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Ludvig Aberg | Recent Results: T4, T8, T4
Aberg has been playing some seriously impressive golf for a couple of months now. His worst finish since late February is T21. Notably, he’s completely turned around his chipping and around-the-green play from when he first came out on tour a couple of years ago. He’s gained strokes in that area in 8 of 10 starts in 2026. Comparatively, over a relatively similar stretch in 2025, he only gained strokes in 4 of 10 starts, and in 2024 it was 5 of 10 starts (Data Golf).
The problem that remains with Ludvig is the mental side of the game and the shell of himself that keeps appearing when he’s in contention on Sundays. He has zero wins on the year, but in another timeline he could have already won The PLAYERS, the Valero Texas Open, the RBC Heritage, and the PGA Championship.
It’s clearly a problem and something he’ll need to overcome if he wants to be taken seriously and considered one of the game’s best by the general public and media.
Jon Rahm | Recent Results: WIN, T8, T2
He didn’t win, but it was about time Rahm returned to contention at a major championship. He’s one of the most talented golfers in the world, and it was bizarre not seeing him as a weekend storyline at so many recent majors. He’s continued to post high finishes in seemingly every LIV tournament, so it was nice to see it again in a big spot.
It’s all but guaranteed that he’ll continue to live near the top of the LIV leaderboard leading up to the U.S. Open, where hopefully he can be part of the Sunday drama again.
Alex Smalley | Recent Results: T7, T17, T2
I don’t think anyone really believed Smalley would stick around over the weekend at the PGA. He’s similar to Ludvig (on a much smaller scale) in that he’s seemed to struggle mightily mentally when near the top of leaderboards on the weekend in the past, but…
He showed a ton of fight over the weekend at the PGA after getting off to poor starts on both Saturday and Sunday. Both days, though, he clawed his way back near the top of the leaderboard. Aronimink was a tough test of golf, and he proved a lot over the weekend. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here. You’d assume he has a lot more confidence in himself moving forward now.
Putting has typically been an area of hindrance for anyone not familiar with Smalley, but he putted exceptionally well at the PGA and has done so for the majority of the 2026 season, gaining strokes in 11 of 14 starts.
Aaron Rai | Recent Results: T24, 5, WIN
It was a special Sunday performance from Rai at the PGA. Within a leaderboard filled with some of the game’s best, he was the one who put his foot on the gas at the end and captured the Wanamaker Trophy.
Was he anyone’s main pick to win before balls were in the air on Thursday? Probably not, but that’s the beauty of golf. I still find it shocking that the latest major winner wasn’t even eligible for the PGA Tour’s signature event the week before. It just shows, on so many levels, how much the signature model stinks.
It’ll be interesting to see if Rai simply peaked at the perfect time and had a hot week with a putter that’s usually poor, or if this takes his game to a whole other level.
Rai will have more eyes on him than ever moving forward, and with that will come more expectations.
Kurt Kitayama | Recent Results: T9, T19, T10
He hasn’t been close to a win on Sunday since the Genesis earlier this year, but Kitayama, who before his win last summer, looked completely lost and was playing some downright awful golf, continues to show up in 2026 and showcase consistently impressive play.
The irons and approach play have been on all season, as he’s gained strokes in that area in every start in 2026. Posting a top-10 finish at a major championship was also a big step for Kitayama, as his major starts have been very bleak outside of the 2023 PGA Championship.
He needs to figure out some consistency in his around-the-green play and putting, but watch out for him even more if he does, because the ball-striking is currently elite.
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Jacob Bridgeman | Recent Results: T65, T52, CUT
The putting was bound to cool off after the insane stretch he had with it when he picked up his first win at the Genesis Invitational, but it’s really cooled off now, as he’s lost strokes with the flatstick in 3 of his last 5 starts.
He hasn’t recorded a top 10 in six starts since THE PLAYERS, and he’s now also lost strokes on approach in three straight starts.
He was one of the game’s early-season candidates for Breakout Player of the Year, but he’ll need to start performing again if he wants that crown by season’s end. T41 and a missed cut in the majors also isn’t a great look.
Hideki Matsuyama | Recent Results: T53, 71, T26
It’s been a very odd two-year stretch for Hideki. Rewinding back to the 2025 season, he won the first event of the year at Kapalua but didn’t record another top 10 for the rest of the season… pretty bizarre. And now in 2026, outside of his meltdown at the Waste Management, where he lost in a playoff to Gotterup, he only has one other top 10: a T8 at Pebble Beach.
Outside of a few starts, it’s been a fairly bleak and inconsistent stretch of golf for Hideki.
He continues to struggle off the tee this year, which everyone remembers being his downfall at WM. Definitely monitoring him closely moving forward.
Michael Thorbjornsen | T53, CUT, CUTUgly Ugly Ugly…
Ugly, ugly, ugly…
He looked on the brink of a major breakthrough and emergence during the early part of the year. He probably should have picked up his first win at WM before making avoidable errors down the stretch. Then he went on to play in the final pairing at THE PLAYERS Championship before shriveling up in the moment on Sunday, followed by more of the same the following week at the Houston Open.
Since Houston, it’s been bad, as he’s missed the cut in 3 of 6 starts (and two of those six were no-cut signature events). This past week at the Byron Nelson was specifically frustrating because he opened Thursday with a 7-under 64 and sat two shots off the lead. He then returned Friday afternoon and shot a 2-over 73 on a birdie-fest setup at TPC Craig Ranch to wind up missing the cut.
The approach play and putting are not in great spots right now, and he’s clearly not in a good place with his game at the moment.
Viktor Hovland | Recent Results: T38, T31, CUT
The year’s been awful for Vik, no sugarcoating it. He’s just so far from the golfer we saw at the end of the 2023 season, and I’m starting to give up hope that we’ll ever see that version of him return. It just seems like it’s something new with him every week and there’s simply no sustained comfort level for him on the course.
He has only one top 10 on the year, and it came in his first start back at the Waste Management (T10).
There have been other moments, for sure. He was involved at THE PLAYERS on the weekend, looked ready to battle Fitzpatrick heading into the weekend at the RBC Heritage before imploding, and wasn’t half bad at the Masters, where a stellar Sunday round made his week look a lot better on paper than it probably felt. But it just doesn’t feel like he’s a serious threat right now, and if he puts himself in position to win, it feels like he’s ready to implode on any swing, which sucks.
He’s been involved late on Sunday at at least one major every year since 2022, so hopefully that stays true in 2026. It seems hard to believe right now, though.
Sam Burns | T38, T37, T26
I was pretty shocked by his performance at the Masters. I gave him zero respect entering the week, and he had a very real chance to slip on the green jacket come Sunday.
Since that week, it’s been pretty average golf. There are definitely other names playing worse than Burns who aren’t on this list, but after the Masters performance, I was looking for him to build off it moving forward, and that just hasn’t been the case.
The U.S. Open has been a solid week for him the last two years, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can continue that trend and keep putting himself in the spotlight on major championship Sundays.
