With risers come fallers, and the PGA Tour had plenty of both throughout its 2025 campaign. Relatively unheralded players like Ben Griffin and J.J. Spaun made their upward moves in the world of golf, while others made their way down the ladder amid poor play and untimely injuries.
Of course, this is all relative depending on the player and his résumé. Major champions are held to a different standard than second-year PGA Tour members. Former FedEx Cup champions are expected to compete year in and year out for the season-long crown, but when they are early exits from majors on a consistent basis, that raises a red flag (or three).
All of this to say, when a player reaches a mountaintop, often times the only place one can go is down. Not all the players listed below returned to base camp or even the town below the perch, but they certainly did not maintain their position at the summit this season.
Consistency in golf is difficult to obtain, longevity even more so. While the 2025 season did not go as planned for some, the offseason is here to regroup, replan and reestablish a place among the greats in the game for the upcoming campaign.
Xander Schauffele
Think back through the 2025 season and pinpoint the most memorable shot made by Schauffele. Still thinking? That’s understandable given there was not one. Fresh off a two-major campaign in 2024 that appeared to assert him among the game’s best, Schauffele stumbled out of the blocks due to a rib injury and never found his footing throughout the remainder of the year. There were positives, of course: He maintained the longest made cut streak since Tiger Woods, finished inside the top 12 in three of the four major championships and automatically qualified for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. However, wins and runs of contention ins significant tournaments are what was expected from a top-three player in the world, and none that came to fruition. Schauffele experienced his worst statistical year since his sophomore season on the PGA Tour and the worst putting season of his entire career as his short game took a significant step back.
Patrick Cantlay
The history books will say he was the second-best player on the PGA Tour in 2025. Books be damned. Cantlay was a non-factor for all but the last week of 2025 as he missed the cut in three of the four major championships and accumulated points in noncompetitive finishes in signature events. After contending at the 2024 U.S. Open and starring for the U.S. Presidents Cup team, Cantlay appeared primed to take a step forward on the big stage. He will have another opportunity to do so at the Ryder Cup, but his chance on the PGA Tour has passed as he is without a win since the 2022 BMW Championship.
Keegan Bradley, J.J. Spaun among PGA Tour players who exceeded expectations during 2025 season
Robby Kalland
Wyndham Clark
It’s never positive when your antics make more noise than your play. Unfortunately, that was the case for Clark in 2025. The former U.S. Open winner threw his driver at a sponsorship sign at the PGA Championship (coincidentally, one of his own sponsors) and threw a tantrum at the U.S. Open in the Oakmont locker room. His play throughout the meat of the PGA Tour schedule was riddled with inconsistencies as he cycled through new putters and was unable to find his form with his irons in hand. He found something towards the end of the season with a top-five finish at The Open, but as a whole, this season was far off his last two where he combined for two signature event victories, a runner-up at The Players Championship and his U.S. Open win.
Tony Finau
Not since 2016 had Finau missed out on the Tour Championship, and this year he did one better by missing out on the BMW Championship. Playing just 20 times (the fewest events of his career), Finau found strain in the usual places (on the greens) but in an unusual place (off the tee) as well, bleeding strokes to his peers for the first time in his career with his driver in hand. This sept through to his iron play where he experienced the worst approach season since that same 2016 campaign by a significant margin. As someone who had been a member of five of the last six U.S. teams between the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, Finau was a non-factor in making this year’s team as his lone top 10 finish came all the way back in February at Torrey Pines.
Sahith Theegala
A neck injury caused Theegala to withdraw from a couple of tournaments and miss the PGA Championship, but it’s not like his play did him any favors, either. Fresh off his debut appearance in the Presidents Cup, Theegala was thought of a player who could take a leap forward in 2025 and instead went backwards. The fun-loving right hander did not collect a top 10 finish and only one individual top 20 result in February at the Genesis Invitational. Once he did return from his neck injury, Theegala sputtered with four missed cuts to end his summer. After improving year over year through each of his first three seasons on the PGA Tour, Theegala regressed to a below-average player in 2025.