGA Tour season.

3) Torrey Pines

This is not a US Open venue. Again, the views are off the charts but, despite the setting, it’s almost fairly monotonous. This is the 30th best course in California and it doesn’t even get close to the Top 100 in the States.

In fact Golf Digest run a Top 200 US Courses and this even misses out here.

Maybe I have a problem with water but the 18th is the hole that irritates me more than it should. If you need a par to win most of us would fancy our chances here.

The good news is that it’s a municipal though it will be north of £200 to get 18 holes in here.

Interestingly visitors are often pointed in the direction of the North Course for a more enjoyable 18 holes.

4) Bay Hill

We all love Arnold Palmer and returning here to remember his good times is almost essential. But this is everything that we don’t want to watch but we’re going to get it every year anyway.

I think it’s the 6th, the par 5 that has the largest lake in the middle of it and where Bryson hit those ridiculous tee shots, that really grates. It’s so boring

I’ll sit through this year after year and struggle to name a hole where I look forward to the best players take it on. Even the 18th, the scene of all those Tiger putts and Arnie’s driver off the deck, niggles.

5) Trump National (Doral)

This is ranked as the 35th best course… in Florida. Expect water and lots of high scoring and, despite all the tour stops here since the 60s and now try and tell us five holes that sit in the memory bank? Now picture Riviera and we can trot out half the holes.

You would imagine the conditioning and everything about the course is perfect but it’s so unmemorable and that tells us plenty.

Once upon a time naming a course The Blue Monster might have been a great thing, these days we’ve thankfully moved on from that.

6) Wentworth (West)

Don’t get me wrong, if anyone were to offer me 18 holes around the West Course I’d bite your hand off. The old Burma Road is charm personified with big, brutish par 4s coming home and playing endless holes between the trees.

But where things fall apart, in my head at least, are the back-to-back par 5s to finish. The camber of the 17th off the tee is part of British golfing folklore but there was always the chance to whip one round the corner, flirt with the out of bounds and chase it on. Now it just seems to be a collection of awkward chips if anyone does try and take it on

The 18th is, to my eye, unfathomably ugly. Things might have softened since the redesign but a meandering water feature still doesn’t sit right.

Again, the green fee might play a part here.

7) The Renaissance Club

This is among some of the best courses on the planet in East Lothian. What a pity then that the Scottish Open returns here, year after year. Yes, it looks and is stunning in places but plenty of it is quite ordinary.

From memory of playing it the first three holes were among some of the best but they’ve now gone. This is ranked as the 24th best course in Scotland, which is generous, and we understand that the best courses don’t equal the tour stops but it would be great to see the Scots’ national Open move around more and to better courses.

PS And yes, there is always The Belfry.

You’d expect that for a player who has the same number of majors – five – as Rory McIlroy and Seve Ballesteros.

So, given the extra scrutiny, there was particular interest when the American switched from a blade to a TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter for his second tournament back, the WM Phoenix Open.

There was added intrigue given that it proved a masterstroke for World No.1 Scottie Scheffler when he made the same equipment change two years ago.

Scheffler’s putting has been transformed, so would it work for Koepka?

Why the change?

Koepka’s first tournament back on the PGA Tour came at the Farmers Insurance Open in California.

While he could only manage 56th, it wasn’t exactly a surprise given that he’d missed the cut there on his previous three starts in the tournament.

But Koepka cut a frustrated figure due mainly to his woeful performance on the greens.

Of the 74 players who made the cut, Koepka finished last for Strokes Gained: Putting.

The 35-year-old said that week: “Game feels good. Like I think putting is probably last in the field, but never really putted well here. I’ve never felt comfortable on poa. You just miss a few and you’ve got zero confidence.”

Koepka clearly felt something had to change given that the putter had been holding him back for a couple of seasons.

But it was still a surprise when photos emerged of him in Phoenix wielding the mallet-style TaylorMade Spider putter in practice.

We’d become so used to him lining up on the greens with a Scotty Cameron blade putter that it looked slightly odd seeing him testing a mallet.

Talking about why he’d switched, Koepka said in his pre-tournament press conference: “Trying to get the ball in the hole. Just really never felt comfortable over the ball. You’ve got to have everything squared up to the target.

“Just working on things like that. Real simple stuff, setup. Shoulders were open. My feet are always a little bit open, but just trying to minimize the lines crossing so much. And yeah, just tried to keep everything more consistent, the face, the path, everything.”

Did the switch pay off?

The first we saw of Koepka and his new Spider putter in the TV coverage was a putt that did a 360 horseshoe around the hole and stayed up.

Perhaps it was an omen.

Koepka had previously putted the TPC Scottsdale greens really well, recording positive SGP figures in all five visits and in four of those ranking 18th or better.

But on day one in Phoenix he had a nightmare, losing 3.625 strokes on the greens and ranking 123rd and last in the field.

No instant impact then.

A 75 on day one left him way back and he couldn’t repair the damage on day two despite firing a 2-under 69.

As for the new flatstick, there were hints of good news.

Despite not exactly lighting up the greens, Koepka gained 0.273 strokes with the putter and ranked 55th out of 123.

Small acorns perhaps.

What’s next?

Koepka didn’t qualify for this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – a Signature Series event – and he’s not in the field for the following week’s Genesis Invitational either.

Perhaps that’s no bad thing given that both feature the poa annua greens that he struggles with.

So, according to his schedule, his next stop is the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beaches, Florida.

Focusing on the positives, Koepka now has three weeks to try and bed in the new putter, providing he thinks the signs of improvement in round two in Phoenix can be built upon.

As a Floridian, he’ll certainly enjoy the return to Bermuda greens and he’s been a runner-up in that tournament previously.

But if Koepka is to return to the form that brought him five major titles between 2017 and 2023, the bottom line is simple: his putting needs a huge turnaround.

Does he now have the right equipment to facilitate it?

Read next: 7 stories that would shock the world in 2026

There are eight of them this season and, with increased prize money ($20 million) and FedEx Cup points (700) on offer at each of them, the results go a long way towards determining who will qualify for the Playoffs and ultimately win the FedEx Cup.

Two courses host this week with the field playing one round at both Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill before the weekend, and then another two rounds at Pebble on the weekend.

The challenge is distinct because the two spectacular Californian courses boast stunning views, blustery winds, small greens and tricky Poa Annua putting surfaces.

Who will thrive? And who will struggle? Let’s take a look.

The World No. 1

Scottie Scheffler has in won seven (yes, seven) of his last 14 tour starts (and never finished worse than T8) so it’s safe to say that he needs to be considered but are these conditions his Kryptonite?

He missed the cut at Pebble in the 2019 US Open before finishing T6 and T9 in his two starts at this event. He also has four top 10s in 11 starts at Torrey Pines and Riviera (two other Californian tracks with Poa Annua greens). That’s a fine record by normal standards but with no win is down on his current norms.

He did land victory in last Fall’s Procore Championship on Californian Poa at Silverado, but that had a weaker field than this week’s.

It’s not his ideal test but Scheffler on this current tear will be a threat anywhere.

Winner

If not Scheffler, then who? Defending champion Rory McIlroy struggled to T33 on one of his favourite courses (the Majlis at Emirates GC) in last month’s Dubai Desert Classic. It was his first failure to finish top 10 there in 13 starts so we’ll look elsewhere.

And Maverick McNealy looks the man.

He was second in this event in 2021 and fifth in 2020. He’s also been second and T10 at Torrey Pines, second at Silverado and seventh at Riviera.

That’s solid form in the right conditions – and he was a promising T13 last week in the Phoenix Open.

Next Best

Can Shane Lowry bounce back from throwing away victory in his opening start of the year in Dubai?

He was third that week, his fourth top three finish without a win in the last 12 months and the first of them came when he was second in this event last year.

He’s a good performer playing into small greens and the 2019 Open champion will not be fazed if the wind blows.

Outsider

The South African Garrick Higgo has only played at Pebble once, but it was a promising effort with three sub-70 scores helping him to T20.

He claimed a second PGA Tour win last year on another coastal course in the Dominican Republic and it wasn’t his first because he won twice on undulating layouts overlooking the seas in the Canary Islands.

Top 10 Finishers

Jason Day is a monster at Pebble. He’s played the course 16 times and nine of them reaped top 10s – an astounding record of quality and consistency.

He started 2026 with second place at The American Express so he looks set for another good week at the AT&T.

First Round Leader

Full of confidence after winning the Farmers Insurance Open two weeks ago, Justin Rose will be delighted about his return to another stretch of the Pacific Ocean.

Seven career starts at Pebble (including one US Open) have reaped five finishes of T12 or better including victory in this tournament in 2023.

He also likes a fast start. He was the solo first round leader of the 2019 US Open with a 65 and the same Thursday score had him second last year. He’s also been T6 and T8 after 18 holes.

Likely to Struggle

The PGA Tour’s Signature Events don’t have a cut, but who could struggle this week?

It’s a valid question given that trifecta of California, coastal locations and Poa Annua grass on the greens because, just as some golfers can cope with those three factors, others really cannot.

Take Tommy Fleetwood. He’s played at Pebble four times and he’s still looking for a first top 20 and in his last three visits he has a best Putting rank of 59th.

His compatriot Harry Hall is another example. He’s one of the PGA tour’s finest putters but not, it seems, on Californian Poa Annua. In eight starts on it he has a best finish of just T34 in the 2023 edition of this event – and it was his only top 40.

Canada’s Corey Conners is a tee to green machine but his Pebble Beach record reads MC-MC-T31-T65. He’s always lost strokes to the field with the putter and ranked 71st with the short stick last year (in an 80-man field).

And what about Cameron Young? The Ryder Cup star has made three starts at Pebble with a best of T70.

Read next: The killer question hanging over Justin Rose after a record-breaking win

It’s on the course where things can continue to niggle. There is an aspect that, if you’ve played the game for a number of years, you become so easily irritated and irrational, and this comes across loud and clear in the below, so let’s try and understand and explain ourselves over what are the absolute bankers not to get wrong.

1) Repair your pitchmarks

This is as old as time but many of us still get this wrong. Not many of us are firing it on the putting surface from 230 yards so it’s not hard to have a good idea of where your ball landed. And it’s even easier to spot. So repair it.

This doesn’t mean digging another hole, just caress things back into place. And point out to your playing partners if they miss theirs. Be that person, there’s nothing wrong with it. Think of all the effort your greenkeepers put in to making your course look spectacular, it’s not a big effort to twiddle a pitchmark repairer for five seconds.

2) Keep quiet

It’s very possible that this is coming from someone who has played the game for 40 years and is a cracking bore. Guilty. But what is so interesting (nothing) that can’t wait five seconds to splurge out of your mouth?

This only really happens on the tee, for some reason we’re a bit quieter on the greens, and we can pretty much do our own thing with our approach shots. So put a zip in it on the tee and let us make a mess of it without your help.

3) Clubs positioning

This is chronically irritating and, again, is so golf specific it paints many of us as absurd. But… we hear so much about pace of play, and it is massive, but do all of us a favour and have a quick look at where the next tee is.

Ask your mates. Watch your mates. If you’re unsure put your clubs down behind the green. Don’t just leave them 20 yards short of the green, putt out and then ask what’s now happening – before scuttling back to your clubs and driving the group behind nuts.

4) Don’t talk (about yourself)

This is possibly the biggest no-no. Nobody on god’s earth wants to hear about your round. This is our favourite hobby and time spent at the golf club is to be cherished and enjoyed. Not listening to you running through your birdies and bogeys and everything else in between.

We all know someone who is so crushingly dull about what they’ve just done for the past three and a half hours but still they painstakingly run through all 18 holes, where their head was at throughout and how it all added up to an 86. Have some self-awareness, have a look round the table at all those glazed expressions and help the conversation flow rather than killing it stone dead.

5) The ball search: Give up

We now have three minutes which, in my humble opinion, isn’t enough. I’m all for speeding up but I’d like a bit more time to locate my ball when I’m already at a low ebb. So not many of us pay attention to the three-minute thing which, away from club comps, seems OK.

What is unacceptable is when the rest of your fourball are now putting out and you’re still doing circles in the rough. None of us like losing balls but it will happen so try and have a bit of dignity and move on.

6) Putting: Where to stand

Again, this paints me in a poor light. But, if you want to irritate someone, then stand right behind them when they putt. There is absolutely no reason why this would even come up with a load of beginners, why wouldn’t you stand behind someone and have the thrill of watching their putt?

You’ll learn something about the break of the putt but not much more than if you stand slightly to the side as normal. It’s more the claustrophobic nature of the exchange. There’s always going to be a comment/stating of the obvious whatever you do with your putt and this is the bit that probably niggles more than any rule breaking (which it is).

7) Shout Fore!

I’ve no idea why it’s Fore but it is. Maybe because it’s so easy to shout, particularly with a three-second build-up of watching your ball head straight towards that fourball on the adjacent fairway.

Don’t mutter something 10 minutes later about ‘not being sure it was anywhere near you’. Err on the side of caution and bellow out a single word to alert some strangers that you’ve hit a golf ball towards them at 150mph.

Read next: How to identify and fix the weakest part of your golf game

Of all his heroic shots, this is certainly the rowdiest from the past 30 years. Obviously the chip-in at Augusta’s 16th is out there on its own for the situation, setting, commentary and that logo but this produced a scene like no other.

1) This actually came on the Saturday and Woods wasn’t even in contention. He was paired with Omar Uresti and the ace helped him to a 67 – he would eventually tie for 18th.

2) The Phoenix Open is one of the few tournaments Woods has never won. He would play in the event again in 1999 (3rd) and again in 2001 (5th) but he wouldn’t be back until 2015 (W/D).

3) There were something like 15,000 there but ‘The Coliseum’ surrounds that make it what it is today had yet to be built. As is generally the way, what Woods started ballooned into something far bigger. Now the capacity is for 20,000 seats, an atmosphere like nothing else and boxes that change hands for tens of thousands of dollars. The hole measures 163 yards on the card.

4) There’s a good story about how his playing partner, Uresti, chose not to watch any of Woods’ shots. He then stuffed his tee shot in to three feet and said to himself, ‘Let’s see you hit it closer than that’.

Uresti was 10 paces ahead by the time disappeared and he would famously, with Woods, make a mess of their first high five.

“I looked back and saw a shower of cups and cans,” said Uresti. It rattled the clubhouse windows some 600-700 yards away. I shook my head and was thinking, ‘Only Tiger.’”

5) This is how Woods’ career looked at this point; he had won three times in the past three months (his first three win on Tour) and he had played six times by the time The Masters rolled around. The one he won by 12 shots and changed the game forever.

6) Robert Garrigus is a one-time winner on the PGA Tour and, at the time, he was a member of the Scottsdale Community College golf team. And was two people back among the fans on Saturday January 25.

“We were screaming ‘O‑mar, O‑mar,’ and then Tiger makes it,” Garrigus said. “I might have been the first guy to throw a beer, I don’t know. But it started raining, big time, it was unbelievable.

“You could see me in my sunglasses in the back, in the shot. It was so perfect. It was a perfect shot, high 9-iron, boom, right in the joint. If I didn’t want to be a professional golfer right there, I wasn’t going to be one. That was pretty cool. And I got to see it.”

7) These 12 golfers have made a hole-in-one at The Greatest Party On Grass. They range from journeymen, unknowns, fellow Major champs and Woods.

‘They’re going to go nuts when he hits this thing!’

They did.

1988: Hal Sutton
1990: David Edwards
1990: Brad Bryant
1991: Jay Delsing
1997: Tiger Woods
1997: Steve Stricker
2002: Mike Sposa
2011: Jarrod Lyle
2015: Francisco Molinari
2022: Sam Ryder
2022: Carlos Ortiz
2025: Emiliano Grillo

Read next: 50 incredible Tiger Woods stats as the GOAT celebrates big milestone

The Mizuno JPX One 7-wood was released at the start of 2026 and it’s easy to like straightaway for its striking yet simple looks and the way that it sits behind the ball. There is also a neat JPX logo on the crown to help with alignment.

The tech talking point is something called the Cortech Chamber which has been re-engineed to increase face flexion across the clubface so mishits will have a similar level of ball speed and the centre of gravity has been repositioned for a higher launch. So, pretty much everything you want from a fairway wood.

We can also play around with the loft; this 7-wood is 21˚ with 2˚ of adjustability as well as an upright setting which we’ll look at later.

Why do we all now want a 7-wood?

1) For all the talk of launch monitors and filling yardage gaps many of us simply want a club that will carry around the 200-yard mark.

This covers a lot of long par 4s and not many par 3s will stretch beyond 210 yards. The better player will want to tick off more and longer yardages but 200 yards is a valuable asset for most of us.

2) The advantage of a fairway wood over a hybrid is that it has a wider sole and therefore a lower centre of gravity. It also has a slightly longer shaft on it as well which can make it easier to launch.

Fairway woods are more forgiving on off-centered strikes than long irons and also even more than most hybrids.

3) The ball flight. We want a higher peak height from the higher launch so that we then get a better descent angle and it lands softer.

More and more tour pros now have one in the bag for this reason, it’s just a much easier way to generate loft on your longer approaches. Think Dustin Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick and the like.

4) Few things will inspire more confidence in golf than looking down on a 7-wood. Think of all those years where we’ve been battling away with 2 and 3-irons or even 3-4 woods and struggling to launch them.

We can now get the same carry distance by just adding more loft and a better looking clubhead.

5) The 7-wood’s shallow face makes it easier to get the ball in the air when the lie isn’t perfect and it can be better than some hybrids from the rough.

6) There must be a negative? It might not be as workable as an iron but that’s probably for that better player and it might not be your very best friend when it’s blowy but it’s still possible to keep the flight down.

The great news is that we will get the strike more often than not and it’s quite hard to hit anything too destructive with it.

What about the adjustability?

I spent a morning with Moortown Assistant Pro Eddie Hammond to understand the benefits of playing around with the loft to get the most out of the club.

“You would like to think at 21˚ standard it’s going to launch for most people. By adjusting the loft it would be more to see where it fits in your bag.

“So you might have a 5-iron and then you might have a 5-hybrid and above it you might have a 5-wood so you identify that a 7-wood’s a good club to have.

“But, let’s say the gap between that 5-hybrid and that 5-wood is 20 yards, you’d like this to sit in the middle. If it sits nearer one or the other you can adjust the loft on the club to try and suit it.”

Understanding the upright setting

“You’re trying to look at how a player returns the club at impact and how the sole hits the ground. You want the heel and the toe to hit the ground at the same time.

“If you have a habit of hitting the ball well but out to the right, one thing you can do is you can make it more upright, which in theory aims the clubface left of target. So therefore it might bring that starting line in a bit.

“There aren’t going to be many players with a 7-wood that you would have in a flat lie angle unless someone’s very short in height. Usually the flatter lie angle is going to promote a bit more of a left to right ball flight, which I would say 80 per cent of golfers are trying to fight against.

“So if you had someone who was a big slicer of the golf ball, you could add loft and make it upright.”

What else is there to like?

The JPX One comes with a Mitsubishi Tensei Blue shaft which offers a mid-launch and mid-spin profile and it also features the Tour Velvet 360 grip so everything about it feels premium.

This isn’t the fastest club out there but it’s so solid and very easy to like. The last time I had a 7-wood in the bag was about a decade ago and the technology has developed so much with the feel, forgiveness and adjustability.

It always seemed to be the way that they appeared closed at address but the JPX One offers a very confidence-inspiring address and is a valuable asset – so much that the 5-wood has already vacated the bag for a club that is far easier to hit and does the same job.

Read next: The Mizuno JPX One: Could this be the new driver in your bag?

Torrey Pines is the venue where Tiger Woods has won eight times and holds just about every record there is.

But Rose eclipsed one of Tiger’s landmarks at the clifftop course in California.

No-one had ever bettered Tiger’s winning score of 22-under but with rounds of 62-65-68-70, Rose beat it by a shot.

“Sorry T-dub, if you’re watching,” joked Rose, who added that he was “keenly aware” of Woods’ record.

Rose is now a two-time winner of the Farmers Insurance Open and has moved up to No.3 in the world golf rankings.

But one thing dominates the 45-year-old’s thinking with the clock ticking on his stellar career – winning another major.

Rose joined the club when landing the 2013 US Open at Merion but he’s suffered heartache in other majors, five times finishing as a runner-up.

Asked what goals he’s still chasing, Rose said at Torrey Pines: “Majors is where I have my attention, for sure.

“I’ve achieved a lot in the game, but I’ve achieved a lot of it just once. So I’ll take multiple of anything that I’ve achieved for sure would be great.

“If I look at my career, yeah, I’ve been really close to the Open, I’ve been really close to the Masters.

“The dream of winning all four was obviously the ultimate goal since I’ve been a kid but it seems a long way off to think that way.

“But if you think about some of the results I’ve had in the last year or 18 months, I’m not that far away so may as well keep believing.”

So what are Rose’s chances of adding a second major or more in 2026? We assess his chances.

The Masters

Rose has a superb record at Augusta National but his Masters career – so far – is also one of heartache. Rose had a back-nine run at the 2007 Masters before ending fifth and finished second in 2015 although a distant four shots back from Jordan Spieth.

But it’s the 2017 and 2025 Masters where the hurt runs deepest after he got to the brink but came up agonisingly short. In 2017, he held a two-shot lead in the final round before losing a playoff to good friend Sergio Garcia.

Last year, he again got his nose in front late on day four but once more had to play the bridesmaid after losing to Rory McIlroy at the first extra hole after both had finished at 11-under.

Many felt it was Rory’s destiny to win the Green Jacket but perhaps it’s Rose’s too. There would surely be no more deserved winner.

Verdict: Rose’s chances of finally being a Masters winner must be very good. The bookies have him around eighth to 10th in the betting, with some as short as 20/1.

PGA Championship

While it’s well known that Rose has been an elite performer at Augusta, few would guess that he’s had just as many top 10s (seven) in the PGA Championship as The Masters.

The difference is that he’s never really threatened to win one as even his best of tied third in 2012 left him nine back of McIlroy at Kiawah Island.

In his only other top five, the Englishman was six strokes adrift of Jason Day at Whistling Straits in 2015. But with four top 10s in the last six editions, this event gives him a genuine chance – and perhaps even more so than ever this year. In 2026, the tournament heads to Aronimink in Pennsylvania and that’s good news for Rose on two levels.

Firstly, Pennsylvania was where he won his only major to date, the 2013 US Open at Merion. Secondly, Rose boasts a superb record at Aronimink.

The course has staged just three PGA Tour events but Rose won the first of those, the 2010 AT&T National, and lost a play-off to Keegan Bradley in the most recent, the 2018 BMW Championship.

Verdict: Since the tournament moved to May (previously August) in 2019, Rose has thrived with four top 10s and a 13th in the last six PGAs. With an excellent record at Aronimink, he must be on the short-list.

US Open

Rose is a major winner thanks to his two-shot victory at Merion in 2013. In ultra-tough conditions, he took the title with an over-par score of +1.

This year, the US Open heads to Shinnecock which has twice played host this century. In the first of those, a then 23-year-old Rose had a bit of a nightmare, shooting 15-over to miss the cut by nine shots.

But in 2018 he opened 71-70 to sit fourth at halfway and was just a single stroke off the pace after 54 holes before finishing 10th. Rose’s second-best finish in the tournament is tied third at Pebble Beach in 2019 but, surprisingly, since then he’s missed the cut in five of the last six.

Verdict: His recent record in the event is poor but he has some positive memories of Shinnecock. Don’t rule it out.

Open Championship

Rose made his name in The Open when he famously finished tied fourth at Royal Birkdale in 1998 when still an amateur. Where is the tournament this year? Yep, Royal Birkdale.

For a while, Rose could make no further impact in the event, failing to crack the top 10 in his next 12 appearances. He finally managed tied sixth at St Andrews in 2015 and since then Rose has twice gone close to being crowned “the champion golfer of the year”. In 2018, he was tied second at Carnoustie, finishing just two back from winner Francesco Molinari.

And in 2024, he finished joint runner-up again having had to go through qualifying even to make it to Royal Troon. Rose had a piece of the lead in round four but eventually finished two adrift of Xander Schauffele.

Verdict: This is the best major for older players. Starting from 2011, four players in their 40s have lifted the Claret Jug so that bodes well for Rose.

Given that he made his name at Royal Birkdale as an amateur, it would be some wonderful symmetry if Rose could go back there as a pro 28 years later and win there as a pro.

Read more: How the stars could align quickly for returning Brooks Koepka

The five-time major champion made the cut but was never a factor and rounds of 73-68-73-70 left him down in 56th spot – a massive 19 shots behind runaway winner Justin Rose.

Koepka said later: “Game feels good. Like I think putting is probably last in the field, but never really putted well here. I’ve never felt comfortable on poa. You just miss a few and you’ve got zero confidence.”

His assessment was correct. He ranked 3rd for the week in Strokes Gained: Around The Green, 20th for SG: Approach but 74th and last for SG: Putting of those who made the cut.

In fact, Koepka seemed keener to talk about this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open and there’s a very obvious reason why.

The tournament at TPC Scottsdale is the noisiest, wildest and most attended golf tournament in world golf and Koepka is a two-time winner there.

Here we look at his Waste Management Phoenix Open record:

2015 – WINNER

Playing in his first Phoenix Open, Kopka started steadily with a round of 71 but then fired 68-64-66 to win by a shot from Hideki Matsuyama (who would win the next two editions), Ryan Palmer and Bubba Watson. It was his first PGA Tour win and came in front of half a million fans.

Koepka said: “This one is very special to me with all the fans here. Just an incredibly run tournament. It’s a fun week. Happy to have this one as my first.”

2016 – 41st

Back as defending champion, Koepka started fast with a 5-under 67. But middle rounds of 72-74 took him out of contention and a closing 69 was only good enough for a midfield finish.

Koepka said: “You can take golf too seriously. Playing for a living, it’s fun. It’s still fun. You can’t take it as life or death. Miss the cut one week and then win the next. You can’t get too down on yourself.”

2017 – 42nd

Koepka would win his first major – the US Open – just four months later but here he had to settle for middle of the pack again. It was a very similar story to the year before as he played well in rounds one and four (67s) but drifted away with middle laps of 73-71.

Koepka said: “These greens are so good. We have putted really well here. You see the lines. Just some courses really suit your eye, especially off the tee. Even on the greens, reading the putts, you get to know some things where certain putts are straighter than they may appear.”

2021 – WINNER

After missing the three editions in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – injury playing a big part – Koepka teed it up again in the Phoenix Open in 2021. And what a return! Now a four-time major champion after two wins in the US Open (2017, 2018) and two in the PGA Championship (2018 and 2019), Koepka wasn’t in great form at the time but found some magic at TPC Scottsdale once more. He fired rounds of 68-66-66-65 to finish on 19-under and win by a shot from Xander Schauffele and K.H. Lee. It was his eighth PGA Tour title.

Koepka said: “I love this place. This golf course is always fun. I like the way I finished that off. Hit a lot quality golf shots down the stretch. I haven’t been in contention in God knows how long, so to actually hit golf shots like I’m accustomed to seeing when the pressure is on, it’s a good feeling.”

2022 – 3rd

Koepka’s last start at TPC Scottsdale before he moved to LIV came in 2022 when he made an impressive title defence but came up just short. Seeking a third title, his rounds of 66-66-68-69 left him one shy of the play-off contested by Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Cantlay.

Koepka said: “I putted it really well. Really solid. But the wedges just weren’t up to par. Leaving a few right, felt like a couple of them, the wind kind of switched a little bit, as well. But I mean, that happens. Just didn’t play good enough today. Sometimes you just have a mediocre day. It is what it is.”

And so to 2026.

The last time Koepka returned to this event after a four-year gap (2017 to 2021), he won.

So can the 35-year-old American pull off the same feat again this week as he contests the trophy for the first time since 2022?

Speaking at Torrey Pines, Koepka said: “I enjoy next week. I love the chaos, I think it’s fun. Yeah, it’s been, what, four years since I’ve been back so I’m excited to get back out there to a place I’m familiar with, comfortable with and a place I love.”

Read next: Could this be the beginning of the end for LIV Golf?

There’s a lot to be enjoyed about tackling a Top 100 course but, generally, that comes at a price. The prospect of shelling out £200+ for 18 holes is not one that many of us will look forward to and our expectations will be off the charts.

With these you will be guaranteed an untapped pleasure where you will definitely get your money’s worth.

Bingley St Ives

Winter green fee: £35

Once upon a time the European Tour visited this corner of Yorkshire and there were three editions of the Lawrence Batley International – Sandy Lyle won the first two titles before Nick Faldo followed him.

The 1st and 18th bear little resemblance to what is sandwiched in between and here we have a mix of woodland and moorland after the parkland opener. The moorland holes around and following the turn are the
pick of the course; rugged, bleak and brilliant.

The stand-out hole might well be the drivable 15th but there are so many strong holes on the back nine and it always holds your interest throughout.

More should be made of Bingley, there is the very odd ordinary hole but much of it is truly outstanding. This is where Billy Foster grew up playing and Billy’s Bar, packed full of memorabilia, sits in a lovely clubhouse.

Bull Bay

Winter green fee: £30

Straight from the off Bull Bay, Wales’ most northerly course in Anglesey, is something very good. The 1st green sits in an elevated spot which is a feature of the course with more than half the holes featuring a raised green.

There are also plenty of elevated tees and the terrain is dramatic though not tiring in the least. Much of our visit here a decade ago was spent wondering a) why we’d not heard more of Bull Bay and b) why on earth it was so cheap.

The location speaks to both of these but it’s a remarkable piece of land and golfing experience. We have Herbert Fowler, of Walton Heath and The Berkshire fame, to thank for this layout which offers great golf and similar views. Many would have Bull Bay in Wales’s top-10 courses so you’re getting something very good for your small outlay.

Cleveland

Winter green fee: £60

If you’re looking for an unassuming links that is as down-to-earth anywhere, then visit Cleveland. This is located in Redcar and people will quickly point out the industrial backdrop but that shouldn’t concern any of us. This has to be one of the best value options anywhere in the UK.

At times there are shades of playing the New Course in St Andrews and Old Tom Morris has had a hand in laying out the course. Harry Colt and Donald Steel have also added to its brilliance. This is where Alex Fitzpatrick waltzed to victory in the Yorkshire Amateur as more people began to learn of Cleveland.

This is Yorkshire’s only true championship links and it boasts some fantastic running turf where the ability to hit the ball straight and low is a key requirement. The 14th and 15th are a stunning pair of holes, as is the 18th which gives you a chance to chase one in from a long way out.

Dunstanburgh

Winter green fee: £35

Until two years ago I knew nothing about Dunstanburgh, now I’ve become fascinated by the place. This is based on the back story to how their greenkeeper Stuart Imeson bought the course, and his very welcome reluctance to hike up their green fees, and a run of holes that you’re not prepared for.

Imeson has played here since he was 10, he became the head greenkeeper at 18 and in 2020 he became the co-owner. His outlook is to green fees is music to all our ears.

“A lot of golf clubs will be charging £100 plus or as much as £150. Many are double that and I don’t quite understand where they get that from. I want people to walk off here and I want them to come back. If you feel like you’ve had a good deal somewhere, a good experience, you’re always going to go back.”

From holes 4-13 Dunstanburgh is exceptional and worthy of a course at four times the green fee. That run culminates with a par 3 with the backdrop of a 14th-century castle.

Perranporth

Winter green fee: £60

Other than St Enodoc this might well be the next best course in Cornwall. Perranporth is situated on the North Cornwall coast and it’s a links course that is everything that it should be; rugged, varied, breathtaking, honest and hugely stimulating.

James Braid designed Perranporth in 1927 and you don’t suppose much has changed. There are no less than seven blind tee shots and the approach shots are equally as unclear but in a good way. Many suggest this is like playing on the moon and there is something very different about the winding par-5 2nd.

When we played here a decade ago the general consensus in our fourball was that this should be so much higher regarded in the rankings. There is a stretch in the back nine where it’s just one brilliant par 4 after another. Interestingly not a single par 4 measures over 400 yards, there are a small handful where you might fancy knocking one on, but otherwise it is a procession of mid-range and thrilling approach shots

These days it sits somewhere in the 60s in the English courses and you would expect that to keep improving.

Seascale

Winter green fee: £35

This takes some getting to and is overlooked by the Sellafield Power Station but you’ll thank me for making the effort. This is precisely what golf should be; affordable, testing, fun and a spectacular surprise.

The course covers less than 100 acres but it’s packed with a bit of everything. From the elevated 9th the line off the tee is the Isle of Man.

The 11th and 12th are the closest holes to Sellafield but the turf and greens will get your attention and then there’s the short par-4 15th where you’ll also no doubt make a mess of the tee shot and recovery to a brilliant green. The 16th is a brilliant hole, probably the pick of the bunch, where it seems impossible to hit your lengthy approach far enough left.

The view back down the 17th is incredible and explains best how you’ve just played a course on three levels and will have you scratching your head why it’s so cheap.

Teignmouth

Winter green fee: £50

Again we have a world-famous designer to thank for another testing but equally fun and exciting 18 holes. Dr Alister MacKenzie laid out Teignmouth for just £3500 and it’s relatively unchanged in the 102 years since.

On a clear day the views are something else, as you might expect from a course perched 800 feet above sea level. It’s described as a moorland links and it features 11 two-tier greens, which really is something else, and half a dozen par 3s.

The short holes are exceptionally good. As early as the 2nd you know you’re in for a treat with a one-shotter that is cleverly bunkered as well as being visually very pleasing. It’s quirky in places but it’s also consistently excellent and everything finishes with the longest of the short holes.

Read next: How to identify and fix the weakest part of your golf game

But the bottom line is that we’re all different and we all know our games better than anyone else.

We might not like to admit them at times but we know where we’re losing shots and why our handicaps aren’t a couple of shots lower.

Mental performance coach Duncan McCarthy has worked with tour players for 15 years, with winners on all the main tours, and he provides some easy-to-follow instruction on how to make some simple gains this coming season.

‘The obvious answer is stats but, for your average golfer, you’re probably not going to keep stats. And if you do keep the basic ones, they might not tell the real story. So let’s assume that you don’t keep stats and you have to go off feeling what your weakest point is.

“What’s the one area of your game that you’re constantly frustrated with? That’s probably a good way of looking at your weaknesses because you’re not going to be frustrated with your strength.

So, if you don’t have stats and you just want to play your Saturday golf, and you go to the range once a week, how do you identify how you can maybe use that time better?

“Whatever element(s) of the game that it is, then it’s important to go, right, what’s the evidence? Go through your last few rounds and, for example, if you keep fatting your chips then it might (will) be technical so go and have a lesson to have something positive to think about.

“Or it might only happen when you’re scoring well, so it might be mental (and technical!). You’ll find that you go into future-led thinking and the end result and then things go awry.

Whatever it is, we need to think how to improve this in our practice.

How to improve

The first thing is to keep it simple, just doing one thing at a time and not trying to do it all at once.

So, for a month, just work on one thing. Be strict with yourself. At the driving range we jump around with all our clubs and end up hitting too many drivers when that might be the best part of our game.

So, for the next five visits, have a drill that you’re going to do over and over and over. So if it’s ball position, if it’s a swing mechanic, if it’s from a mental standpoint or not hitting a golf shot until you’re clear on what you want to do, just do that.

Then, at the end of that period, assess things. Have you improved? If not but there are signs that you’re moving in the right direction, keep doing it.

Don’t judge after every shot, good or bad, but look at it as a collective.

A pre-shot routine

Many of us still don’t pay attention to this but you can get this spot on every single shot.

If you’re at the range then you don’t have to do this with every ball but I would have an amount of your session where you say, right, I’m going to call the golf shot that I want to play, or I’m going to create a picture of what I want to play before I step in.

So if you’re on a range, there’s always the mat. Step off it. Stand behind and paint a picture of what you would love the ball to do. Realistically, not Rory McIlroy, but realistically what you’d love the ball to do.

Once you have that picture, go see if you can play it. And that would be a great place to start from. Step on the mat and go and play the golf shot.

What if you’re not someone who doesn’t work very well visually? Talk to yourself. Instruct yourself.

Right, I’m going to hit it over this flag, nice and high. Or I’m going to aim it just over here and it’s going to cut back. So you’re almost being your own caddy.

A good caddy would say, what are you going to do here? And you’d say, I’m going to start it on that bunker and fade it off it. So if you’re not visual, be vocal to yourself.

About Duncan McCarthy

Duncan is a mental performance coach who works across all sports including women’s Major champion Ashleigh Buhai.

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This is the tournament Tiger won seven times and, not only that, it was the scene of his incredible 2008 US Open victory on one leg.

His love affair with the California course started back in 1991 when, as a 15-year-old, he captured the Junior World Championship there. Despite being the minimum age, Tiger won the 15 to 17-year-old category.

Here we look back at his Torrey Pines triumphs and what he said after those wins.

1999 Buick Invitational – 22-under

Woods, who had finished third the year before, was a massive nine shots off the pace at halfway. But he rocketed to top spot after a third-round 62 (still the course record on the South Course) and closed out with a 65 to shoot 22-under and win by two from Billy Ray Brown.

What Tiger said: “I just hung in there as long as I possibly could and just hit a lot of good shots, tried to make putts when I could. It was a dogfight all the way. It means a lot to me as all my family and friends are out here and it feels a lot more special when you have them around and you’re actually able to do this in front of, in a sense, a hometown crowd.”

2003 Buick Invitational – 16-under

After finishes of second, fourth and fifth from 2000-2002., Woods shot a pair of 68s on the weekend to secure his second pro win at Torrey Pines. He finished four clear of Carl Pettersson. Woods had teed it up on the back of knee surgery in the off-season and this was his first start of the year.

What Tiger said: “I’m pretty excited to be back. On top of that, to have won the tournament is pretty exciting. To beat a field like this, I’m very excited about that. To have played 72 holes without being sore, which is a big positive, and to have won the tournament is another big positive. It was a successful week from two standpoints. For the entire week, I think I only made four bogeys. I made one bogey in each round. So from that standpoint, I’m very proud of that. I didn’t make that many mistakes.”

2005 Buick Invitational – 16-under

Woods roared into contention with a Friday 63 but had work to do after slipping back with a 72 in round three. He started the closing round in fifth spot but a 68 was enough to secure victory by three shots and end a surprisingly long 15-month win drought. It sparked a memorable season that saw him win two Majors.

What Tiger said: “It feels great, especially today, as long as it was. The start I kind of got off to this morning, it wasn’t very good, but I hung in there. I just felt like I just needed to stay around. This golf course is so difficult, anything can happen. And I wasn’t feeling all that comfortable with my swing today. But I kind of just grinded around. Worked on my short game, it was beautiful today, and I made a lot of par putts.”

2006 Buick Invitational – 10-under

Tiger defended the title for the first time but only after edging out Jose Maria Olazabal and Aussie Nathan Green in a playoff. He’d been 22nd at halfway and eventually won at the second extra hole after Olazabal missed a four-foot par putt. Again, it set the tone for a huge season as he bagged eight wins, including another two Majors.

What Tiger said: “It was bunched, and quite frankly I shouldn’t have probably even been in the playoff. I wasn’t putting very good at all. And then the greens weren’t exactly smooth. But at least I could have had better speed than I did. My speed was terrible today. I hung in there, hung in there. It’s a nice place. I’ve played here since I was 12 and really enjoy playing here. I won the Junior World here when I was 15, came close when I was 16. But it’s been a great place. There’s not too many golf courses you play where it just fits your eye, but this is one of the golf courses for me. I feel very comfortable here.”

2007 Buick Invitational – 15-under

Woods was pretty unstoppable when winning his third straight Torrey Pines title in 2007. The victory represented a seventh straight win dating back to the previous summer’s Open Championship at Hoylake and was the first of seven victories in 2007. Rounds of 69-66 on the weekend lifted him from 12th and secured a two-shot success over Charles Howell III.

What Tiger said: “Well, overall, very lucky to be on top there. The way I was starting out, you know, 13 (under) was up on the board quick and I made a bomb there on 9 to get myself up there with a chance. It seemed like in order to win the tournament you had to make birdies on the back nine. I knew these guys, even though they have not won golf tournaments before, they still were going to be playing aggressively. They had nothing to lose and I figured I had to go get it. I played pretty aggressive on that back nine, for me, and just happened to come out on top.”

2008 Buick Invitational – 19-under

Woods wrapped up his fourth straight win and sixth overall at Torrey Pines in dominant fashion. He hit the front after a Friday 65 and romped to an eight-shot win after rounds of 66 and 71 on the weekend. This was his 62nd PGA Tour win which tied Arnold Palmer on the all-time list.

What Tiger said: “The whole idea today was to go out and shoot something under par and not make any bogeys, but I got half of that right. I guess the back nine, making a big putt at 11 and made a nice little birdie putt at 13, built me a nice little cushion, which was nice. It’s just one of those things where some people just have an affinity for certain golf courses, like my buddy (Mark) O’Meara won five times up at Pebble, I guess Sam (Snead) at Greensboro and (Jack) Nicklaus at Augusta, guys that have won a number of times at certain venues, and somehow this golf course seems to have been pretty good for me.”

2008 US Open – 1-under

A clearly injured Woods somehow stayed in the hunt and holed a 12-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate.

Playing with a torn ligament in his left knee and a double stress fracture in his left tibia, Tiger and Mediate couldn’t be split after 18 more holes on Monday but Woods eventually dug deeper than ever before to win at the first extra hole, his 91st of the week. It gave him a 14th Major title.

What Tiger said: “I’m glad I’m done. I’m done. I really don’t feel like playing any more. It’s a bit sore. And all I can say is the atmosphere is what kept me going. The tournament, being a Major Championship here at Torrey Pines, all the people, I couldn’t ever quit in front of these people. It wasn’t going to happen. I’ll take a little time off.” (Woods didn’t play again in 2008).

2013 Farmers Insurance Open – 14-under

Between the 2008 US Open and 2013 Farmers Insurance Open (the new sponsors), Woods played this event just once, finishing 44th in 2011.

But, fit again after numerous injuries, Woods grabbed the halfway lead and cruised to a four-shot win after leading by eight at one point. This was Tiger’s last dominant year on tour, his victory here one of five that helped him secure Player of the Year honours.

What Tiger said: “I’m excited the way I played all week. I hit the ball well. Pretty much did everything well this week, and built myself a nice little cushion. I had some mistakes at the end but all my good play before that really allowed me to afford those mistakes. It’s nice to actually walk around here without any discomfort.”

Read next: 7 stories that would shock the world in 2026

The rebel circuit entered the professional tour golf world as a disrupter in 2022 with grand ambitions.

Disruption has indeed followed but the golf world might not have been transformed in quite the manner LIV expected.

The most successful element of the rebel thrust has been to create a strong division between fans – and with it generate headlines and controversy.

Its stars are Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Joaquin Niemann, and the first of those, the Spaniard, is this year seeking a hat trick of Individual Championships.

Who will challenge him for that honour, though? DeChambeau and Niemann will surely be part of the conversation but there are others.

Here are the seven most likely winners of the 2026 title.

The reigning champion – Jon Rahm

Let’s deal with the good news first: the Spanish captain of Legion XIII is completely gun on LIV.

He’s not just ended his two seasons there as the individual champion, he has also finished top three in 10 of his 25 completed starts on the circuit – and has never finished worse than 11th.

By any standard that is sensational golf.

But he’s the fly in the ointment. First up, he’s won just twice and didn’t do so in 2025 (although he was second in three of his last four starts, two of those near misses coming in extra holes).

The other nagging issue is that he hasn’t added to his major championship tally since the 2023 Masters.

The 2026 goal: to win more and to win big.

The machine – Joaquin Niemann

Unlike Rahm, the man who pipped him to the individual title last year, the Torque captain has had no difficulty winning on LIV. He did so twice in 2024 and no less than five times in 2025. He also has eight wins in his last 47 starts worldwide (stretching back to December 2023).

His big problem is the tournaments that truly define a career: the majors. In fact, he’s not just bad at them he is, given his potential, risible.

A fast finish helped him to land T9 in last year’s PGA Championship but it is his only top 10 in 26 starts and the pressure seemed to get to him in last year’s final two majors. He missed the cut in both.

The 2026 goal: keep winning and start contending in the big ones.

The superstar – Bryson DeChambeau

He has, rather mysteriously, won just three times in 45 LIV starts but he is the circuit’s undoubted star attracting fans, wowing social media users and earning millions.

The Crushers captain differs from Rahm and Niemann in one key factor: he contends in, and wins, major championships.

In the last two seasons he has won the US Open, been second in the PGA Championship twice, been sixth and fifth in the Masters, and landed a top 10 in last year’s Open.

The 2026 goal: maintain momentum and win big.

The flying youngster – David Puig

The poster boy at starting a world class career on LIV, the Fireballs 24-year-old had just three top five finishes on LIV in 29 starts ahead of 2025, but he doubled that figure in the dozen starts that followed. He also finished top 20 in all 12.

He has also become a serial top 12 finisher on the DP World Tour landing 10 of them in his last 13 starts including victory in last November’s Australian PGA Championship.

The 2026 goal: a first LIV win and a first top 20 in the majors.

The air miles hoarder – Patrick Reed

Like the Augusta flowers, the 2018 Masters champion remains an April perennial. In fact, he’s finished top 12 in five of the last six Masters and was solo third last spring.

He finished top three in six of his first 17 LIV starts but not one of them was a win. It remained that way midway through last year’s fourth LIV season. Then he won LIV Dallas.

He got his 2026 off to a great start with victory in the Dubai Desert Classic, his 12th career win worldwide.

The 4Aces performer’s 2026 goal: to win again, maybe earning a green jacket in the process.

The Ripper – Cameron Smith

In 2022 the Aussie landed eight worldwide top five finishes, five of them wins including the Open. In 2023 there were seven top fives, two of them wins. In 2023 the top five count remained seven, but there was no win.

The degradation didn’t just continue in 2025, it accelerated in terrifying fashion with just two top fives.

It gets worse because the Ripper captain hasn’t made a cut in his last five major championship including all four last year. It maybe even worse than that because he carded a 78 in three of 2025’s majors.

There is a ray of hope, however, which is that he contended all week when second in November’s Australian PGA Championship, his last start anywhere.

The 2026 goal: to ride the wave of that season closer down under.

The underachiever – Tyrrell Hatton

The Englishman was a winner in his debut LIV season of 2024, a year when he recorded six top fives finishes. But in 2025 he not only registered just two top fives (both of them fifth), he also failed to crack the top 20 in his last four LIV starts.

That’s poor for a golfer of his undoubted quality especially given that he has won twice on the DP World Tour since that first LIV triumph, and has four top 20s in the last eight major championships.

The 2026 goal: a second LIV win and then a third.

Read next: 7 stories that would shock the world in 2026

But while week in, week out it won’t always hit the headlines, here are seven events that would put golf front and centre.

Could any of these happen in 2026?

Brooks Koepka winning the Waste Management Phoenix Open

Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour from LIV has caused much controversy even though it’s come with several stiff financial penalties. After rather treading water on the breakaway tour, the five-time major winner will be particularly keen to show he can still cut it and there would be no better place to cause a storm than at the most attended and rowdiest tournament in golf – the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Koepka is a two-time champion at TPC Scottsdale and loves the febrile atmosphere. There would be wild scenes if he could claim the hat-trick.

Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler battling down the stretch in a major

One of golf’s great appeals is that so many different players can win. But the downside of that is we very rarely get two great players fighting it out with each other on the back nine of a major.

Men’s tennis had its best players duking it out in the final at almost every Grand Slam in the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic-Murray era so what a spectacle it would be to see the world’s top two players separating themselves from the field and going at it down the stretch in a major. Scheffler v McIlroy… bring it on!

Charley Hull winning a major

Charley Hull’s skill as a golfer and popularity/influence away from the course makes her a lightning rod for the women’s game. So social media would really erupt up if the 29-year-old from England could land a first major title.

She’s come close before, finishing runner-up four times including at two of the last three British Opens. The 50th edition of the event takes place at Royal Lytham and St Annes later this summer.

Another Englishwoman, Georgia Hall, lifted the silverware the last time it hosted in 2018 but a win for Hull would really be a massive boost for the women’s game.

Bryson DeChambeau winning The Masters

Perhaps DeChambeau might get more clicks for his YouTube channel by doing something extra crazy like hitting a ball in space or taking on Donald Trump in a special challenge in which both try to get a hole-in-one by hitting shots over the top of the White House to a putting surface in the shape of Greenland.

But, sticking to golf, what a sensation it would be if one of the game’s biggest characters could win The Masters. He’s getting closer, with sixth (2024) and fifth (2025) in the last two years.

An Englishman winning The Open

Nick Faldo was the last English winner of an Open way back in 1992 so it’ll be 34 years of hurt for the home players when the year’s final major takes place in July.

That’s way too long but there’s a massive story waiting to be written this summer. Tommy Fleetwood used to sneak onto Royal Birkdale as a kid so it would be a fairytale for the Englishman to lift the Claret Jug there in 2026.

And having risen to No.3 in the world rankings and finished second, fourth and 10th in three of the last six Opens, that Hollywood script is far from a fantasy.

Andy Murray qualifying for The Open

Murray is currently obsessed with golf having retired from tennis in 2024. The Scot’s handicap has come down quickly and he revealed recently that he’s now playing off 1.4.

Murray admits he’d like to have a go at Open regional qualifying and, who knows, if his rapid improvement continues, could he make an impression and give himself a shot at playing in an Open Championship? Maybe this year is too soon but one day…

Tiger Woods making a return and leading a major

No-one in golf can move the needle like Tiger Woods and it’s a huge shame that more back surgery has prevented any sort of comeback in 2025. Tiger turned 50 in December so is now eligible for the Champions Tour.

While nothing is certain, imagine a world where Tiger does manage to return and shows all his skill, guile and mental fortitude to lead after 18 holes of a major.

Ideally it would be The Masters where he has a lifetime invitation but even if he set the pace in a Seniors major, that would be massive news, putting golf at the very front of every news bulletin and lighting up social media.

True, winter is still clinging to the trees and spring, when the famous flowers bloom, seems a long way off, but the notion of players walking up Magnolia Drive is one we can use to bolster us through the final weeks of icy cold weather.

This is also a time to consider who might actually win the Masters.

Will Rory McIlroy defend his Green Jacket?

Can Scottie Scheffler maintain his sensational major championship form?

Is it time for Jon Rahm to emerge from his elite level hibernation?

What we need are hints and the schedules provide us with them.

Here are five events that take place between now and the start of April that we can use to create a short list of Masters winners.

1. The Dubai Desert Classic

At first glance a resort course in the middle of the Middle Eastern desert and Augusta National don’t have much in common.

But the Majlis Course at Emirates GC has proved to be a fine pointer towards Masters success.

It was most apparent in 2016 and 2017 when Danny Willett and Sergio Garcia both completed the double.

But there is more to it than that.

The 2011 Dubai Desert Classic winner Alvaro Quiros was the first round co-leader at that year’s Masters – and Bryson DeChambeau completed that double in 2019.

In 2018, Haotong Li won in Dubai and was fourth after 18 holes at Augusta. And 2022 Dubai winner Viktor Hovland didn’t thrive in Augusta three months later but he was another to share the first round leader 15 months later.

That lag also picks up Rory McIlroy who won back-to-back in Dubai in 2023 and 2024 before winning the Masters in 2025.

Even Jose Maria Olazabal is picked up by the delay – he won in Dubai in 1998 and then the Masters in 1999. But get this: the 1999 Dubai Desert Classic was held at Dubai Creek so Olazabal was the last man to win at Majlis ahead of his Masters win, just like Garcia and Willett.

If there is a connection it might be that both back nines offer birdies and eagles so winners at Majlis are primed to attack Augusta National.

2. The Genesis Invitational

It has long been said that Augusta National suits a draw (for the right handers) and it has also long been said that, although Riviera County Club in Los Angles does the opposite (suiting a fade), the two courses are significantly linked by winners.

Fred Couples was a Masters winner and even into middle age a regular presence on the first page of the leaderboard – he also won at Riviera twice.

Three-time Masters champions Nick Faldo also won at Riviera.

So did other Green Jacket wearers such as Craig Stadler, Mike Weir, Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama.

Rahm completed the seasonal double in 2023. So did Weir in 2003 (the man he beat in extra holes, Len Mattiace, had won at Riviera in 2002!). And so did Couples in 1992.

3. The Arnold Palmer Invitational

In the last four years Scottie Scheffler has gone win-no win, win-no win at Augusta.

Does that mean he’s due a win?

Keep an eye on what he does at Bay Hill in March because he has won the Arnold Palmer Invitational there twice – and both times it was in the lead-up to the Masters tournaments that he won in 2022 and 2024.

It’s a small sample but if Scheffler is a winner at Bay Hill he might also become one at Augusta National.

4. The Players Championship

This is another small sample. Actually a very small sample, but it’s a trend that is going for the hat trick.

In 2024 Scottie Scheffler won the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass … and then won the Masters.

And in 2025 Rory McIlroy won the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass … and then won the Masters.

Maybe remember as the trophy is lifted in Florida on March 15th.

5. Last year’s majors

Hang on. Does this fifth event fit the remit at the top of the article?

In truth, of course, not quite. But this is a good trend – one that has performed solidly over the last decade – so it’s worth cheating a bit.

What do the last 10 Masters champions have in common? Every single one of them had contended in one of their previous two major championship starts.

Danny Willett in 2016 was second at halfway and finished sixth in the 2015 Open. Sergio Garcia in 2017 had been fifth at the 2016 US Open.

Patrick Reed in 2018 and Tiger Woods in 2019 had been second in the previous year’s PGA Championship.

In the disrupted 2020 season Dustin Johnson was second in the PGA Championship and sixth in the US Open before winning at Augusta late in the year.

Hideki Matsuyama, winner in 2021, had been fourth with 18 holes to play in the 2020 US Open. Scottie Scheffler had also been fourth with 18 holes to play (and finished eighth) in the 2021 Open ahead of winning the 2022 Masters.

Jon Rahm had been third after 54 holes (finishing 12th) in the US Open before his triumph in Georgia, Scheffler’s second Masters was preceded by third place in the US Open and McIlroy’s triumph came after he was second in the US Open.

In short: Masters winners tend to have spent the winter with a major championship itch – and at Augusta they scratch it.

Read next: The secrets to Rory McIlroy’s success in Dubai revealed

This week marks the playing of the Dubai Desert Classic which has been the unofficial curtain raiser to the DP World Tour season for years.

Back in 2009, Rory McIlroy claimed the first of his 45 professional victories when he got up and down from the sand at the Emirates’ famous closing hole. He also won here in 2015 and then went back-to-back in 2023 and 2024, both by a single shot.

This week he’ll start as the clear favourite as he looks to make it five wins over a course where he is always a threat. We look at what makes him tick in Dubai and at The Emirates in particular.

1) This is desert golf and therefore brings in a lot of opportunities to unleash one of his many secret weapons. Yes, his short game is underrated, his putting vastly more consistent and his wedge game greatly improved, but stick a lot of drivers in his hands and he will give himself a lot of chances. As he explained after his maiden win in 2009.

“I’m quite long off the tee and there are a lot of holes where you can cut the corners and make it a lot shorter for yourself, and I was able to do that.

“Like the 1st, if someone has my length, you can fly the bunker. You can fly the corner on the 6th hole, as well, and you can hit it a bit right on 8 and fly the corner on 9. It makes it a lot easier when you’re just a little bit longer around here.

“The greens got quite firm for the weekend and I hit it quite high, as well, which probably helped to stop it a bit, as well.”

Things have played out as expected over the interim years – McIlroy is on a current run of 12 straight top 10s in the Dubai Desert Classic.

2) McIlroy is brilliant at getting off to fast starts and, with the winning score generally being around the -20 mark, he is in the mix from day one.

From 46 starts in Dubai he has led or shared the lead on 12 occasions – he led again last week after Thursday – and he has been within two of the lead on half of those starts. We might all have dark memories of him falling out of the gates at Augusta but, at The Emirates, he storms out the blocks.

3) The Masters champ likes to get his season off to a quick start. He’s an emotional player and this will be heightened by getting a scorecard in his hand again. He’s a competitor, he’ll have some new kit in the bag and he’ll have joy putting them to the test.

This is startling: in his 21 season starts as a pro, he’s had a win, six seconds and 15 top-five finishes in his first start to the year.

“Getting a win early in the year is always important. I think it really can sort of act as a nice springboard into the rest of the year. I knew my game was in good shape and I think getting the win just sort of validates that you’re on the right path and you’re doing the right things,” he reflected after his victory in 2024.

4) Dubai has been a bit of a second/third home to McIlroy over the years. It was one of his initial sponsors and it is a place where he is very familiar with.

“I first played this tournament in 2006 so I’ve been coming here for a long time. I’ve got a level of comfort here, I like starting my year here, I have a lot of friends and I called this place home for four years. I get great support here with the crowds that come out and, when you play competitively around a course for such a long time, it just feels automatic – where you hit your tee shots, where you remember certain things about certain shots and different putts and all those things play into it.

“I feel like the arc of my career and my time in Dubai have tracked very closely. This is one region and city that I’ve won more than anywhere else in my professional career and every time I come, I just have a really good feeling when I come back to Dubai. That helps me stay relaxed and play some good golf.”

5) The simple truth is that McIlroy has made his all-round game so strong that this is pretty much the perfect playground to show off those skills. If we look at what happened in 2023, it gives us a good idea of what generally plays out.

Off the tee he had the best stats off the tee, averaging 306 yards in distance. Tee to green he picked up two shots in the field for fifth place, he was top 20 for scrambling and he was 11th for putting. Over the four rounds he didn’t three-putt once!

Read next: Revealed: Why Rory McIlroy has changed 12 clubs in Masters-winning bag

But, from the clubs that helped McIlroy slip into the Green Jacket, only the TaylorMade P760 4-iron and Spider Tour X putter remain.

So 12 clubs have made way for new ones which, even in the never-ending carousel of new gear and multi-million deals, is a significant change.

The big news is that he has removed the TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9) irons for something more forgiving, which is a ridiculous generalisation for one of the best ball-strikers of his generation. He had had the Proto irons in the bag since 2017 so this is fairly seismic news.

In have come the P7CB irons. The 4 to 6 were the first entries down at the Australian Open and then the 7-9 joined them for the weekend. And, judging by his quotes, these things seem to come to all of us in time.

“If there’s help to be had, I’ll definitely take it,” the 36-year-old said.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while. And even in Dubai at the end of last year, I hit a couple of 5-irons that I mis-struck slightly, and instead of it maybe coming up 5 or 7 yards short, it was coming up more like 10 to 15 yards short.

“So, I asked the guys at TaylorMade to build me up a set. And I actually went down to Australia with them, and with that firm turf down there, I felt like those irons were going through the turf better than the blades. And I practised with them at home since.”

Whether the P7CBs stay in the bag is open to debate but he has commented that “they even held the line a little bit better” and it’s quite a move – and it could be huge for TaylorMade that one of the best two players on the planet is using a set of irons that many of us will enjoy.

For the record the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood are still users of blades.

This past week, McIlroy finished in a tie for third at the Dubai Invitational and will now head to The Emirates for the Dubai Desert Classic, an event that he has won four times.

At Dubai Creek, McIlroy admitted that he hit a lot of drivers, as much for practice as for the purpose of the shot and his new driver, which he first employed is the Qi4D which has taken the place of the Qi10 Dot.

The new driver performed brilliantly in testing and he experimented with the Qi4D and Qi4D LS models and TaylorMade’s Senior Tour Manager, Adrian Rietveld, revealed that it was the best display of driving he had ever seen in his life during a testing session.

McIlroy gained 2mph ball speed, maxing out at 190mph, his carry distances were up to 330–340 yards and he produced a 117 RPM spin deviation which is ridiculously tight. The 3 and 5-wood have also joined the bag.

The other big news is that he has the 2026 ball in the bag, news of which will soon emerge when that launches.

A big part of McIlroy’s move to new levels was when he went with the TP5 instead of the TP5x and then came the iconic wins at Pebble Beach, Sawgrass and Augusta.

The wedges were also switched ahead of the Irish Open at the K Club in September with the release of the MG5 which moved things on from the MG4. McIlroy uses 46, 50, 54 and 61˚ wedges.

Read next: Is Rory McIlroy really the best European golfer of all time?

Huge names swapped prestige for security, including major winners Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka himself.

Now four years on from the exiles and the fallout, five-time major champion Koepka has been accepted back onto the historic tour, and the PGA have come out fighting – raising serious questions over whether LIV can retain elite talent in the long term.

Brooks Koepka’s return

The PGA Tour has undoubtedly missed a force of Koepka’s calibre during his three-and-a-half-year absence. His return marks the first major defection back to the tour.

Between 2017 and 2019, Koepka lifted four major titles in three seasons. A downturn followed, with injuries, fading confidence and declining prize money – making LIV’s phone call an attractive proposal.

Now financially secure after years of salary-based earnings, Koepka may once again be driven by competition rather than comfort – eager to test himself against the strongest fields and reclaim his standing among golf’s elite.

Guaranteed money solves a lot of problems, but it doesn’t cure competitive restlessness.

While LIV’s appeal remains largely financial of course, DeChambeau, Rahm and Smith will have all taken note of the noise surrounding Koepka’s decision.

Losing one of their most marketable stars weakens LIV’s strongest advertisement and runs the risk of viewers losing interest in the competition entirely.

PGA revival?

The PGA will have been unable to mask smirks when receiving the news of Koepka wanting back on the tour.

It was a significant milestone opportunity for them to double-down, send a statement and battle for more of their ex-stars.

The tour decided to press on and offer their former elites a chance to re-join for the 2026 season, but DeChambeau, Rahm and Smith all committed to LIV for the forthcoming term.

But seeing Koepka welcomed back with open arms by the governing body shows all players there is still a place for them in the PGA – and LIV should be worried by their signs of adaptability.

There’s nothing stopping these major winners from competing for one more year and then heading on the same route as Koepka, which could concern LIV greatly.

PGA has the advantage and it’s been ignited by Koepka’s move.

LIV’s options to halt momentum

LIV Golf promised revolution, but Koepka’s return makes it look more like a well-funded detour.

The tour must be relieved that most of their players remain in their competition for this year, but it’s a warning sign of things to come.

This must fire up talks between tours to find a way of combining resources and players in years to come, or it could set LIV on global expansion to entice other players to join them.

Options include securing world ranking points for players to rank higher while at LIV, and/or locking players into longer and stricter contracts with even more zeros on the end.

Or even positioning LIV as a complementary tour alongside the PGA, as a shorter competition with fewer events – unopposing PGA’s event-ridden tour.

They have to work on something, as the long-term sustainability of the tour remains uncertain.

But whatever way you look at it, these measures look certain to only delay the inevitable if prestige, competition and legacy continue to pull those at the top of their game back towards the PGA Tour.

Read next: Revealed: Seven future PGA stars destined for glory

For a period they were in many of our bags but they’ve certainly been overtaken by other brands, with TaylorMade and Titleist leading the way and the likes of Callaway, Ping and Cobra also producing some fantastic products.

Now Mizuno have gone for something different in their latest release. The big talking point here is the Nanoalloy face which has something of a look of the TaylorMade carbon face – but this is different.

The idea of the Nanoalloy face comes from what Mizuno have seen in their softball and tennis rackets to hit the ball faster. There is a whole load of science behind this but the gist is that it receives, stores and then releases the energy more consistently. So it’s both stiff and springy which is what you want from a driver impact.

There are two drivers in the new Mizuno line-up, the JPX One and JPX One Select, and both titanium faces are as much as 10 per cent thinner, which helps to expand the area of the face that produces the highest ball speed.

What Mizuno say: ‘The JPX One driver, the world’s first to feature Nanoalloy face technology. Developed in collaboration with materials specialists Toray, Nanoalloy utilises microscopic polymer dispersion to produce a face that dynamically alters its elasticity under impact.

“This breakthrough pairs with a newly engineered Cortech face, up to 0.35mm thinner than previousgenerations, expanding the Corarea (high-speed rebound zone) by over 15%. In robotic testing, JPX One outperformed leading competitors for both ball speed and carry, producing faster, longer, and more consistent results from every impact location.”

Mizuno JPX One and JPX One Select test and review

Having tested these the first thing to say, away from the face, is the super-premium look of both. The JPX One comes in offerings of 9, 10.5 and 12˚ with four degrees of adjustability. The JPX One Select comes in 9 and 10.5˚ with the same ability to move the loft up and down.

The JPX One is the driver for most of us. This is easier to square with a slight built-in draw bias and it has a larger footprint.

The JPX One Select is minimally more compact and is for the faster swingers of the club. There is very little in it, both look incredible when looking down on the ball and from underneath, but the Select slightly edges it even if it is so indiscriminate.

If you are testing both, then one will certainly suit you more than the other as the results offer something quite different.

For me the JPX One was ideal. In terms of ball speed it exceeded what I currently use though it’s not as explosive as I maybe imagined. But it’s solid, very solid.

I would very easily switch into this for the forgiving nature – some mishits maybe lacked the distance but the corrective nature of the club meant that there were no big misses and, as I built my confidence up, the results improved.

In testing I was able to flight it down, for that little fairway finder, as well as put more into some drives with the confidence that not too much could go wrong.

The sound is also worth noting, it is firm and poppy but certainly not enough to be off-putting.

These drivers are so eye-catching and it’s hard to think of a better looking Mizuno driver. It takes a lot for me to change driver – I’ve used the same one for eight years – but the JPX One is one that I will continue to use and test this winter.

If you do get a chance to get to a Mizuno fitting day I would very strongly recommend trying both these drivers, as you might be in for a very nice suprise.

Read next: Are Mizuno back to their best with their new Modern Series range?

It’s not easy, however, and it’s getting more and more difficult because there are fewer full field events and not so many full cards available at the end of the season.

It will therefore take sensational quality for youngsters to make the grade in 2026, not least because Scottie Scheffler is more or less guaranteed to mop up most of the wins on offer (and plenty of top 10s when he doesn’t lift the trophy).

But there is good reason to believe that we will witness the first (or second) steps in the careers of future stars in the coming weeks.

Here are seven golfers to keep an eye on in the next 12 months.

Johnny Keefer

If the 24-year-old maintains his rankings trends in 2026 we’re in for one heck of a rookie year. That’s because he ranked first on the third tier Tour de las Americas in 2024 and first again on last year’s second tier Korn Ferry Tour.

As a route to the top tier it’s absolutely exceptional and he finished seventh in the RSM Classic at the end of last year, too. In fact, in just 39 starts as a pro he has 20 top 10 finishes, three of them wins.

Don’t expect those stats to go undented, but remember the name.

Michael Thorbjornsen

The 24-year-old with a cosmopolitan background (Norwegian dad, Zimbabwean mother, represents the US) is due to take the next step in his career and there’s good reason to believe he can deliver in 2026.

He topped the PGA Tour University rankings in 2024 (which earned him immediate playing rights) and since then has been twice second, once third and twice fourth.

The one proviso to his promise is that, although he is an elite driver of the ball, the rest of his game – while capable of high quality – has a lower base level.

Christo Lamprecht

The first two rounds of the 2023 Open said much about this enormous-hitting South African. He was playing as the British Amateur Champion and thrashed a 66 to tie the first round lead but followed it with a 79 to only just make the cut.

Since turning pro he has continued to produce brilliance or mayhem but a victory on the Korn Ferry Tour last year has vaulted him onto the main stage and he’s aiming to emulate his fellow big-hitting Springbok, Aldrich Potgieter, in becoming a quick winner.

If you get the chance, watch him. The height (6’8”), the swing and the dip are all nothing less then extraordinary.

Neal Shipley

For all his undoubted skill there was a touch of the dorky high school kid about Shipley (doofus hair, tubby physique) when he was the low amateur at both the Masters and US Open in 2024.

But a full year as a pro saw him win twice and graduate from the Korn Ferry Tour, and also sharpen up his fitness. His method was neat too: he topped the putting stats and he hits it miles off the tee.

He’ll be a fan favourite and might also be a winner in 2026.

Ryan Gerard

A slightly different angle here because the 26-year-old is already a PGA Tour winner. It was, however, an opposite field event so he remains under the radar. Moreover, there’s good reason to believe that he has it in him to contend in big events.

To begin with he was T8 in the PGA Championship in May 2025, but he also ranked top 30 for Strokes Gained Tee to Green last season and that solid base works very well throughout a season and on the toughest tests.

He went to Mauritius in December – a long journey from his North Carolina base – to finish second and secure a world top 50 spot, and with it an invite to the Masters.

Michael Brennan

Let’s go with another winner from last year but one who remains something of a mystery to many. In his case it was because he’d spent the season on the third tier Tour le las Americas. Not unfruitfully, however. In fact he’d won three times on it.

Then, in the Fall Series, he landed the Utah Championship in style, topping both the Off the Tee and Tee to Green stats, thumping the ball miles. He’s maintained that since and it should offer him opportunities in 2026.

His caddie knew: midway through 2024 he told Brennan that he wouldn’t need the second tier to get to the top.

David Ford

The 23-year-old David Ford was the 2025 winner of the PGA Tour University rankings and while he only added one finish better than T40 in 13 starts in 2025 it was third place in the Utah Championship.

There are not many golfers who emerge from the college rankings without a win, but Ford landed seven of them which was a program record at North Carolina.

A lefty, he’s also a triplet and one of his brother, Maxwell, is also a fine golfer.

Read next: 7 future stars currently playing on the DP World Tour

This year he won for the first time on the PGA Tour, picking his moment perfectly to sweep up at the Tour Championship. Before that he’d blown previous chances to supposedly ‘break through’, despite having won countless times on the DP World Tour, but you would never know it.

Historically he’s had the swing yips, he’s played 36 holes on the Wednesday of an Open at Troon to try and find his swing and he’s been to places mentally that would never suggest he would go on to be the third best player in the world.

In 2025, he won his first four matches at Bethpage to help put Europe on the verge of just their fifth away victory. He now has 11 wins and two ties from 17 matches – and a ridiculous 71% overall record – but you would never know it.

He’s always answered every question and given honest answers and he’s been rewarded for all of it. Ask any of the tour staff who they best like to deal with and Fleetwood will be the first name out. It’s a lovely skill to be able to be yourself at all times and Fleetwood has it in spades.

It’s very easy to pick holes in all of them; Scheffler’s dull, Rory can be a bit Marmite to some (god knows why), Rose is a bit cheesy etc etc but Fleetwood ticks all the boxes.

If you were fancying a pint, and guarantee yourself you wouldn’t be let down, you’d have to go with Fleetwood. You’d likely get a few games of pool in, probably some darts and he’d probably happily throw in a couple of quid to enter the quiz.

Years ago I played in a pro-am with Fleetwood in Portugal, long before he had played in the Ryder Cup and not long after the swing problems. There was one tee shot – a big block right that obviously did his head in – but he was faultless throughout.

He made all of our days as enjoyable as they could ever have been and, for the last two holes, he pulled my trolley to try and cajole me into using a shot wisely.

Standing over the approach shot, he whispered ‘Show me the shot’, at which I dissolved into giggles. Minutes later he was bellowing ‘Show me the shot!’ as my (thinned) 8-iron made its way to the green.

Fleetwood has remained effortlessly cool over all these years. He’s still only 34 and you would strongly fancy that his very best years are still to come.

Now we’ve had the Rory and Augusta career slam, many of us will be hoping that our next biggest wish – Fleetwood to win a Major – will come off.

We wouldn’t be fussy over which one, the Open at Birkdale would be off-the-charts special, while his record at Augusta also makes for optimistic reading.

So, this is a very easy answer and, you would suspect, will carry on being the case for as long as he’s playing the game.

Read next: The real reason you top your irons – and how to fix it forever

Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood lead the way, but Matt Fitzpatrick, Robert MacIntyre, Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland are not far behind.

But what of the future? Is it in safe hands? The good news is that the answer is an undoubted “yes”.

Here are seven of the top young stars currently on the DP World Tour and ready to take on the best in the world.

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen

After turning pro in 2023 the Dane had a stellar season on the second tier in 2024 (including three wins) and he then ended a fine 2025 season with T3 in the DP World Tour Championship which clinched not only 15th place in the Race to Dubai but also one of the 10 PGA Tour cards for 2026.

The 26-year-old then began his 2026 DP World Tour season with victory in the Australian Open and his quality was also hinted at when he was T12 in last year’s US Open.

His veteran Aussie caddie Brian Nilsson had his bag for one week back in 2023 and knew it was a special one. He’s been proved right and the journey hasn’t ended.

Marco Penge

The big DP World Tour story of 2025 and there’s no reason to think it has ended. The Englishman began last year having scraped a card at the end of 2024 and sitting on his bum because of a betting fine. Then he turned it all around in sensational style.

He won three times in 2025 and was also second in the PGA Tour co-sanctioned Scottish Open to get involved with Ryder Cup wildcard discussions.

That, ultimately, proved a step too far but his imperious driving has been unleashed and who knows how far it will take the 27-year-old.

David Puig

A tricky one to label as a “DP World Tour” star because he plays on LIV most of the time, but he has also done everything in his power to play as much DPWT golf as possible and has always impressed when he’s done so.

In fact, in regular events, he has finished T12 or better in eight of his last nine starts at this level and the run culminated with victory in the Australian PGA Championship late last year.

Strong tee to green and with the putter, his only weakness is an unusual one for a Spaniard – he’s not great around the greens.

Jayden Schaper

In 2023, 2024 and 2025 – his first three full season on the DP World Tour – the South African impressed but lacked the killer touch. He landed 17 top 10s in those three campaigns and yet the win remained elusive.

When he finished T2 in his first start of the 2026 season it seemed like little had changed. But then he won the Alfred Dunhill Championship and Mauritius Open back-to-back and the future is now golden.

How far can he go now he has renewed confidence?

Martin Couvra

Just the seventh amateur to win on the Challenge Tour (in 2023), the Frenchman immediately turned pro and he was on the main tour by the start of the 2025 season.

Rake thin with a mop of blond hair, he landed five top five finishes in a debut season that included victory in the Turkish Airlines Open (clinched with a round of 64).

He was the Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year and although he missed out on a PGA Tour card another season in Europe will surely help the education process.

Angel Ayora

The Spaniard ran Couvra close in the Rookie of the Year race, finishing one spot behind him in the rankings and they also share a look although in Ayora’s case he is rake thin with a mop of dark hair.

Towards the end of 2025, a hot run of six top 10 finishes in seven starts emphasised his quality and he looks sure to be presence on the first page of leaderboards throughout 2026.

A first win on the DP World Tour in 2026 would be no surprise at all.

Oihan Guillamoundeguy

The Frenchman has a lot in common with his compatriot Couvra.

In Guillamoundeguy’s case he was 17 years old when he won a pro event (on the third tier in 2022) and he did it by a mere eight shots! He won again at that level in 2023 when a pro and graduated from the Challenge Tour last year thanks to a win in the Irish Challenge.

He’s inexperienced at the top level but confirmed his promise with T9 in the Mauritius Open before Christmas.

Read next: Revealed: The 7 most likely first-time Major winners in 2026

The Japanese brand have always been known for their craftsmanship and now they’ve released the all-new Modern Series with the M-13 and M-15 irons leading the way.

There is already the Signature Series (S-1 muscleback and S-3 cavity), which is Mizuno’s most traditional tour iron lineage, and the Modern Series complements this with ‘solutions in speed, stability and shot-height control, all within the classic, compact profiles trusted by elite players.’

In short better players will likely move into these irons, given the incredible look, feel and performance of both. At first glance you might think that the M-15 is the tour-preferred option, with the sharper, sleeker profile, but the M-13 is the successor to the Mizuno Pro 243.

Mizuno M-13 tech talk

Here there are three different compositions..

In the 4 and 5-irons, a Pocket Cavity Grain Flow Forged construction merges Chromoly 4120 with 431 stainless steel, enabling Mizuno’s thinnest ever Contour Ellipse Face, just 1.37mm thick, around 35% thinner than the Mizuno Pro 243. This produces higher ball speeds and distance while keeping the responsive feedback expected from a forged iron.

The 6, 7 and 8-irons, a Micro-Slot Grain Flow Forged construction with a face 0.3mm thinner than its predecessor increases flex and delivers controlled speed gains with a mid-to-high COR performance.

From 9-iron through to gap wedge, a single-piece 1025 Elite forging prioritises precision, control, and the renowned soft impact feel.

Feel and sound wise Mizuno’s Harmonic Impact Technology, combined with a copper underlay and full cavity ABS badge, fine-tunes vibration patterns and delivers a clean, tour-ready appearance.

The Triple Cut Sole introduces sharper leading edges and bevelled trailing relief, ensuring dependable turf interaction from every lie. Completing the design, a Nickel Chrome Satin Brush finish reduces glare and reinforces the premium aesthetic.

Mizuno M-15 tech talk

The M-15 is the successor to the Mizuno Pro 245 and, again, there are different make-ups as we move through the set.

In the 4 to 8-irons the multi-thickness forged construction, supported by a hollow body design, optimises ball speed and consistency while preserving the soft, responsive Mizuno feel.

To improve launch and stability, tungsten weighting of 51g in the long irons and 50.3g in the mids has been strategically suspended within the head, helping produce straighter, more forgiving performance. The long and mid irons pair a Grain Flow Forged 4135+ Chromoly face and neck with a stainless-steel back piece for additional rebound.

The 9-iron to gap wedge transitions into a partial hollow 1025E Grain Flow Forged HD body with a stainless back, a construction that emphasises control, precision and manoeuvrability.

Refined sole geometry with added bounce encourages a cleaner entry and smoother exit through the turf and the same Harmonic Impact Technology and copper underlay and Premium Nickel Chrome Satin finish complete the sound and look.

How we tested the M-13 and M-15 irons

We tested these irons on the indoor simulator at Moortown in Leeds, under the guidance of PGA Professional Eddie Hammond. We had the 5, 7 and 9-iron in each and predominantly hit the 7.

The findings

1) These are long. I play TaylorMade P790 irons which are fairly explosive and are at least one club less than any previous iron that I’ve used. Both the the M-13 and the M-15 carried further.

The TaylorMade has a loft of 30˚ while the M-15 is 29˚ but the M-13 is 32˚. My ball speed was up by 5mph with the M-15 and by 3mph with the M-13.

2) There is so little difference in terms of what you are looking down on with either Mizuno iron. Having used this brand from the age of 16-30 (Tour Pro Original) it was a lovely reminder that a Mizuno iron is the best looking out there.

The M-15 would be my personal preference, for looks and feel, but this is so marginal. Either iron is spectacularly good.

3) My Handicap Index is 5.3 so, in my head, I probably thought the M-15 would suit me more with a bit more forgiveness etc etc.

We’re all quick to want to pigeon hole clubs into categories like ‘players irons’ but the M-13 worked better for me. There was slightly less distance but it still out-performed my own iron.

“The M-15 is probably a comparison to your P790,” explains Hammond.

“It’s one degree stronger in loft so there’s maybe a little bit in there but the fact that the M-13 probably isn’t designed to be compared against your 790, but it’s coming off the face three miles an hour faster in ball speed, but it’s good for you because the launch is higher because it’s two degrees weaker than your P790, which is then getting your peak height up by three yards and then getting the descent angle up. But actually you’re gaining three yards.

“If you were to compare all three of those clubs and say, what’s the best club there for you, it’s not necessarily the longest. There’s a gain of three yards going to the M-13 because of that ball speed, but the fact you’ve now got more control hitting the ball into a green because it’s coming down steeper, that would be the winner.”

4) The 5-iron, a club I no longer have in the bag, was also very playable and certainly easier to launch than what I was expecting. If I was to play these I’d certainly include at least the 5-iron and play around with the lofts.

This surely doesn’t need repeating but find a good fitter if you are going to try these as there are all sorts of ways that you can nail down your yardage gaps.

5) Srixon dominated the irons rankings in 2025, a market where Mizuno have always excelled, and with the introduction of this Modern Series range we might well see things revert to how things were.

Answer: It was the last year when not at least one of the four major championships wasn’t won by a first-time winner of them.

The only other year in the 21st century that this feat didn’t happen was 2000 so the chances are that we’ll see another major maiden in 2026.

But who will emulate JJ Spaun (who completed his major breakthrough in 2025)?

Here are the seven most likely candidates:

Tommy Fleetwood

The Englishman is almost certainly the best player in the world who is yet to win a major and now that he has finally landed a victory in America – at last August’s Tour Championship, no less – he should be primed to finally land one of the four tournaments that truly define a career.

He’s been second in the US Open (2018), second in the Open (2019) and T3 in the Masters (2024). In all, he has seven top five finishes from 41 major championship starts. But, against that, has a best of only T16 in his last seven appearances in them.

That really ought to change in 2026 and Royal Birkdale, the Open host venue, is essentially his golfing backyard.

Ludvig Aberg

On potential alone the Swede is probably second only to Fleetwood and he’ll be licking his lips about the first major of the year because he’s taken a real shine to Augusta National and the Masters.

He was second on debut in 2024 and T7 last year when bang in the mix until very late in the final round. He was also T12 in the 2024 US Open but he’s missed four cuts in his eight major starts so there is a sense of boom or bust about his efforts.

He’s still just 26, with two Ryder Cup wins behind him, and take note that one of his two PGA Tour wins was at a major-hosting course – Torrey Pines in 2025.

Cameron Young

It took the New Yorker an unexpectedly long time to land a win on the PGA Tour but, having done so in last August’s Wyndham Championship, he went on to thrive at the Ryder Cup and it ought to prompt a further gain in confidence in 2026.

Like Aberg, he tends to thrive or struggle in majors. He’s made 18 starts with six top 10s against nine failures to break the top 60. He’s played well in all four majors, though: second at the 2022 Open, third in that year’s PGA Championship, two top 10s in the Masters and fourth last year in the US Open.

Always superb tee-to-green, his putting is now much improved.

Robert MacIntyre

Now a four-time DP World Tour winner, two-time PGA Tour champion, a Ryder Cup star in 2023 and 2025, and ranked in the world’s top 10, the Scot’s next obvious step is major championship success.

He’s a three-time top 10 finisher in the Open and has also won the Scottish Open and Dunhill Links Championship so he’s an obvious links expert. But he’s also finished T12 at the Masters, T8 in the PGA Championship and was second in last year’s US Open.

Maiden major winners tend to contend in another major shortly before their breakthrough so that latter effort could be key this year.

Tyrrell Hatton

The Englishman has a very well-rounded career CV with 13 career worldwide wins including eight on the DP World and one each on the PGA Tour and LIV as well as Ryder Cup glory.

The gap is in the majors but he did finish top 20 in three of four of them in 2025 and he has a top 10 finish in all four throughout his career.

Given his fondness for links golf (he’s a three-time Dunhill Links Championship winner), you’d suspect the Open is his best chance of success.

Sam Burns

It took the 29-year-old a long time to come to terms with playing major championship golf. Indeed, despite winning five times on the PGA Tour (the most recent of them the elite 2023 WGC World Match Play), he didn’t finish top 10 in a major until 2024.

That was 16 majors with more or less nothing to show for the effort but top 10s came in both of the last two US Open and he did briefly contend in the 2024 Open (albeit helped greatly by a significant change in the weather).

He struggled when leading the US Open in the final round last year so the question is: will that be a learning, or a scarring, experience?

Russell Henley

Harris English might easily have landed this last nod because in 2025 he finished second in the PGA Championship and T2 in the Open. But we’ll plump for another 16-year-old instead.

Henley, like Burns, took a long time registering a first top 10 (fourth at the 2023 Masters, his 32nd major). But, significantly, he’s finished top 10 in the last two US and British Opens (which means he’s got four top 10s in his last six majors).

He’s learning to love links golf and all five of his PGA Tour wins have been at windy locations. He also owns Masters connections: he’s from Georgia and his birthday falls on Masters Sunday in 2026.

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