Should you be wondering what Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy could possibly do for an encore in 2026 to match their dominance of the past PGA Tour season (nine combined wins included three majors and the Players Championship). As much as we can’t wait to see how the top two-ranked players in the world perform this year, there are countless other storylines that also deserve some attention.
Start with Tommy Fleetwood, who began 2025 ranked ninth in the world, but is currently No.3 and it’s no hyperbole to suggest he is the feel-good story on the threshold of 2026. Why? Because he’s genuinely well-liked and his first-ever win on the PGA Tour (and what came with that triumph at the Tour Championship was the season-long FedEx Cup title) resonated with so many.
“I think it’s easy for anybody to say that they are resilient, that they bounce back, that they have fight,” Fleetwood told reporters in August when he shook off heartbreaking failures at the Travelers Championship and BMW Championship before winning the Tour Championship. “It’s different when you actually have to prove it.”
But if “proving it” helped Fleetwood climb to the top in ’25, it also did wonders for McIlroy, who proved he could win at Augusta National, and for Scheffler, who proved he could utterly dominate, and for Justin Rose, who at 45 proved that he had plenty left in his tank.
All of which is a tidy segue into what envelopes all those new faces who’ll be on the PGA Tour in 2026 – they have earned a chance to prove they belong.
“It’s not going to be easy, but I’m looking forward to the challenge,” said 27-year-old Englishman Marco Penge, who in the eyes of many did enough to be considered a breakout performer in 2025. But given his three wins on the DP World Tour and runner-up finish to McIlroy in the season-long Race to Dubai standings, Penge has a global stage on which to perform, thanks to earning PGA Tour stature for 2026.
“It’s a big unknown and a big ask still,” Penge said of his chance to play on the PGA Tour where he has played in just three tournaments (excluding the majors). But giving credit to the maturation process during his past two seasons, Penge topped the list of 10 DP World Tour members who earned PGA Tour cards through the Race to Dubai.
Two of those names shouldn’t need much of introduction, as Sweden’s Alex Noren is 43 and has played in more than 190 PGA Tour tournaments dating back to 2008 and 30-year-old Haotong Li was a global name a few years ago before slipping in the world ranking.
But if you’re thinking Penge might not be the only new face who could surprise, you are correct. There’s intrigue surrounding Keita Nakajima, the 25-year-old from Japan. He was a rising star in his native land a few years ago when he tried to get through the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.
When that try failed, Nakajima chose to focus on Europe, not Japan, and while it took him two seasons, his chance to prove himself has arrived.
Still, it’s fair to say that whatever buzz swirls around Penge or Nakajima or even Kristoffer Reitan (eighth in the Race to Dubai who looks to follow in the PGA Tour steps of fellow Norwegian Viktor Hovland) will not put a huge dent in the spotlight that will shine on Scheffler and McIlroy throughout the 2026 season.
The start of the PGA Tour calendar has a different look this year (the usual starting point, The Sentry at Kapalua on the island of Maui, was not played) but when the first of eight signature events, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, is played in mid-February, things will be in full swing and it’s very likely it will feel similar to ’25.
That’s because Scheffler was dynamic all season long and yet McIlroy may have stolen some thunder late when he won in front of home folks at the Irish Open and took command of yet another Race to Dubai. It’s still talked about, how McIlroy won on the grandest of stages – Pebble Beach, Augusta National, TPC Sawgrass – and yet the truth is, it’s just one of the many subplots to a wider discussion point that is very much with us at the beginning of the 2026 season.
Which is: will the international stars continue to shine in 2026?
We’re going beyond McIlroy and Fleetwood here, spreading the love to Justin Rose, who had a resurgence to be admired. He won a PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoff tournament, got into a playoff with McIlroy at the Masters, and sits 10th on the Official World Golf Ranking.
Others did their share to make 2026 quite the season for heralded international golfers, from Shane Lowry’s Ryder Cup-clinching play in singles, to Matt Fitzpatrick rebounding from the doldrums (he missed three cuts in his first seven starts) to win the DP World Tour Championship and cap off a strong finish (eight top-10s in his last 12 starts), to Robert MacIntyre’s statement victory at the Dunhill Links after strong top-10s at US Open and Open Championship.
But as rich as the memories of ’25 are, what hangs with us now, at the beginning of 2026, are notable names who have us thinking. For instance:
- Can Patrick Cantlay, having slipped to 24th in the world, stop his winless run, which dates back to 2022 and includes his past 61 starts?
- Can 39-year-old Keegan Bradley, still crushed over how his captaincy went at the Ryder Cup in September, have a stellar ’26 season to get a jumpstart in the points list to possibly be a participant in the 2027 Ryder Cup in Ireland?
- Can Adam Scott, who’ll turn 46 in July, find the sort of magic that 45-year-old Justin Rose tapped into in ’25?
- Can Ben Griffin, who not too many years ago quit the game, prove that his three-win campaign in 2025 was no fluke and that he deserves his No.9 position in the OWGR?
- And can Cameron Young, 28, who finally broke through for his first PGA Tour win and made a positive impression in the Ryder Cup, truly blossom and reach the superstar level that has been predicted for him?
We are not here to make predictions – except for this: there are plenty of storylines that will catch your eye in 2026 and many will be flavoured with international flair. After 2025, that’s an easy guess.
