PGA Championship 2026: Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm headline nine players with the most at stake

3. Cameron Young: This year's breakout star with two big wins in his last five starts at The Players and, most recently, the Cadillac Championship. He's playing the best golf of his career, particularly dominating with his putter, and he has grown extremely comfortable with the pressure of contending on the weekend. The next step for Young is winning a major, and while it feels like the 28-year-old has time, capturing major titles when you're playing at the peak of your powers is critical. The PGA Tour is littered with guys who peaked for a few years and then dropped a tier or two below, and as immense as Young's talents may be, nothing is guaranteed in the future. The best time for Young to get that first major championship under his belt is right now, when his entire game is firing on all cylinders, and he seems like a great fit for every course he arrives at.

4. Jordan Spieth: Speaking of players who were once the hottest stars in the game before falling back to earth, Spieth comes into the PGA Championship once again looking to complete the career grand slam. Spieth provided another shimmer of hope early at Doral before stumbling on the weekend and reminding his fans he still has a ways to go to recapture the magic of a decade ago. He produces just enough rounds that make you think somewhere in there is that same guy who ripped off three majors in three years, but consistency has been lacking for a long time with Spieth. Still, all he needs is one week where it all clicks at the PGA for him to join the ranks of golf's immortals with the career grand slam.

5. Matt Fitzpatrick: Similar to Young, Fitzpatrick is suddenly playing the best golf of his career, and there is no better time for him to capture a second major title and prove he is one of the game's elite. So much has been made about his distance gains in recent years, but Fitzpatrick has become a tremendous all-around player, adding distance to quality ball-striking, putting and scrambling. It's extremely rare for golfers to get all four facets of the game working at the same time, and striking while the iron is hot is critical. Fitzpatrick can go from being viewed as a nice player with a major to one of the most accomplished Englishmen to ever play with another major title.

6. Scottie Scheffler: The reigning champ has little to prove this week after getting his first major win outside of Augusta, Georgia, last year at Quail Hollow -- and then adding another at the Open to close out the year. Still, Scheffler's 2026 hasn't been as dominant as we've grown accustomed to over the past few years, largely due to slow starts. The good news for Scheffler is that he's figured out how to dominate the weekends to get into contention, as evidenced by three straight runner-up finishes, but slow starts have kept him out of a third green jacket and two signature event wins in his last three starts. If he can figure that out -- or if he can go low enough in the final 54 holes to nullify another mediocre first round -- he can become just the third player to go back-to-back at the PGA, joining Brooks Koepka and Tiger Woods (twice).

7. Tommy Fleetwood: There wasn't anyone playing better golf to close out 2025 than Fleetwood, and it seemed like his Tour Championship win might catapult him into the next tier of stars on the PGA Tour. Instead, he's been a non-factor so far this season. He hasn't played bad golf, but he's not found his A-game yet in 2026, and as a result, he's been passed by Young as the player who seems most likely to join the major champion ranks next. Aronimink profiles as a second-shot golf course, and with little attention on him currently, perhaps this is the perfect time for Fleetwood to slide into contention and finally emerge as a serious threat in 2026.

8. Rory McIlroy: Palmer. Snead. Sarazen. Jones. Vardon. Those are the surnames McIlroy could join in a tie for the seventh-most major wins ever if he adds a seventh major victory to his résumé. For a long time, McIlroy entered the Masters with the weight of trying to join the game's all-time elite hanging over him. Now he seems genuinely freed from the burden of expectation and could go on another tear of majors as he did early in his career. With every victory, he'll climb a notch higher on that all-time list, but instead of letting the pressure of history crush him, McIlroy now seems to embrace that opportunity to move closer to a place on golf's Mount Rushmore.

9. Brooks Koepka: McIlroy's second Masters win broke a tie with Koepka for the most major wins of this era. There is some wonder whether Brooks still has that major championship form, but given how dominant he's been at the PGA in his career, if there were ever a time for Koepka to find it and pull back even with McIlroy, this might be the week. He's been phenomenal with his approach play this year, and something about the majors -- especially the PGA and U.S. Open -- has always brought the best out of Koepka. His T12 at the Masters showed he still knows how to grind it out in major conditions, and if he can find a little something off the tee and get the putter warmed up, perhaps he can make a run at a fourth PGA Championship to tie Tiger Woods for second all-time.