Ask me who played the best golf in 2026 and I’d say Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, maybe Chris Gotterup and even Jake Knapp. But instinct only takes you so far, so I went and pulled up the Strokes Gained numbers to see what the data had to say. The results confirmed some things, complicated others, and brought up some names I really didn’t expect.
Overall leaderboard: Scheffler still stands alone
Even in what counts as a quiet year by his standards, Scottie Scheffler is playing a different sport than the rest of the field. His SG average of 2.22 leads the PGA Tour by nearly half a stroke. That’s down from 2.74 at the end of 2025 and he’s still walking the field.
The risers: A new look ball 10
Ludvig Åberg leads all players with a swing of +1.23—from 0.51 at the end of 2025 to 1.74 this year, backed by a sixth-place finish in the FedEx Cup. Min Woo Lee (+1.21) and Sahith Theegala (+1.00) complete the top three with Cameron Young (+0.86) and Matt Fitzpatrick (+0.86) close behind.
Fitzpatrick (+0.86) is perhaps the most compelling story of the season. He has three PGA Tour wins in 2026: the Valspar Championship, the RBC Heritage and the Zurich Classic along with his brother Alex. He is third in FedEx Cup points.
The fallen
Garrick Higgo has seen the single biggest drop on Tour, falling from +0.78 to -1.23. It has been a season to forget for the South African, most notably at the PGA Championship, where he was twice over before stepping on the first ball at Aronimink, arriving a minute late for his time and taking a two-stroke penalty as a result. Without the penalty, he would have tied for the first-round lead. He finally missed the putt by one stroke and then got separated from his caddy. He sits at 152nd in the FedEx Cup rankings.
Emiliano Grillo (-1.46), Kevin Yu (-1.35) and Lucas Glover (-1.33) have all dropped significantly, with their FedEx positions deep in the standings confirming what the numbers suggest. Adam Schenk (-1.26) and Nico Echavarria (-1.21) round out a group of players who have gone from positively contributing to the fielding average to crawling below it in the space of a single season. Echavarria is more interesting. He is still 35th in FedEx points thanks to a win at the Cognizant Classic.
conclusion
With the back half of the season still to play, the question is which trends continue and which reverse. Who do you think will move up and down?
