The New Year festivities are well over, and with the PGA Tour into its second month of the 2026 season, resolutions are being tested. Whatever goals and aspirations were set forth by professional golfers are already being evaluated, especially by those who realized in the offseason that they need to improve key areas of their games.
While some were undoubtedly proud of what they accomplished in 2025 when reviewing their film, others were certainly disappointed, motivated to right their wrongs as the 2026 season began.
With players like Rory McIlroy beginning their PGA Tour seasons — meaning the signature event fields you see on television going forward will be much more complete — let’s take a look at a year-end audit of how some of the biggest names in the game stood at the end of 2025.
Some players experienced material changes — Cameron Young on the greens, Xander Schauffele with the driver — while others (Scottie Schefter) were immensely consistent.
Strokes gained …
Off the tee
🔺 Rickie Fowler (+90 spots): After losing strokes off the tee for the first time in his career in 2024, Fowler fought back in a major way. The former Players Championship winner experienced his best driving season since 2018 and set up the rest of his game, allowing him to gain strokes throughout the bag. At 37 years old, Fowler finds himself inching towards the big 4-0, but if he continues to drive the ball like this, he will have chances to win some golf tournaments.
🔺 J.J. Spaun (+70): For all the discussion about his iron play, Spaun’s driver is where he saw the biggest gains. The U.S. Open champion was just about a half stroke better per round with the big stick in hand, allowing him to enter the upper echelons of professional golf. He gained both distance and accuracy, and in doing so, gained recognition. The world No. 6 memorably drove the green on the 71st hole at Oakmont and split the fairway on the last to put the championship on ice.
🔺 Hideki Matsuyama (-106): Matsuyama’s ups and downs have always been a little weird, and 2025 was much of the same. He won The Sentry in record-setting fashion the first week of January and did not register another top 10 until October. The main culprit proved to be the driver as he experienced the worst off-the-tee season of his career. The good news is he found something late, leading to three straight top 10s around the world, including his win at the Hero World Challenge. Matsuyama’s strong play has continued into the early portion of 2026.
🔻 Xander Schauffele (-91): There were a few factors to go into Schauffele’s decline: (1) he had a monster 2024 season, (2) he was injured to start 2025 and (3) when he did return, he did so in the state of Florida (i.e. a lot of water on those golf courses) with a new driver in hand, which he ultimately bagged. The two-time major champion’s driving splits were checkered for most of the year, but he started to swing with more confidence towards the end of the season. The win in Japan was huge going into 2026, where he needs to prove he can play more like he did in 2024 than 2025.
Other notables: Harris English (+37), Keegan Bradley (+35), Sahith Theegala (-107), Tom Kim (-68), Wyndham Clark (-66), Tony Finau (-60)
Approach
🔺 Justin Rose (+102): He has been alternating good and bad seasons with the irons over the last four years, and 2026 was a good one for Rose. The Englishman became the oldest player since Phil Mickelson to find the winner’s circle on the PGA Tour at the St. Jude Championship and finished 72 holes trailing no other player at the Masters (for the second time in his career, mind you). Even at 45, Rose believes he still has a golden summer in his future, and given how he performed in big spots in 2025, it’s worth believing him — especially considering how he’s started 2026 with another trophy.
🔺 Tommy Fleetwood (+86): It’s easy to look at the putter, but the approach play soared to new heights for Fleetwood in 2025. The Englishman was the third-best player in the world this year, behind only Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, and that is because his iron play kept pace. He claimed his maiden PGA Tour victory at the Tour Championship and then claimed another on the DP World Tour in India. Fleetwood’s last 17 worldwide starts in 2025 produced two wins and seven top-four finishes.
🔻 Tony Finau (-133): Just about everything was down for Finau in 2025, but his iron play was the most alarming. After a season where he trailed only Scheffler, Finau became a middling player with his scoring clubs in hand. Considering how the rest of his game sets up, the big-hitting right-hander must find his groove in this area, especially from 100-150 yards, where he was poor compared to his peers.
🔻 Sungjae Im (-80): It’s tough to comprehend his 2025 season. It was equal parts impressive and frustrating. Im somehow managed to play his way into the Tour Championship despite finishing second-to-last in strokes gained approach on the PGA Tour. To put this in perspective, Im lost nearly 174 strokes over the course of the year to Scheffler, who led the way in this category.
Other notables: Patrick Cantlay (+87), Jordan Spieth (+80), Ben Kohles (+65), Collin Morikawa (+39), Sepp Straka (+33), Sam Burns (-54), Cameron Young (-42)
Around the green
🔺 Keegan Bradley (+92): The U.S. Ryder Cup captain was a completely different man chipping and pitching in 2025. Bradley rode strong short-game performances in majors like the PGA Championship, where he finished T8, and also in his victory at the Travelers Championship. Always a reliable ball striker, Bradley’s improvement made him one of the best from tee to green this season. It’s because of this uptick that the 39-year-old will still have a chance to participate in a future Ryder Cup.
🔺 Jordan Spieth (+77): He was often criticized due to the number of sponsor invitations he accepted to play signature events, but no one was bothered by that more than Spieth. The three-time major champion is intent on playing himself into those tournaments in 2026, and if the current trajectory holds, he will have a good chance of doing so. In his first season following a procedure on his left wrist, Spieth made gains throughout the bag. The issue is he was not spectacular in any singula rarea — just above average in each with his around-the-green presence among those.
🔻 Collin Morikawa (-103): Morikawa was insistent throughout the year that his iron play needed to improve, and that’s tough to argue. It ranked fourth out of his six full-time seasons on the PGA Tour, even though he ranked third overall in the league. While that may be up for debate, what isn’t is his short game. Morikawa proved incapable of keeping up with the big names on days when his ball striking went awry. It’s those rounds that are holding him back, and it’s his short game that will propel him forward on those days.
🔻 Maverick McNealy (-110): At first glance, it is surprising to see McNealy’s name on this list, but it makes sense once you investigate his profile from 2025. The 30-year-old became a much more reliable ball striker this past season with his best driving year and his best iron year (by a wide margin) under his belt. His putting was solid for his standards, and if he can find gains chipping and putting, he can return to the winner’s circle with this game in 2026.
Other notables: Patton Kizzire (+82), Min Woo Lee (+55), Sungjae Im (+23), Xander Schauffele (-55), Akshay Bhatia (-43), Rory McIlroy (-29)
Putting
🔺 Justin Thomas (+146): He was the season’s biggest gainer, going from a bottom 11 putter in 2024 to inside the top 30 with the wand. Thomas credited a conversation with Schauffele over practice habits, and it led to his win at the RBC Heritage, where he holed one from distance in a playoff over Andrew Novak.
🔺 Cameron Young (+138): Thomas was the biggest gainer, statistically, but if the eye test had anything to say, it would have penned Young’s name atop the list. The former Rookie of the Year nabbed his first career title at the Wyndham Championship en route to being selected for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, where he was brilliant in his debut. All signs point to him contending in major championships in 2026 and perhaps winning one if the putter stays on course.
🔺 Scottie Scheffler (+55): It was the only category he could improve in this season, and guess what? He did just that. Scheffler employed the claw putting grip from inside roughly 15 feet and turned into one of the best putters in the world. The world No. 1 eased into his 2025 campaign after an offseason injury, but once he was full strength, his name was on the leaderboard for the full tournament. The way he rolled the rock at Royal Portrush was scary … scary good and scary, period, for the rest of the world.
🔺 Rory McIlroy (+50): After years of seemingly missing every big putt, McIlroy made just about every one of them in 2025 — the 72nd hole at Augusta National proving to be the outlier. (Hey, he still won!) McIlroy made putts on the final hole of regulation at The Players, Irish Open and DP World Tour Championship to force playoffs, reigning victorious in a couple of them. Always a strong putter and probably unfairly criticized — due to some of those short misses and the well running dry in major championships — McIlroy’s 2025 proved to be the best putting season of his career.
Other notables: Jake Knapp (+101), Garrick Higgo (+77), Tommy Fleetwood (+72), Jordan Spieth (+36), Adam Scott (-95), Taylor Pendrith (-92), Collin Morikawa (-83), Viktor Hovland (-72)