come the first Englishman to win the claret jug since Nick Faldo in 1992, and the first at Birkdale. Beyond its white, art deco club- house, the links at Birkdale has one of the Open’s leading championship pedigrees. Open winners include Peter Thomson (twice), Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Mark O’Meara, Padraig Harrington and Jordan Spieth, whose five-under finish over the last five holes in 2017 was his last hurrah in the majors at the age of 24. From 2015 through 2017 Spieth looked as invincible as Scheffler does today. He won the Masters and US Open that first year, and should have claimed another green jacket in 2016, only to implode at Amen Corner with a catastrophic 7 at the 12th. Philadelphia PGA The US PGA returns after an absence of 64 years to the course where Gary Player won his first (of two) Wanamaker Trophy in 1962. Aronimink in Philadel- phia was awarded this championship to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America’s founding in that city in 1776. It will not be an unfamiliar course for viewers, as it has hosted three PGA Tour events in the new Millennium.
ACTIVE PLAYERS WITH MOST MAJOR APPEARANCES
nine weeks between June 4 and August 2. Eight major championships (men, women, seniors) are being contested, seven in consecutive weeks. Shinnecock Hills might be the tough- est major challenge in the modern game, and it returns in the rotation just 12 months after an extreme 2025 US Open examination at Oakmont where only the champion, J J Spaun, finished under par. In 2018 at Shinnecock no one accomplished that, Brooks Koepka winning on a score of one-over 281. Yet 2018 produced one of the greatest final rounds in US Open history, a 63 from Tommy Fleetwood who came up one shy of matching Koepka. The 35-year- old Englishman, having risen to No 3 in the world, is favoured to win his first major in 2026. Winning that first major in your 30s is a trend lately. Brian Harman, 36 at Hoylake, Spaun, 34 at Oakmont. A re- vealing statistic is that only two men under the age of 30 currently have ma- jor titles to their name – Scheffler and Collin Morikawa. Fleetwood’s perfect opportunity would be in his hometown of Southport in Lancashire, where Royal Birkdale is hosting the Open Championship, and his odds are already 20/1. He would be-
129 – Phil Mickelson 102 – Sergio Garcia 98 -- Adam Scott 83 – Justin Rose 67 – Rory McIlroy 56 – Jason Day
55 – Rickie Fowler 54 – Lucas Glover 53 – Gary Woodland 51 – Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth 50 – Shane Lowry
The club’s 1920s Donald Ross design had been compromised over several decades by a succession of course ar- chitects. A recent renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner has put the ar- chitecture more in line with what aerial photographs depict of the early design. In 1962 it was a tough par 70, and Gary triumphed with a two-under total of 278 by one from Bob Goalby, who in 1968 was to win the Masters by default after Roberto De Vicenzo’s final round scoring error. The PGA was then played the week immediately following the Open, where Palmer had retained the claret jug. Player had missed the cut at Troon, which gave him more time to travel to America and prepare. Palmer, seeking his third major win of the year, failed to contend at the PGA. It was the one major which eluded him, just as it has Spieth. Justin Rose, even at age 45, may fan- cy his chances at Aronimink, though his odds are 100/1. Philadelphia has been a happy hunting ground. In 2010 he won the AT&T National at Aronim- ink on the PGA Tour, and three years later, a dozen kilometres away, he won the US Open at Merion. Then, in Sep- tember 2018, when the BMW Champi- onship went to Aronimink, Rose was again in the mix. However, his remark- able total of 20-under 260 was matched by Keegan Bradley, who won the title in a playoff. That runner-up finish propelled Rose into the No 1 position on the World Ranking for the first time in his career, and he held it on and off over the next seven months.
Tommy Fleetwood at Shinnecock Hills in 2018.
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026
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