The 2025 season was full of highlights, from Rory McIlroy career Grand Slam finish in Masters and Two big wins for Scottie Scheffler at Jeeno Thitikul’s title defense at the CME Group Tour Championship, where she cemented her status as the new queen of the LPGA.
In total, the PGA Tour crowned winners in 46 official tournaments in 2025, while the LPGA had 32. Which victories emerged as the most memorable of the year? Check out our favorite season highlights below.
Rory’s Grand Slam
It feels impossible to overstate the magnitude and emotional significance of McIlroy’s Masters victory, where there were so many factors at play: the fact that McIlroy hadn’t won a major in 11 years; that he had endured a crushing defeat at Augusta in 2011; that he had experienced a more recent morale loss at the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst, when two missed short shots down the stretch ruined his chances of winning. The list goes on!
Then, with victory expected on Sunday at the 2025 Masters, late errors again put his triumph in doubt, with a bogey on 13 and a bogey on 18 sending him into a sudden-death playoff with Justin Rose.
The stakes simply couldn’t be higher. McIlroy’s birdie to win – and the cathartic outpouring of emotion he displayed on the green afterwards – made for some of the most dramatic and emotionally charged footage of the year.
JJ Spaun’s long bomb at the US Open
Heading into the 2025 US Open at Oakmont, JJ Spaun had just one win on his resume. But during a rainy week, he overcame a five-bogey-in-six-hole start in the final round, using a mid-round weather delay to his advantage.
Spaun recovered to go three under par on the back nine, punctuated by a flurry of birdies on 17 and a 64-foot bomb for birdie on the 18th that ultimately sealed his victory.
The shot put was so epic that even Spaun’s closest competitors, Robert MacIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton, couldn’t help but praise the winner.
Keegan Bradley’s Travelers Championship Glory
Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup captaincy coincided with some of the best golf of his life.
The now 39-year-old’s game began to rise in late 2022 when he won the ZOZO, ending a four-year win drought. He went on to win the 2023 Travelers Championship and the 2024 BMW Championship, making a serious case for a scenario in which he could select himself for his Ryder Cup team.
Bradley posted four top-eight finishes through the first five months in 2025. June’s Travelers Championship came when Bradley caught fire with his putting during the final round, draining three bombs of 16, 64 and 37 feet that set up a six-footer on the final hole of the tournament from Tomdraind. Fleetwood (who was still looking for his first PGA Tour win at the time) and Russell Henley.
The victory made Bradley’s worthiness as Ryder Cup captain look like a foregone conclusion, but he ultimately refused to pick himself.
Cam Young wins Wyndham
Until this year, Cameron Young was often named one of the Tour’s best winless players.
The 28-year-old had approached a torturer seven times before August’s Wyndham Championship.
Then, it was finally Young’s turn. He cruised to a wire-to-wire victory by an impressive six strokes over Mac Meissner.
The win was also an opportune time to shine, putting his name in the spotlight for US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley. Young took the title as captain and was a standout for Team USA in Bethpage, going 3-1-0.
Discovering Tommy Fleetwood
Like Cameron Young, Tommy Fleetwood suffered a number of near misses in his quest to win his first PGA Tour (although Fleetwood had an impressive list of wins on his DP World Tour resume).
With six PGA Tour runner-up finishes to his name, including a heartbreaking loss to Bradley in the aforementioned Travelers Championship, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Fleetwood experienced his breakthrough. And sure enough, his time came quickly, as his three-shot victory in the Tour Championship over Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley sealed the deal for his first PGA Tour title — and earned him a sweet $10 million winner’s check, too.
Lottie Woad wins Scottish Open on pro debut
A former world No. 1 on the amateur circuit, Woad is used to claiming big wins. She has a National Women’s Amateur Championship in Augusta on her resume, as well as a European Women’s Irish Open victory, which she achieved while still an amateur.
But when Woad cruised to a three-shot victory at the Women’s Scottish Open, it lifted her into even rarer air. The win was an incredible feat on its own, but exponentially more so when you consider it was the 21-year-old’s professional debut, matching Rose Zhang’s feat in 2023.
Jeeno prevails after the four-shot destruction
While Jeeno Thitikul’s CME Group Tour win would be a worthy entry on this list, her comeback from a crushing loss to Charley Hull after the four-hole 18th feels even more significant.
In a season that saw a record tie on the LPGA Tour with 29 different winners, Thitikul was looking to become the first two-time winner of the season heading into September’s Kroger Queen City Classic. Victory appeared to be within her grasp but a shocking four-putt on the 18th hole saw the title go to Hull.
Thitikul later said she cried so much over the loss that she had to apply an ice pack to her face. Then she took a week off to regroup in Banff, Canada, without her clubs.
Mentally restored, Thitikul won her next start, LPGA Shanghai. Thitikul birdied the 17th hole in the final round to force a playoff, and she eventually won on the fifth playoff hole against Japan’s Minami Katsu. The win made Thitikul the first player to achieve two wins throughout the season – a feat matched by Miyu Yamashita three weeks later. But winning the CME Group Tour Championship at the Thitikuli season finale in November three weeks after that made her the only three-time winner of the year.
Hovland’s ‘Disgusting Shots’
When Viktor Hovland won back-to-back BMW Championship and Tour Championship titles in 2023, he looked unstoppable. But golf is a fickle game, and Hovland was winless on the PGA Tour in 2024.
He didn’t get off to a great start in 2025 either, missing three straight cuts at the Genesis, Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship before arriving at Valspar.
Hovland started the final round behind Justin Thomas, but bogeyed three of his final five holes to beat Thomas by one stroke.
Despite the surprise win, Hovland remained unfazed by the state of his game.
“It’s unbelievable to see that I could win,” Hovland said. “Because I honestly didn’t believe I could do it this week.
“I’m still hitting a lot of nasty shots.”
The Resurrection of Justin Rose
At 45, Justin Rose is an elder statesman on the PGA Tour, but he’s repeatedly proven he can hang with the young guns — like in August, when the world No. 10 cruised to a wire-to-wire victory at FedEx St. Jew.
Tied in regulation with US Open champion JJ Spaun, Rose beat Spaun in a playoff with a birdie on the third hole to earn his 12th career PGA Tour victory and first since the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Justin Thomas snaps playoff drought at RBC
With 15 PGA Tour wins over the past decade, JT has been one of the consistently great players on Tour. But after his second major championship victory at the 2022 PGA, Thomas began a nearly three-year winning drought – the longest of his career.
Prior to the RBC Legacy, Thomas had posted four top-nine finishes, including two runner-up finishes. But victory had remained elusive. Then things turned around in Harbor Town. Thomas tied with Andrew Novak in regulation and drained a 20-foot birdie putt to win the tournament on the first playoff hole, giving him his 16th career win — and a serious confidence boost for the remainder of the season.
Scottie’s third major
Which of Scottie Scheffler’s two major wins was more memorable in 2025? He won both by impressive margins – five strokes in the PGA and four in the Open Championship. But the PGA resonates — especially given the circumstances of last year’s PGA Championship, where Scheffler was shockingly arrested.
The win at the 2025 PGA was another impressive example of Scheffler’s dominance and resilience. And now, after his Open Championship triumph, he is one US Open win away from becoming the seventh player ever to reach the career Grand Slam. And something tells us he won’t stop there.
Ryder Cup chaos
We’ll wrap up this fond memory of the season with a look back at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, which was so packed with compelling stories that it’s hard to know where to begin.
From captain Keegan Bradley’s desire for redemption and unruly crowd behavior to the Europeans’ early dominance and the USA’s sharp comeback in Sunday’s singles, the 2025 Ryder Cup – which Team Europe won by a 15-13 margin – is one we won’t soon forget.
