The pro golf season is officially back which means it’s the perfect time to predict who will be next to join the major champion club for the first time. In 2025 it was JJ Spaun winning the US Open at Oakmont, in 2024 it was Schauffele at the PGA Championship and in 2023 we saw Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman at the US Open and Open Championship. In fact there has been at least one first-time major champion every year since 2014… So the odds say we will add another name to the major champion circle this year. Below is my top 5 ranking, 1 being the biggest threat in my eyes. This list is a combination of past results and who I “feel” has it in them to take one home. It isn’t strictly a resume based list or who the “best” golfers without one are.
1. Viktor Hovland
Let me start by saying Hovland is my guy, favourite golfer on tour by a mile. Love the weekly rollercoaster he gives me from a tournament to tournament and hole by hole basis; He’s definitely got some Spieth in him. Anyways I am guaranteeing that Hovland finally gets major 1 (of many) this year. It feels like the PGA or US Open is the place where it will happen.
Hovland’s ball-striking in 2025 was some of the best on Tour and currently in his last 25 starts has gained strokes on approach in 23 of 25. The area of Hovland’s game that get’s him into trouble though is his chipping and his streaky putting, however heading into 2026 Hovland has gained strokes in five consecutive tournaments around the greens and has gained with the putter in 6/8. These are great positive signs to see and gives me great confidence he’s going to have a big year and get back onto everyone’s list of the truly elite players.
Another reason he comes in first on my list is because of his past results and play in majors. He’s come super close before and been in the heat of it multiple times on Sunday; it just hasn’t gone his way yet. Last year at the US Open he was in the second-to-last pairing on Sunday and ended finishing solo 3rd. In his dreadful 2024 season he still competed and almost won the PGA finishing solo third again, he had the outright lead too for a brief moment on the back nine. At the 2023 PGA he was in the final pairing with Koepka on Sunday and ended up finishing runner up and lastly at the 2022 Open Championship he was in the final pairing Sunday with Rory, where he ended up in T4. He’s competed in all the majors before and has top 10 finishes in all of them; T7 at Augusta being his worst. If he keeps putting himself in positions to win on Sunday he’s bound to start knocking down the door one of these times.
Your 2026 PGA Champion: Viktor Hovland
2. Ludvig Aberg
Aberg burst onto the scene a couple years ago after finishing as the #1 player in the 2023 PGA Tour University rankings, and he comes in next on my list. I don’t want to call him overrated because I genuinely think he’s an unreal talent with legitimate major-winning upside. But at times, the way he’s discussed on broadcasts and across the golf media makes it feel like he’s already been crowned a superstar with a dozen tour wins (He has 2). The potential is absolutely there, and the ceiling is sky-high… but he’s still in the process of fully proving it on the biggest stages. Ludvig is 26 years old now and heading into his third year on the PGA Tour he isn’t the new guy anymore and expectations will come with that.
It’s undeniable that Ludvig feels like a future major champion and has shown flashes of it; mainly at Augusta but I think this is the year he shows it across the majors and I think there’s a good chance he wins one too. Everyone knows about his debut trip to Augusta in 2024 where he finished runner up and then followed it up last year with a solo 7th, he was in it late though before blowing up on the last hole. Other than the Masters he’s only really showed up at one other major, the 2024 US Open where he was the 36-hole Leader before struggling on the weekend and finishing T12. Otherwise he’s yet to make the cut at the PGA Championship, and gone 1 for 2 on making the cut at both the US Open and Open Championship.
I think Aberg has a good shot to take the Master’s this year and he will be a popular pick. I’m more intrigued if he can bring it at multiple majors this year though. Consistency is definitely an element of his game he needs to work on.
3. Cameron Young
Cameron Young like Tommy below him finally got the monkey off his back and won his first PGA Tour event winning the Wyndham Championship in August. Young the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2022 had 5 (yes five) runner up finishes as a rookie on tour including one at the Open Championship at St. Andrews. Young might not have the winning resume like some other notable players left off my list such as Cantlay but he is still only 28 years old and has some great results in his short time competing in majors. He also finished off his 2025 campaign trending really nicely having 8 top ten finishes in his last 14 starts. Including his victory at the Wyndham his results have been since Win, 5, 11, T4, T9, 10 and he gained strokes putting and off the tee in all of those starts and only lost strokes on approach and around the green once each in that time frame.
Since 2022 he’s had a top 7 in each major and 6 top 10’s. Best results – Masters: T7 (2023), PGA: T3 (2022), US Open: T4 (2025), Open Championship: 2. When he plays the Masters in April it will be the first major he’s played as a PGA Tour winner; I think it will add to his confidence and ability to closing one out, something he may have lacked before. If he continues this form up watch out for Cam Young.
4. Tommy Fleetwood
Tommy Tommy Tommy…. finally picked up his first PGA Tour win at the end of last season winning the Tour Championship and Fedex Cup. He really brought his game to another level in the back half of the 2025 season rising all the way to third in the world. He also added another win on the DP World Tour in October winning the DP World India Championship. However do I believe in Tommy to now pick up a major…
I don’t know to be honest, I’d love him too, but if my life depended on it I would probably go with no… But there’s just too much talent + form right now to leave him off this list.
Another reason I hesitated to include him was his results and play in majors, which has just been ok in the last couple years. Through his career though he has recorded a Top 5 in all four of the majors. His best finish in each are as follows – Masters: T3 (2024), PGA: T5 (2022), US Open: 2 (2018), Open Championship: 2 (2019). In total he has 7 top five finishes in Majors since 2017. But as I said his play in the last two years hasn’t been great, his finishes in 2024/2025 were T3, T26, T16, CUT, T21, T41, CUT, T16. Not terrible by any means but other than his T3 which was at the 2024 Masters he hasn’t sniffed contention.
We are heading back to Shinnecock for the US Open this year though, where Tommy shot a 63 on Sunday in 2018 to eventually finish solo runner up behind Koepka. He will be a very popular pick there and I assume will have a lot of headlines on winning this time around, will be interesting to see how he handles that.
5. Robert Macintyre
There was lots of different guys I considered to go with here such as Burns, Bhatia, Griffin, Cantlay and Gotterup. By the way hell of a win at the Sony for Gotterup and probably a future Open Champion; guy loves wind golf and I’m probably dumb for leaving him off but… I’m going with Bobby Mac to close out my list, he has that IT factor for me, the Scottish workhorse I can easily see grinding out a tough major setup and outlasting everyone.
He’s coming off his best major season and has top 10’s in back to back majors. Where he was the solo runner up at the US Open and T7 at the Open Championship. This is momentum that he will build upon in the coming majors. His best finish at the PGA came in 2024 when he finished T8 and his best finish at Augusta was in 2021 when he finished T12. His best finish at the Open actually came back in his first one in 2019 where he ended up finishing T6. Macintyre has been playing some good golf the past couple years, winning 3 times around the world and moving all the way up to 7th in the official golf world rankings; remember he’s still only 29 years old. Also remember he’s only going into year 3 on the PGA Tour and only 2nd year of being qualified for all four of the majors to begin the season. I would watch out for him heavily at Royal Birkdale this year
Darkhorse: Michael Thorbjornsen. I’m very very high on Thor and wanted to include one off the board pick. I just want it on the record that I would not be shocked to see Thorbjorsen win a major this year (Yes this year!) and there is no real evidence or past results to back that up just a gut feeling. At the very minimum he is going to be in contention on the weekend at one of them this year.
