Winners & losers of 2026

[Highfade]

Happy new year!

New pro season almost upon us.
Who’s doing what?

Who wins the majors?
Who is the emerging player?
Who is the reinvigorated player?
Who fails to live up to 2025 levels?
Who falls off the planet?

Masters. Scheffler
PGA. Schauffle
US open. Scheffler (career slam)
Open. Fleetwood

Emerging. Penge wins on PGA tour.
Reinvigorated. Koepka
Career stall. Aberg
Disappear act (not tiger). Hovland

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

Interesting questions and tough to predict this year I think, but I’ll give it a crack. .

Masters. Aberg (the course suits him, 2 appearances and finishes 2nd and 7th)

PGA. Rory (Games in great shape and tough course will suit a top level ball striker like McIlroy)

US open. Scheffler (career slam and just can’t see anyone else beating him at Shinnecock)

Open. Ben Griffin (Not the longest but putting in superb)

Emerging: Johnny Keefer ( Korn Ferry scoring average record and already in top 50 OGWR before even teeing it up on PGAT)

Reinvigorated. Wyndham Clark great ball striker and showing early improvement.

Career stall. Justin Thomas ( just a blip and a bad year imo ahead for him, coming off surgery and injury think it’ll be a tough year)

Disappear act : Rickie Fowler (already on a downward spiral)

 

[Orikoru]

Fleetwood HAS to win a major. He is too bloody good not to now. Clearly a top 3 player with Scottie and Rory for me.

Would like to see the re-emergence of Max Homa. And I think it could be a big year for Cam Young.

Masters & US Open: Scottie
The Open: Tommy
PGA: Young

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

Fleetwood HAS to win a major. He is too bloody good not to now. Clearly a top 3 player with Scottie and Rory for me.

They said that about Donald,Westwood and Montgomery, 2 former world No1’s and arguably the most successful European tour player.. Doesn’t always work out for them, would absolutely love to see Tommy do it but something just niggles me to think it won’t happen. Agree about Homa would like to see him do well again.

 

[Orikoru]

They said that about Donald,Westwood and Montgomery, 2 former world No1’s and arguably the most successful European tour player.. Doesn’t always work out for them, would absolutely love to see Tommy do it but something just niggles me to think it won’t happen. Agree about Homa would like to see him do well again.

Tommy's better than them now! Unbelievable player.

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

Tommy's better than them now! Unbelievable player.

Is he world No1 or best European player. The answer is no mate so is he better than them I agree he’s unbelievable and I’d love it to happen but nobody is to good not to win a major and the competition is fiercer now.

 

[rksquire]

Masters. Rory
PGA. Scheffler
US open. JJ Spaun
Open. Fleetwood

Emerging: McKibbin wins on LIV, has a top 10 Masters
Reinvigorated: Spieth & Pepperell & Theegala
Career stall: Koepka - no mans land; DPWT won't cut it.
Disappear act: (not tiger): Bhatia (Doesn't apply in every case, but like Finau, feel Bhatia should have took the money although I feel like Bhatia and Theegala as a pair should have been the LIV acquisition strategy)

 

[irip]

Masters. Bryson
PGA. Rory
US open. Cantlay
Open. Scheffler

Emerging: Penge (maybe not emerging but think wil do well in US)
Reinvigorated: Spieth
Career stall: Spaun
Disappear act: (not tiger): Lowry

 

[The Squirrel]

Well the highest probability of being right for any and every given major is to go:

Masters. Scheffler
PGA. Scheffler
US open. Scheffler
Open. Scheffler

So take that as my "scientific" pick.

More of a interesting selection would be:

Masters: Theegala - relying on 2024 version rather than 2025 version turning up in 2026, but he's pretty good round there!
PGA: Cam Young - it's the most random major; he's a good plyaer - as good a guess as any.
US Open: Tommy F. Was 2nd last time it was there and he's a WAAAAAAY better player now so the result is surely a forgeone conclusion. That's how golf works, right?
Open: Tyrell Hatton. Let's assume he spent the winter reading calming self-help books. Basically a very good links player and is (or should be) always the favourite at the Alfred Dunhill which is sort of 50% at St Andrews. Just needs to stop being so angry.

 

[sjw]

TGL Winners - Boston Common

 

[sunshine]

TGL Winners - Boston Common

Fair play

 

[sunshine]

Most likely for every major is Sheffler. Who I would like to see...

Masters: Rose - lost 2 play offs now so 3rd time lucky?
PGA: McIlroy
US open: Fleetwood
Open: Rahm

Emerging: Sam Burns. I know he's not a rookie but I think he might step up this year.
Reinvigorated: Schaufelle
Career stall: Spaun (difficult second album)
Disappear act: (not tiger): Hovland

 

[wjemather]

Masters: DeChambeau
PGA: Niemann
USO: Hatton
Open: Rahm

Emerging: Ballester
Resurgent: Smith, Wolff
Declining: Mickelson
Disappears: Koepka (that was an easy one!)

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Who wins the majors?
Who is the emerging player?
Who is the reinvigorated player?
Who fails to live up to 2025 levels?
Who falls off the planet?

Majors

Masters - Scheffler
US PGA - Aberg
US Open - Rory
The Open - Tommy

Emerging - Think Ayora will have a standout year on the DP tour

Reinvigorated- Homa or even Hovland who seems to be looked at a lot less these days

Fails to live up to expectations- McKibben - been blown up to be the next superstar of golf in the same way Niemman was last season

Falls of the planet - Ben Griffin will plummet down the rankings , Henley maybe or even Cantlay

 

[kp17]

I think fleetwoods got to finally get one this year, hard to not see Scottie getting a couple. I think Penge will do well on PGA and it would be great to see Koepka back in Europe getting a win somewhere again.