Ryan Fox walked off Royal Birkdale with the Claret Jug after a back-nine charge that left everyone else chasing shadows. Scottie Scheffler finished three shots back at 7-under, tied for fifth. And yeah, that means another major without a trophy for the world No. 1.
But here’s the thing about Scheffler’s 2026 major season: it was weirdly brilliant and frustrating at the same time. The guy made every cut. He played all four weekends. And when you add up his scores across the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and Open Championship, nobody played better cumulative golf. Not even the guys who won.
Justin Ray of TwentyFirst Group put the numbers out there: Scheffler and his buddy Sam Burns both finished at 20-under par across the four majors. Xander Schauffele was next at 13-under, then Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy at 11-under. That’s not a typo. Scheffler and Burns were seven shots better than anyone else who played all four weekends.
Making every cut is harder than it looks
Three of this year’s major winners didn’t even make it through four rounds at every major. Fox missed the cut at Augusta. Aaron Rai and Wyndham Clark both missed the weekend at the Open. That stat alone tells you how hard it is to show up and play well at all four, especially when the courses are set up to punish you.
Scheffler started his year with a win at The American Express back in January. Then the wins just… stopped. Not because he played badly. He just didn’t close. At the Masters, he charged on Sunday but came up one shot short of McIlroy, who slipped on a second straight Green Jacket. At the PGA, a T-14 finish was his worst result of the year. At the U.S. Open, he was four behind Clark. And at Birkdale, three behind Fox.
That’s four majors where he was within striking distance and couldn’t get it done. Last year Scheffler won two majors and looked like he was cruising toward a career grand slam. This year he’s still got prime-level game, but the trophies aren’t coming with it.
What’s next for Scheffler
He’ll finish the season with the FedEx Cup playoffs and then the Presidents Cup, where he’ll be on Team USA. The individual win drought has to end at some point, right? The guy is too good to keep knocking on the door without someone letting him in.
But for now, 2026 will go down as the year Scheffler played the best golf of anyone in the majors and walked away with zero to show for it. That’s golf. Sometimes the numbers don’t lie, and sometimes they don’t hand you a trophy either.
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