Throw a dart at the PGA Tour’s 2026 schedule and you’ll hit something that’s likely to inspire. There was a first-time winner shaking hands with Tiger Woods moments after a Hollywood finish in LA. There was the first Englishman to capture the PGA Championship in the stroke-play era.
We’re not throwing darts here, though, eschewing any randomness for the sake of crowning a new No. 1. No, Scottie Scheffler isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
This exercise is about sifting through all the greatness the year had to offer — from four sensational major championships to a pair of 20somethings breaking through for their first career wins this summer — and finding the biggest and brightest chunks of golf.
Before we get into ranking the year’s best moments, we’ll hand out a trio of honorable mentions to Chris Gotterup, Bud Cauley and Tom Kim.
Gotterup’s breakthrough run is hard to limit to just 2026, as he gained plenty of momentum a year ago. Nonetheless, three wins — his season-opening waltz in Hawaii, besting Hideki Matsuyama at TPC Scottdale two weeks later, and overcoming a five-shot deficit to capture the John Deere Classic with his brother on the bag over Fourth of July weekend — created a legitimate player of the year candidacy.
The same sentiments extend to RBC Canadian Open champ Cauley and Genesis Scottish Open champ Kim, who outlasted a strong field at the Renaissance Club.
OK, so now that those “honors” have been bestowed, let’s get the countdown going.
10. Koivun immediately delivers on hype, wins 3M
When was the last time a Tour newcomer made such an impression this early in his career? We’re still waiting on how to define what Jackson Koivun’s introduction to the golf world writ large means in the historic sense. Time will tell, that much we can agree on, but bottom line is: a win in your third career start is ridiculously good.
An argument could be made that this could be higher considering it came six weeks after the 21-year-old led the Auburn Tigers to their second national championship in three years. Oh, and he also finished T-23 at the U.S. Open in between those two landmark resume accomplishments. Something tells us the name Koivun will become a staple on lists like these in the years to come.
9. Morikawa redefines resilience in comeback campaign
There are three “moments” on this list that push the definition of the word, but since Collin Morikawa did have his moment in the winner’s circle at Pebble Beach, his first Tour victory since 2023, we’ll use it to signify his comeback.
Why? Morikawa rose from No. 16 to as high as fourth in the world this year, all while playing through a nagging back injury that caused him to withdraw twice in the spring.
“Kind of day in, day out — some days I feel good, some days I don’t. Just have to kind of play with what I have,” Morikawa said at the BMW Championship in August, where he finished T-4.
The BMW was one of five top-5 finishes for Morikawa (including the win at Pebble) in 2026, a year where he missed the cut at the Sony in Hawaii before going 15-for-15 the rest of the way.
“Everyone always talks about, says, ‘Beware of the injured golfer. Beware of the sick golfer,’ but it makes you really focus on the simple things,” Morikawa said in St. Louis. “Trust me, I go down a lot of rabbit holes in this game. We all do. But when I’ve got one shot to work with, it takes away some of the shots that I want to be able to feed into other pins. But at the same time sometimes it makes me play a little more center greens, just a little more smart and think about the misses and think about where I need to be.”
8. Young’s brain-breaking tee shot on final hole at Players
There are highlight shots and then there’s Cameron Young white-knuckle tee shot at the 18th hole of The Players Championship this year.
Young went 375 yards off the tee — the longest tee shot on the Stadium Course’s final hole in the ShotLink era — en route to winning the $25 million event over Matt Fitzpatrick. This came very close to being the best head-to-head battle of superstars this season, but there’s one more we’ll get to in a bit.
And in case history forgets: Young found water off the tee on the same hole just a day prior.
7. Fitzpatrick brothers unite in NOLA
Matt Fitzpatrick had a few hallmark moments this season but the apex had to be winning with his brother, Alex, in the Big Easy at the Tour’s only team event. The victory clinched a PGA Tour card for the younger Fitzpatrick, who was set to fly out to Turkey that evening to play in DP World Tour event.
Instead, Alex Fitzpatrick went on to take the biggest leap of anyone in the world rankings — going from No. 203 on New Year’s Eve to No. 61 after his T-4 finish at the Tour Championship this past weekend.
It was one of six top-10 finishes for a player who kept submitting himself time and time again as a nominee for best story of the year.
6. Fox holes ‘Putt of the Year’ to hoist claret jug
In terms of best highlights, this one isn’t even debatable. Ryan Fox’s 11-foot birdie putt on No. 18 at Royal Birkdale is the stuff of legend.
The 2026 Open champ delivered a beauty of a stroke that gave him a one-shot win over Young, who was in the clubhouse eagerly awaiting a playoff to avenge his 2022 runner-up at St. Andrews. Fox denied him that opportunity.
“You can’t feel your hands, I know that,” said Fox when asked about what the moment before the shot was like. “My focus with the putter all day was just take a really deep breath before I hit it and just try to hit a line, and I did that on 18. I was shaking. I was just trying to get it up there near the hole.
“It looked pretty straight, and thankfully it dove in that left edge,” he added. “It’s crazy, I don’t really know what to think — I don’t know how I managed to keep the putter face square enough for that to go online, but I’ll take it.
5. McIlroy does it again at Augusta
Too high? No way! This one was historic — even if it didn’t come easily for Rory McIlroy. As satisfying as the 2025 Masters win for McIlroy, there’s something equally memorable about this repeat performance, in which he joined Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as the only players to win back-to-back at the Masters.
McIlroy’s sixth major victory tied him with Faldo for the most by any European in the modern era. He was able to match that number by holding off Scheffler, who was runner-up by a shot in what proved to be the year’s most star-studded major championship finish.
While history will show it was Scheffler in solo second, Young applied a good dose of pressure at this major, too. McIlroy blew a record-tying six-stroke lead to Young on Sunday when the American grabbed the outright advantage on the first nine before three bogeys in a four-hole stretch around the turn.
Those errors opened the door for McIlroy — and the rest as the say is ... well you know.
4. Hovland holds off Scheffler outside Hartford
Got to agree with Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner that the Travelers was the best non-major of the season: A Monday-morning, sudden-death playoff between two stars on an excellent course with palpable energy in the air.
If only it lasted more than a dozen minutes! Oh well, can’t say it wasn’t a thrilling way to start the work week. Viktor Hovland’s 7-foot birdie putt was enough to capture the final signature event of the season as Scheffler missed his putt to tie.
That result, coupled with when it happened — in the middle of World Cup pandemonium in the Northeast — made this an instant classic. There was also Scheffler’s 59 chase on Friday and a two-shot swing between Scheffler and Hovland on the 54th hole Saturday. Nothing but high stakes and anticipation.
3. Scheffler slams door shut on POY debate
Some may say that adding two events together gives this “moment” an unfair weight compared to others on the list. However, we’re going to make an exemption for the world’s top-ranked player. Scheffler put to rest during the playoffs any notion that the Tour’s player of the year award was going anywhere but his house for the fifth consecutive season.
He won the FedEx St. Jude by eight strokes and then overcame hand, foot and mouth disease at the BMW Championship to tie for 12th. Scheffler then capped his postseason run with his second Tour Championship title in three years.
2. Clark overcomes crowd for second U.S. Open
Long Island fans were admonished in the days following Sunday’s final round at Shinnecock Hills. And that’s because U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark had to power through a gallery that was openly rooting against him.
The final 18 holes were an odyssey for Clark, one he navigated without his best form. A Sunday 73 typically wouldn’t be enough to beat Scheffler, particularly in a major. But the 32-year-old Denver native defied everything — a brutal test, expectations, boos and himself — for a one-shot triumph.
A year removed from the nadir of his career at Oakmont, where he notoriously smashed lockers after missing the U.S. Open cut, Clark left New York having redeemed himself by winning his second national title.
“Everyone gives me a hard time and roots for other people,” he said in St. Louis after winning the BMW. “Three wins in one season is my best year yet, coming off my worst.”
1. In throes of trauma, Woodland stays grounded and wins
Gary Woodland won in life as much as he did on the golf course in 2026 — and that’s a lot. This year’s Texas Children’s Houston Open champ provided golf fans with a goosebump-filled moment when he walked up the 18th fairway at Memorial Park. After sinking his final putt, Woodland extended his arms and looked to the sky.
It came just a few weeks after an interview with Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard, where Woodland shared he was suffering from PTSD after having a lesion removed from his brain in 2023.
While the interview provided Woodland with much-needed relief, it was far from a cure to what he deals with every day. In the second round of the tournament in Houston, Woodland admitted to experiencing a terrifying PTSD episode where he genuinely believed people were trying to kill him on the course.
“I didn’t have the luxury of looking ahead, my expectations were one day at a time — I was just trying to get through each day and I still am, but I understand how to do that now,” Woodland told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis at the Tour Championship last week.
Beyond inspiring millions around the world, Woodland rose from No. 125 in the world to No. 43, qualifying for the playoff finale for the first time in six years.