Mark SchlabachJan 14, 2026, 10:00 AM ETCloseSenior college football writer Author of seven books on college football Graduate of the University of GeorgiaFollow on X
Reigning U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, Russell Henley, Collin Morikawa and defending champion Nick Taylor are among the top golfers competing at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu this week.
The start of the season comes a week later than usual, as The Sentry was canceled because of drought conditions on Maui. The West Coast swing will continue with four tournaments in California and one in Arizona through late February.
While world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler and reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy are still the men to beat, there are plenty of intriguing storylines heading into the season.
Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka is back, after he resigned from the LIV Golf League on Dec. 23 and accepted severe financial penalties to return to the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour also opened a pathway for LIV Golf captains Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith to return, but those golfers seem committed to staying where they are, at least for now.
Here are the top storylines for 2026, rookies to watch, and the golfers who are looking to bounce back or win their first major championship in 2026.
Last season, all eyes were on McIlroy, as he became only the sixth golfer to join golf’s most exclusive fraternity with his long-awaited victory at the Masters.
Now, after Scheffler added PGA Championship and Open Championship wins in 2025 to his two Masters green jackets, he’s only a U.S. Open victory away from becoming the seventh.
The world No. 1 became one of the tour’s better putters last season by using a new claw grip, perhaps eliminating the only shortcoming in his game. He was trying out a new driver, the TaylorMade Qi4D, in last month’s Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
Scheffler is an overwhelming betting favorite to win the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, on June 18-21, as well as the other three majors.
McIlroy’s playoff victory over Justin Rose at Augusta National was the biggest story of 2025. What will Rory do for an encore?
McIlroy is again starting the season in the Middle East, where he’ll compete in this week’s Dubai Invitational and next week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic. He isn’t scheduled to play in the U.S. until Feb. 12-15 in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he’s the defending champion.
With one more victory in a major, Rory would match England’s Nick Faldo’s six, which is the most by a European golfer in the modern era. Another Race to Dubai title on the DP World Tour would also match Colin Montgomerie’s record eight.
McIlroy and Scheffler have combined to win 23 times around the world over the past two seasons. They’ve clearly pulled away from the pack on the PGA Tour. Is anyone else ready to challenge them this season?
Defending FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood has climbed to No. 3 in the world, but even he knows there’s still a wide gap.
“You know, challenging the top two players in the world, I’m not going to say that that’s something that I’m not focused on and not interested in,” Fleetwood said in Dubai on Wednesday. “Of course, you are and you want to see where you can get to, but that’s a long road ahead. That’s not going to happen next week or in a couple months’ time.”
Can younger players such as Ludvig Åberg, Viktor Hovland and Cameron Young take the next step in their careers and become more consistent? Will Xander Schauffele, who won his first two majors in 2024, bounce back after a painful rib injury derailed much of his 2025 campaign?
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity,” Fleetwood said. “I really think Scottie and Rory, they already are but definitely when we look back at this time, those two are going to be very high up there in the greatest players of all time. To be the next guy at this current time, you know, that could change next week or in a month, whatever that may be. I just think it’s very, very cool and very special, and I just love the fact that I am sort of in the mix.”
Koepka’s return from the LIV Golf League — and his reception from PGA Tour members — will be one of the most watched developments on tour.
The five-time major champion is undoubtedly one of the best golfers of his generation. But his game seemed to be floundering in LIV Golf. He finished 31st in points last season. After failing to finish in the top 25 in each of the four majors in 2024, he missed the cut in three of four last season. He tied for 12th in the U.S. Open.
Will playing more frequently help him turn it back on? We’ll begin to find out when he tees it up Jan. 29-Feb. 1 in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines outside San Diego. Koepka is scheduled to play the next week in the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, too.
“I think it’s great,” Rickie Fowler said. “He’s wanted to be back playing with us for quite a while, so I’m very happy that we’re back in the position where we’re at now. I think the guys that were involved on the board level and the players that are involved, I think they did a great job of figuring out how [to] make this happen.”
Tiger Woods, who serves on the PGA Tour board of directors, said the tour worked to try to make it equitable for everyone involved. While Koepka is eligible to compete in full-field events and the Players, he’ll have to earn his way into the eight signature events with $20 million purses. He won’t take another golfer’s spot, either. He will be added to fields.
“Yes, there are opinions from both sides,” Woods said. “We’re not going to satisfy everyone. We know that. But the whole idea is to make our tour better than what it was. With Brooks’ addition to the tour, it does. It makes it a better place to play. Now, with players who have earned equity, and there are four more years of potential earning of equity for these players, the fact that they own the tour, if Brooks plays, it puts more money in their pocket. It’s a win for everyone.”
Woods and other members of the Future Competition Committee are looking ahead to 2027 and ’28, as PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has pushed his vision for “parity, scarcity and simplicity” as a way to revamp the tour. In other words, the 2026 season might be the last time golf fans see 38 events during the FedEx Cup season.
While the changes might not come until 2028, future PGA Tour schedules figure to start later (after the Super Bowl) and finish earlier (before the NFL kicks off) and have fewer events and more off weeks. The goal, according to sources, is to get the tour back in the biggest markets in the U.S., while still playing at the most iconic courses.
“There’s going to be some eggs that are spilled and crushed and broken, but I think that in the end we’re going to have a product that is far better than what we have now, for everyone involved,” Woods said at last month’s Hero World Challenge.
The two tournaments in Hawaii are apparently in danger of being dropped because of logistical costs, as well as some other longtime tournaments.
Tommy Fleetwood Fleetwood no longer carries the burden of having never won on the PGA Tour after he captured last season’s Tour Championship. He played as well as anyone outside of Scheffler last season, when he had eight top 10s and 15 top 25s in 19 starts. Fleetwood finished in the top four of each of the three FedEx Cup playoff events.
“I’ve had a lot of great results, and I think the big story was that I had not won on the PGA Tour,” Fleetwood said. “I managed to get that one done, but I still felt like I wasn’t doing anything. The question is, what was different? Like it was an amazing run of form and played great, but I never felt like I was doing anything that different. I was just playing — that’s the thing when you’re playing really well, you’re playing how you know you can play, and that’s the key.”
Ludvig Åberg The free-swinging Swede had six top 10s and 11 top 25s and picked up his second PGA Tour victory at the Genesis Invitational last season. His iron play wasn’t nearly as good as his rookie season, but he’s too good not to turn it around. Åberg finished second and seventh in his first two starts in the Masters.
Russell Henley At 36, Henley is playing some of the best golf of his career. Last season, he got his fifth PGA Tour victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and finished in the top 15 in strokes gained: total, tee to green, approach and around the green. He finished in the top 10 in each of the past two U.S. Opens and Open Championships.
Cameron Young Young’s pro career seemed to be floundering until he finally won on tour in the Wyndham Championship on Aug. 3. He finished in the top 11 in each of his last five starts in 2025. He has performed well in the majors with six top 10s in his past 15 starts in the big four, including a tie for fourth in the 2025 U.S. Open.
“It’s high,” Young said of his confidence. “I feel like I’m in a good place. I’ve kind of ticked some career boxes over the course of the last six, seven months, and to me it’s really just a matter of building on all of the proof that I had before that my good golf is good enough to do all the things that I want to do in the game of golf. Yeah, so I’m really excited to get the season started and kind of hope to continue some of the momentum that I had [at] the end of last season.”
Viktor Hovland Only 28, Hovland has already won seven times on tour, including last year’s Valspar Championship. He constantly tinkers with his swing, but when he’s on, few are better at striking the ball. He has five top 10s in his past 13 starts in majors. He was solo third in the 2025 U.S. Open.
Jordan Spieth The two-time major champion was working his way back from left wrist surgery last season. He showed signs of life with a tie for fourth in the WM Phoenix Open and for 14th in the Masters. He had eight top 25s and four top 10s in 19 starts. Spieth has won only twice in the past eight seasons and not since April 2022. It’s time for him to lift a trophy again.