For golf fans, the PGA Tour season not only serves as entertainment through the long months of winter and longer months of summer, but as a passage of time. Tournaments serve as benchmarks for the time of year as one bleeds into another before major championship season arrives in full force.
Holidays once consisted of the Hawaii Swing. No longer. The Tournament of Champions held at Kapalua was canceled due to course conditions, and the Sony Open was contested for the final time on the PGA Tour in 2026. January waltzes into February, where Pebble Beach and Riviera thrive before a switch in the coast brings a switch in the style of golf courses for fans to take in.
The Players Championship saw Cameron Young claim his biggest title to date, thanks to the biggest drive on the 72nd hole in the Shotlink era (375 yards with … a golf ball that conforms with proposed future rollback standards — a conversation for a different day).
Rory McIlroy had the biggest 36-hole lead in Masters history. It did not last as Young played his way into the final pairing with the reigning champion, as runs were made by the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Justin Rose. What did remain what McIlroy’s arms in the green jacket as he became the fourth to defend his crown at the Masters.
Meanwhile, Scheffler finished in second place for the first time. Little did he know he would do it four more times on the PGA Tour last season with runner-up results to Matt Fitzpatrick the next week along with Young, Viktor Hovland and Jackson Koivun in short order.
Aaron Rai worked through the back nine at Aronimink in expert fashion to hold off Jon Rahm at the PGA Championship. The same was true for Wyndham Clark at the U.S. Open; Sam Burns posed as his closest competitor. Ryan Fox finished in a flurry to raise the Claret Jug and put an end to the major championship season.
There was still golf left to be played, however. Koivun turned professional and turned heads at the 3M Open, where he kept Scheffler at bay. It proved enough to catch the attention of more than just the fans, as captain Brandt Snedeker selected him for the U.S. Presidents Cup team. He will join forces with Scheffler and others at Medinah in a couple of weeks. The world No. 1 certainly looked the part in the postseason, where he claimed two of the three tournaments and the FedEx Cup trophy for the second time in the last three seasons.
But before the U.S. and International teams square off in Chicago, year-end superlatives need to be handed out to commemorate the year that was on the PGA Tour.
Player of the Year (PGA Tour)
Scottie Scheffler: There was a time when this was a topic of conversation. There was also a time when people believed the Earth was the center of the universe. With more information comes more informed discussions, and the information that Scheffler presented last month of the season was enough to make this race a little contest.
Scheffler tied Clark, Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup for the most wins on the PGA Tour this season while also finishing in second-place a record five different times (twice in a playoff). Holes were poked through his game — slow starts, driver concerns, loose wedges, etc. — but he sealed them up like a FlexSeal commercial. Below are the statistical categories in which the world No. 1 ranked No. 1 this season:
- Wins
- Scoring average
- Official money
- Total strokes gained
- Strokes gained tee to green
- Top fives
- Top 10s
- Top 25s
- Scrambling
- Birdie average
- Bogey avoidance
- Greens in regulation percentage
- Round 4 scoring average
Tournament of the Year
The Open: It had it all — a fantastic major championship test, weather conditions, a rules controversy, big names playing important roles, a hometown hero and a victor earning the spoils. Royal Birkdale starred, offering players a variety of options off the tee and letting them choose their own adventure.
Scoring records were tied with 62s from Lucas Herbert, Sam Burns and the eventual Champion Golfer of the Year in Fox. Reputations were weighed as Bryson DeChambeau hijacked the tournament Friday evening with his theatrics while pleading his case against a two-stroke penalty.
All this led to the final holes of major championship golf in 2026, where Scheffler, Young, Burns, Herbert and Si Woo Kim all had fighting chances to win, with Fox, the man from New Zealand, stepping up when necessary.
Shot of the Year
Ryan Fox’s 72nd hole at The Open: It is a 3-for-1 special. If looking for one singular shot, there are a number of avenues to go down, such as Rai’s birdie putt on the 71st hole at the PGA Championship or perhaps one of McIlroy’s from his Masters win. However, what was most memorable in 2026 was the last meaningful hole of The Open.
Needing a par to force a playoff with Young, who made bogey on the hole hours before, Fox stepped to the plate on the par-4 18th and stacked three good shots together to claim the title of Champion Golfer of the Year. A blistered drive. A laser approach and a putt that found the middle of the bottom of the cup to win his first major in major style.
Breakout Player of the Year
Cameron Young: Easy to forget that with one tournament remaining in the 2025 regular season, Young was still winless on the PGA Tour. The Wyndham Championship snowballed into a strong Ryder Cup performance, which then caused the avalanche of his 2026 season that included wins at The Players Championship and the Cadillac Championship.
Young was also a prominent fixture on major championship leaderboards as he drew McIlroy in the final pairing on Sunday at the Masters and posted the clubhouse lead at The Open only to watch Fox clip him at the finish line. After dropping as low as No. 67 in the Official World Golf Rankings last season, Young stands firm at No. 3 entering 2027.
Comeback Player of the Year
Wyndham Clark: After two wins, including his first major in 2023 and a victory at Pebble Beach in 2024, Clark became a shell of his former self in 2025. He experienced the worst season of his career and clocked just two top-10 finishes — a run of form which he carried into 2026.
However, once the major championships rolled around, Clark flipped a switch. He shot 30 under at the Byron Nelson, fending off Scheffler and Kim in the process. He then went wire-to-wire at the U.S. Open, where he held a six-stroke lead going into Sunday with New York rooting for any outcome outside of his victory. He looked McIlroy in the eyes at the BMW Championship later that summer for what was his third win in 10 starts.
Story of the Year
Gary Woodland: The easiest award to hand out. The 2019 U.S. Open champion opened up at The Players about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder following brain surgery in 2023. Woodland detailed the mental and emotional strain the operation caused, revealing that he suffered side effects such as anxiety and hyper awareness.
Three weeks later, Woodland found himself back in the winner’s circle at the Houston Open, where he tied the tournament scoring record and won by five strokes in the most emotional and inspirational victory of the season. Woodland continued to speak out about his condition and continued to play fantastic golf. He finished T4 at the BMW Championship, earned his way into the Tour Championship and became a weekly fixture for all golf fans to root for.