It was always going to be a different year in golf with the PGA Tour trying to blow up a model that has been around longer than the sand wedge. So it seems only fitting that 2026 begins with a soggy coincidence.
The Sentry, PGA Tour season opener since 1999, was canceled due to water issues, including a dispute over how water is delivered to Kapalua.. On what should have been the first official day of tournament week, Maui was under surveillance Monday.
Go figure.
The PGA Tour season begins next week on a different island and a weaker field amid concerns about the future of the Sony Open, in the final year of its title sponsorship and waiting to see if The Sentry returns to Kapalua.
There are a lot of moving parts and still one central figure – Scottie Scheffler – whose last run at world No. 1 began two weeks before the PGA Tour announced a framework deal with Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf. Both seem much longer ago.
Here are the key topics to consider as golf enters another year.
Scheffler and the Grand Slam career
Four days after Rory McIlroy won the Masters and became the sixth player to win a career Grand Slam… and the first in 25 years — Scheffler was asked: “Who’s next?”
“Technically, I only won one,” he said of his two Masters titles. “I’ve been playing some really good golf and I’m not even close.”
Now he is. Scheffler won the PGA Championship (by five strokes) and the British Open (by four shots) and suddenly looks more equipped to get the final match than McIlroy has in a decade. His first opportunity came at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, the only U.S. Open for which Scheffler has not qualified in the past 10 years.
He’s already had a near accident. Scheffler had the lead until the back nine at the Country Club in 2022, missed a 25-foot putt on the 18th and I finished one shot back.
Brooks Koepka and the way forward
At the Saudi International last November, the discussion was whether Koepka would be part of the LIV Golf League or whether he would look at a schedule of some European Tour events to accompany the four majors.
Now that he’s no longer part of LIVthe focus is on his path back to the PGA Tour.
In his favor, he let his PGA Tour membership expire when he joined the Saudi-funded league in 2022, and he was not among the LIV players listed in the antitrust lawsuit against the tour.
The PGA Tour bringing him back this season – ahead of the one-year mark since his last LIV appearance – could lead to a divisive precedent among loyalists, even if his return would only benefit the tour.
The European Tour schedule is not attractive in the weeks leading up to three of the majors: South Africa and Asia before the Masters, Turkey and Spain before the PGA Championship, the Dutch Open two weeks before the US Open.
Nelly’s return
Nelly Korda became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2010 to go from seven wins in one year to none in the next.extremely strange considering Korda was without any significant injuries or personal drama, with the exception of his engagement at the end of the year.
She finished second by two strokes at the US Women’s Open, which seemed to take away a lot of momentum. Perhaps most alarming was how little chance Korda had of winning after that.
Korda isn’t the first No. 1 women’s golfer to go from unbeatable to sought-after. Lydia Ko experienced such a fate. Yani Tseng and Ariya Jutanugarn practically disappeared a year after being number one.
There appears to be no cause for alarm with the 27-year-old Korda, but his next win will be a big one.
The PGA Tour schedule
The buzzword when Brian Rolapp started as CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises because of “scarcity,” which seemed to indicate a smaller schedule to place greater emphasis on tournaments.. And then over the next few months, the tour announced fall stops in Austin, Texas, and Asheville, North Carolina.
Where will all this lead?
The big acronym for the tour’s GH (Global Home) is FCC (Future Competitions Committee), headed by TW (Tiger Woods). And the big question is whether a new model can be defined in time for 2027 or whether there will be a bridge year. It is also worth considering the media rights which, according to the current contract, extend until 2030.
Is the PGA Tour waiting until after the Super Bowl to start? There is also a desire to penetrate larger markets. The U.S. Open (New York), PGA Championship (Philadelphia) and Presidents Cup (Chicago) have combined to give golf a presence in the top five media markets in 2026. Next year, the tour will not have a presence in five of the top 10 markets.
Spieth’s future
This could shape up to be a breakthrough year for Jordan Spieth, who hasn’t qualified for a U.S. team since the 2018 Ryder Cup. He hasn’t played on the last two teams.
After undergoing surgery on his left wrist in August 2024, Spieth narrowly missed qualifying for the second FedEx Cup playoff event, which would have qualified him for the $20 million marquee events. And then he took the whole fall off with the goal of having his mind and body ready for 2026.
He has another chance to win a career Grand Slam at the PGA Championship outside of Philadelphia (his parents grew up in eastern Pennsylvania).
He has played 50 consecutive major tournaments and has been exempted for 49 of them since the 2013 US Open. He enters 2026 without his place yet assured for the US Open at Shinnecock Hills.
And Tiger?
This has become an annual question for the FCC Chairman due to injuries and surgeries, especially after his first year as a professional, Woods did not play any tournaments..
Woods turned 50 on December 30making him eligible for PGA Tour Champions. He can ride a cart on the senior circuit. Woods never liked the idea of driving a cart in a real competition. On the PGA Tour, Woods has not finished within 16 shots of the winner in the 11 tournaments he has played since his February 2021 car crash outside Los Angeles.
The target is April for the Masters, where Woods has never missed the cut as a pro.
At the heart of his 2026: Does he have any interest in becoming Ryder Cup captain for Ireland in 2027?
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On The Fringe breaks down the biggest stories in golf throughout the season. AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
