Throw a dart at the PGA Tour’s 2026 schedule and you’ll hit something that’s likely to inspire — a first-time winner shaking hands with Tiger Woods moments after holding off Rory McIlroy in a finish that read like it was filmed in the backlot of a Hollywood studio to 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 and dramatic major championships to a pair of twentysomethings breaking through for their first career wins this summer — and finding the biggest and brightest chunks of golf.
Before we get into power rankings 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 for it a year ago. Nonetheless, three wins — his season-opening waltz in Hawaii, besting Masters champion 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 case entering the postseason and therefore makes it impossible for us to ignore the 27 year-old New Jersey native who sits No. 7 in the world and on the precipice of making the Presidents Cup roster for Medinah.
Same sentiments extend to the RBC Canadian Open champ Cauley and Kim, this year’ Scottish Open winner who outlasted a strong field at the Renaissance Club and who was also absolutely nails at the U.S. Open a few weeks prior.
OK, so now that those “honors” have been bestowed, let’s get the countdown going from Nos. 10 to 1.
10. Koivun immediately delivers on hype, wins 3M
When was the last time a Tour newcomer made such an impression this year in his career? We’re still waiting on how to exactly define what Jackson Koivun’s introduction to the golf world writ large means in the historic sense. Time will tell that much we can all agree on but bottom line is a win in your third career start is just ludicrously good stuff.
An argument could be made that this honestly be higher considering it came a mere 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 aforementioned 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 a bit but since Collin Morikawa did have his moment in the winner’s circle at Pebble Beach to kick off the signature event season we’re giving ourselves the ability to Trojan Horse his entire season as worthy of applause.
Why? Morikawa rose from No. 16 to No. 11 this year in the world rankings (reaching as high as fourth in March), all while playing through a nagging 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,” said Morikawa at the BMW Championship in August where he finished T-4 after four straight rounds in the 60s. “It’s frustrating because it all kinds of bleeds down and the driver hasn’t been as good this week, but finding a way.”
The BMW was one of five T-5 finishes for Morikawa (including the win at Pebble) in 2026, a year where he missed the cut at his 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 379 yards off the tee — more than 88 yards longer than the average driving distance for the field on the 18th hole all week — to go on to win 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 that has the slightest of edges.
And in case history forgets: Young hit 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 official world rankings — going from No. 203 on New Year’s Eve 2025 to No. 61 after his T-4 finish at the Tour Championship this past weekend.
It was one of six T-10 finishes for a player who kept submitting himself time and time again as a nominee for best story of the year.
6. Fox connects on ‘Putt of the Year’ to hoist Claret Jug
In terms of best highlights, this one isn’t even debatable. Ryan Fox 11-foot birdie putt on No. 18 at Birkdale is the stuff of golf legends. It honestly should be higher but the final five — the back nine, if you will — is quite loaded.
The 2026 Open champ connected on an absolutely beauty of a stroke that gave him the one-shot win over Young, who was eagerly awaiting in the clubhouse playoff opportunity to avenge his 2022 Open runner-up at St. Andrews. It never came.
“It was looking pretty good there for a minute but he made some putts down the stretch, and that’s kind of how it goes,” said Young a week later before the Rocket Classic. “But I was in a position where the overwhelming likelihood on the last hole is I was going to be in a playoff at worst, and he hit three amazing shots so that kind of is what it is. If I’m anybody but me, that’s a lot of fun to watch. I was obviously hoping for a different outcome.”
5. McIlroy does it again at Augusta
Too high? No way! This one was historic — even if it didn’t come easy for Rory McIlroy. As emotionally satisfying as the 2025 Masters win for McIlroy, there’s something equally memorable about this repeat performance where he joined Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as the only players to successfully defend their green jacket.
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 six-stroke lead to Young on Sunday when the 29-year-old American held the outright lead 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 of Hartford
Got to agree with Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner that the 2026 Travelers was the best that the PGA Tour has to offer: A sudden-death playoff on a Monday morning between two stars on an excellent course with palpable energy in the air.
If only it last 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 rolled his birdie attempt a bit too firm.
That result coupled with when it happened — in the middle of 2026 World Cup pandemonium in the northeast — added fuel to the argument that this was nothing short of an instant match-play classic. Add in Scheffler’s 59 chase on Friday dashed with the bogey-birdie flip between Scheffler-Hovland on the final hole to change the 54-hole lead the very next day and you’ve got nothing but high stakes and anticipation.
3. Scottie 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 but we’re going to make an exemption for the world’s top-ranked player, who put to sleep any notion that the Tour’s Player of the Year award was going anywhere but the Scheffler household for the fifth consecutive season over the span of three weeks in August.
And yes, we have to include the triumvirate of FedExCup playoff events which saw Scheffler win two events (one in Memphis by eight strokes and the Tour Championship in Atlanta by three in a redemption quest over Hovland) and finish T-12 in St. Louis despite playing the entire BMW Championship with hand, foot and mouth disease. Blisters on his hands be damned — nothing was stopping Scheffler from putting an exclamation point on a historic individual campaign in 2026.
2. Clark overcomes LI crowds 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 to make history and become the 23rd person to capture the USGA’s biggest price twice in his career.
The final 18 holes were an odyssey for Clark, one that he came home from despite not bringing his best game. A Sunday 73 typically wouldn’t be enough to get it done at any tournament Scheffler’s playing in — let alone a major, but the 32-year-old Denver native defied just about everything — expectations, boos, and himself — over the 72-hole test.
A year removed from the nadir of career at Oakmont where he notoriously smashed lockers after missing the 2025 U.S. Open cut, Clark walked out of New York redeemed. His popularity still not where he might want it to be at, but his game in as good as shape as just about anyone on the planet at the present moment.
“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 on Sunday afternoon when he walked up the 18th fairway and onto the green. After sinking his final putt, Woodland extended his arms out and looked up at 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 continues to deal with every day of his life. In the second round of the very same tournament he won at 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.
He made the event — sitting inside the top 30 in FedExCup points — for the first time in six years. Beyond inspiring millions around the world, Woodland began the year No. 125 in the world. He’s now No. 43 and knocking on the door of the U.S. Presidents Cup team after a career-defining year.
