The Script for the 2026 PGA TOUR Season Leaked

I’ve grown a subtle soft spot for the first week of January. For four months a year, I’m forced inside by snow and freezing temperatures to survive on an insufficient diet of my ragged putting mat and swings between the ears. And once the holidays come and go, the yearning for warmer days only intensifies.

All that to say, Kapalua has become an opportunity to live vicariously through the best players in the world. The warm breezes of Hawaii, a clean slate, and the entire golf season to come.

But thanks to a summer drought, The Sentry at the Plantation Course won’t kick off the PGA TOUR season. We’ll have to wait another week for Waialae and the Sony Open. But since we have a little time on our hands before we head to Honolulu, I figured I’d make some predictions for the upcoming campaign. Major winners, redemption stories, disappointments. Let’s cover it all.

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Keegan Bradley Contends for a Major

Those three days at Bethpage Black took a toll on Keegan Bradley. He called the month following Team USA’s loss “one of the toughest times in my life." So, I think he deserves a little love from the golf gods in 2026.

Bradley sits at one major. That lone victory was nearly 15 years ago at the PGA Championship. And throughout his career, the majority of his respectful major showings have come at the PGA. Oh, and guess where it’s being staged in four months—Aronimink. The very place where Bradley won the 2018 BMW Championship.

After a T-8 finish at Quail Hollow in 2025, I think the 39-year-old still has the game to win one of golf’s big four. We know for a fact he can still win out there amongst the game's best, he did it in June at the Travelers.

But above all else, it’d be one hell of a story (and a pretty good foundation for his 2027 Ryder Cup campaign).

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Rory Wins the Masters…Again

There’s some evidence to back this up, but I feel like the Masters is a tournament the game’s best win in bunches. Scottie and Bubba won it twice in three years. Spieth should have gone back-to-back. Phil won three Green Jackets from 2004-2010. Tiger won four in nine years.

I can’t even imagine what it’s going to feel like for the Northern Irishman when he drives down Magnolia Lane come April without all that baggage. His car might float like Doc’s DeLorean. It’s going to be a type of freedom he’s probably never felt inside the ropes.

But something that got lost in the shuffle of his disappointing, decade-long quest for the Career Grand Slam is the fact that Augusta National is built for McIlroy’s game. He’s tailor-made for Alister MacKenzie’s baby.

It wouldn’t shock me to see McIlroy slip the Green Jacket onto himself in three months, but there is something going against him: no one has gone back-to-back since Tiger in 2001 and 2002.

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The Scheffler Express Rolls On

Since I graduated from high school (2015), it feels like I’ve seen handfuls of stars reach the top of the game, collect wins in bunches, be crowned the next historical great, and either fade and disappear or fail to maintain that level of greatness.

I think it’s safe to say Scottie won’t work his way onto that list. He’s going to be a serious, serious problem for the next decade-plus.

If I had to put a number on it, I think he wins another five times.

Spieth Finally Gets a W

April 2022, the last time Jordan Spieth won on TOUR. It’s been a frustrating and injury-plagued stretch for the man once known as the “Golden Child,” but I think he gets a trophy back in his hands in the big 2-6.

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He flirted with the winner’s circle last year, especially during a run of four straight top-20 finishes that included a solo-fourth at The CJ CUP Byron Nelson. He just wasn’t able to get it across the finish line.

According to his good buddy Smylie Kaufman, Spieth is trying to get back to his 2017 swing, a year that saw him finish second in Strokes Gained: Approach. Kaufman says Spieth is confident and back to playing shots instead of golf swing.

I expect big things from the Texan this year. Plus, golf is just better when Spieth is doing Spieth things.

Tommy Gets His Major

In 19 starts last season, Tommy grabbed 15 top-25 finishes, seven top-fives, and finally put a check in the win column at the TOUR Championship—a pretty great first winner’s check, if you ask me. And in ‘26, I think he gets his first major.

I could see it happening at two spots: the U.S. Open or The Open.

He finished second behind Brooks Koepka at the 2018 USO when it was held at Shinnecock, and we’re heading back there in June. As for The Open, it’s going back to Royal Birkdale this summer. Since missing his first three cuts at golf’s oldest major, he’s finished T-27 or better six times in eight starts (T-27 at Birkdale in 2017).

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With a TOUR win finally under his belt, the World No. 3 is primed for multiple wins this season and I think one of them will be a major.

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