2026 Major Championship Grades

Today I’m grading player performances in the 2026 major championships. The evaluations are on a curve. If you’re 27 or younger, majors are about getting in the mix, gaining experience, and proving you have the game to contend with the best players in the world on demanding golf courses. If you’re an established veteran, it’s about contending consistently. If you’re Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy, it’s about winning. 

I couldn’t include every player, so I graded most of the top players in the world along with a handful of other interesting names. 

A Few Notes

Sam Burns was by far the most impressive non-major winner this year. His final-round 67 at Shinnecock Hills, when he nearly caught Wyndham Clark from seven shots back, was one of the best rounds of the year. He also handled that heartbreaking loss magnanimously. Burns then entered the final round at Royal Birkdale with a two-shot lead, once again putting himself in the mix at a major. He was one of just three players — along with Cameron Young and Scottie Scheffler —  to record multiple top-five finishes in the majors this year, and he also finished T-7 at the Masters. Alongside Young, Burns is one of the most likely players to take down their first major next year. 

The 2026 major season was close to being extremely successful for Cameron Young. He entered Sunday at Augusta tied for the lead before a mediocre final round left him two shots short. After shooting a back nine 40 on Saturday at Royal Birkdale, Young still nearly won the Open, bogeying the 72nd hole to card a 64 and come up one shot shy of Ryan Fox. “I walk away feeling like I could have won with a C-plus day in there,” Young said afterward. His assessment is correct. He is one of the few golfers in the world with so much talent that he can win major championships while leaving shots on the golf course. Young made the cut but underwhelmed in the two other majors, so I cannot grade him higher than a B+. But he should head into next season with loads of confidence, knowing that if he stays the course, he could very well find himself lifting a major championship trophy in the near future. 

Michael Brennan was one of just 14 players to make the cut in all four majors this year. He is consistently one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world, a projectable and valuable skill. Brennan has a lot of tidying up he must do throughout the rest of the bag, particularly on and around the greens, but he is only 24 years old. While he might not have finished better than T-24 in any of the four majors, making all four cuts is a positive sign of what his future may hold. Overall, it was a very positive major season for Brennan.  

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Outside the majors, Ryan Gerard has posted three runner-up finishes on Tour this season, most notably at the Memorial Tournament. He transformed his biggest liability, his putter, into a strength this year, jumping from 154th on Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting last season to 34th this year. More importantly, he continued his ascent as an elite ball-striker, driving the ball accurately and consistently gaining shots on the field with his iron play. This major season, Gerard proved he can contend with the best on the biggest stages in golf. A T-38 at the Masters may not look great on paper, but it’s worth noting he was tied for 15th entering the final round. At the Open, he was inside the top five after each of the first three days before fading slightly on Sunday to finish T-9. Gerard is one step away from becoming a serious threat to win major championships. He more or less said as much when I diaried his experience at this year’s Masters. “I went into the week thinking that I probably could win if I played really well, and looking back on it, I played really solidly for 54 holes with some mistakes, and I was seven back, and then I didn't even really give it a chance on Sunday,” Gerard told me. “So overall, it kind of leads me to believe that it's not super, super far away, but it's not as close as I thought it was.” With another offseason of improvement, I like Gerard’s chances of finding himself back in the mix next major season. This was an important stepping stone year for the talented 26-year-old. His future is extremely bright. 

Bryson DeChambeau gets an F. He missed the cut in three of the four majors and made a fool of himself in the only one in which he made the cut. DeChambeau is way, way too good to make early exits in three of the four biggest tournaments of the year. As a two-time major champion in the middle of his prime, he was a non-factor in major season. Plus, the more time that passes from Friday’s rules dispute at Royal Birkdale and the more reporting that emerges, the worse DeChambeau’s behavior looks. By the way, the energy he expended during Friday’s theatrics probably didn’t help his chances of winning the championship, either. DeChambeau needs to work on his iron game — his most persistent weakness —  if he wants to return to the top level of professional golf moving forward. In his current form, however, he cannot be considered a top player in the game.