The 10 Players I Think Need This Open the Most

10. Scottie Scheffler

Scottie is the best golfer in the world and has been for the last three years, so each major feels important in terms of the definition of Scottie during the era he is owning in professional golf.

Considering the driving and the iron play and the ridiculous creativity around the greens, it’s been a bit befuddling that Scheffler hasn’t quite figured out the Open yet. He will, of course, and by picking up a second major in a single season (and making it three of the four legs of the career Grand Slam), he would cement himself as the next-up on the all-time great list with plenty of years ahead of him.

Scottie has his 2025 major, but considering the level of talent and the enormous gap between him and everyone else, two in a season is basically next up on the list of accomplishments needed from Scheffler.

9 & 8. Justin Rose & Adam Scott

I'm placing these guys in the same category; I’ve talked a lot about the need (as a fan) of Rose and/or Scott to finish their careers with more than just one major. Patrick McDonald and I did a ranking a few weeks ago on YouTube of the top-10 current players with only one major and Scott and Rose landed atop our respective lists. Considering what they’ve done this year in the majors (Rose at Augusta National and Scott for three days at Oakmont) it just felt right to include them on the list and see how it shakes out.

7. Jordan Spieth

It is very unlikely that Spieth can put himself in a position to win considering the unexpected layoff because of injury, but if there is a major outside of the Masters that feels the most likely for Spieth at this point in his career to contend in, it’s the Open. The run that Spieth has been on in the majors since the start of 2019 is probably more bleak than even the most observant golf fans would realize (five top-10s in 26 starts) but it has been the Open that has shown the most promise for Spieth over the last four years (a second, T-8, T-23 and T-25 since 2021).

Spieth seems like the type of skilled player that should have more than one Masters and more than one Open and we’ve been stuck in that department for 10 and 8 years, respectively.

6. Justin Thomas

The good news for JT is that he has seemed to find a level of form that we expect out of the guy this season. The bad news is that form just does not show up in the major championships. In the last three years, JT has seven missed cuts in 11 majors but even that bleak record doesn’t begin to tell the story. In 2023 alone, JT shot a second round 78 at the Masters (MC), a second round 81 at the U.S. Open (MC) and opened with 82 at the Open on his way to a third missed cut of the major season. Last season saw Thomas post 79 in the second round of the Masters, 77 in the opening round of the U.S. Open, and rounds of 78 and 77 in between rounds of 68 and 67 at the Open.

The numbers have improved this year at the majors, but the results haven’t; JT shot 73-72 to miss the cut at the PGA and 76-76 at Oakmont to head home early once again.

Sure, Justin Thomas could use a win at this major championship to cap off a rebound season, but more than that he could simply use four solid rounds of major championship golf to build on as he looks ahead at 2026.

5. Ludvig Aberg

As good as Ludvig has been at the Masters (in his very, very short major championship career), it’s wild to think of how bad he’s been everywhere else. A second and a seventh at Augusta National; four missed cuts in five major starts everywhere else.

Ludvig hasn’t been great this season outside of the win at Torrey Pines, so expecting him to outplay the world for four days at Royal Portrush is wishful thinking, but we all know what Aberg can do if the form is there.

4. Bryson DeChambeau

I think a lot about the prime of players; the window that the best in the world exist in and how they fare during that time of their careers. Bryson is currently in this prime; if you look at the 31-year-old’s recent run in the majors, you’ll see a lot of very, very high finishes. Bryson won the U.S. Open a year ago (his second) and has finished second at the PGA Championship each of the last two years. Sprinkle in a final pairing at the Masters alongside Rory Mcilroy (where he eventually finished T-5) and a T-6 at Augusta in 2024 and you see a man that is constantly in the hunt at the four biggest events.

But … in this run of his where he’s finished in the top-6 in six of the last 10 majors, he only has one win. It feels a bit like what we saw from Scottie Scheffler in the majors before this season.

For Bryson, a 2025 without a major win will feel like a forgotten season and taking home the Claret Jug will mean a new major to the mantel of Bryson. It’s also the major he has struggled to figure out the most (just one top-10 in his career at the Open).

3. Tommy Fleetwood

He’s too talented not to be winning the biggest events and he’s too good at links golf not to be in contention this week at Portrush. Fleetwood has finished second, T-4 and T-10 in three of the last five Opens, with that runner-up finish coming in 2019 at this same golf course.

Tommy is likely going to be my pick to win this week and boy could he use it after the debacle down the stretch at the Travelers.

2. Joaquin Niemann

You know how you can shut up the critics that love bringing up your rather unimpressive major record? By winning one. Niemann has been the best player on LIV and the way he flights the golf ball tends to scream Open Championship golfer so lets see something this week from Niemann who could desperately use getting in the hunt on the weekend at a major championship to justify all the great play elsewhere.

1. Collin Morikawa

The narrative feels like it’s slipping a bit for Collin Morikawa, doesn’t it? Considering the way he burst onto the major scene (two wins in his first eight major starts), the consistency has remained, but the wins have not.

And it isn’t just the majors; we are coming up on two years since Morikawa’s last worldwide win. He’s played some solid golf this season but Morikawa appears to be that caliber of player that needs trophies to be content, and this would sure change the narrative as we wrap up ’25.

The outside wrinkle of a Morikawa major win is he gets to three, joining the likes of Spieth and Scheffler in the modern era and breaking out of the logjam of two major wins amongst some of the current stars.

Of all the players in this field, I think Morikawa needs this Open the most.