The Power 18 golf rankings: Xander Schauffele primed to challenge Scottie Scheffler for top spot in 2026
A new PGA Tour season has arrived, as have raised expectations for some of the best golfers in the game
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9 min read
Watching the NFL playoffs (on CBS, of course), the conversation has largely centered around Josh Allen. The Buffalo Bills quarterback has been so close, yet so far from leading his team to the Super Bowl throughout his career, which unfortunately aligns with the history of his franchise.
The Bills team may be battered and bruised, but this year, there is no Patrick Mahomes, no Joe Burrow, no Lamar Jackson to compete with him in the AFC. Allen is the clear belle of the ball, and although he may not be in the MVP conversation, he is the quarterback most would pick to lead their team with the game on the line. (Put aside any bias, you know it's true.)
While Allen's path appears to be the widest of his career, in reality, it is not. There is a reason Buffalo is the No. 6 seed with Denver and New England surging to the top of the AFC.
Rewinding a couple of months, few expected the NFL campaign to transpire this way before the season began. Preseason polls in college football painted a similar picture with the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Oregon all projected as potential national champions.
Unlike football -- despite the PGA Tour wanting to be football -- golf seems to be steadier year to year (despite the season being twice as long).
Scottie Scheffler should again stand as the top player in the world by the end of 2026. Rory McIlroy should contend for major championships this season, especially now that he can freewheel it. Tommy Fleetwood should continue to win on the PGA Tour after getting the monkey off his back at the Tour Championship.
But "should," "could" and "would" mean different things, and over the course of a long, grueling, eight-month season, the power of their meaning dissipates. Some players could catch us all by surprise. Others should make us all look dumb for suggesting otherwise. And maybe, just maybe, a few months into the year, you would want to go back and change some of your predictions.
Still, we have to start somewhere, and for us, that means the preseason edition of The Power 18.
The Power 18 provides insight as to how golfers are currently performing with benefit given to their play over recent events. It is a wider lens than simply what happened at the last tournament to be played but more narrow than the Official World Golf Rankings, which take into account how more than 2,000 golfers perform across an entire season.
The Power 18
| 1 | |
| Scheffler has 15 wins around the world these last two years. Fifteen! In 2024, he put a mallet putter in the bag and saw instant improvement, and in 2025, he deployed a claw grip from inside 20 feet and turned into one of the best putters in the world. So, where can Scheffler go from here? He has been working hard on the gym to up his endurance and has even picked up some speed thanks to a new TaylorMade driver. The world No. 1 only gets stronger and without an offseason injury to hinder his winter, Scheffler should surge from the start. | |
| 2 | |
| Whoa?! That's right, we are banking on Schauffele playing closer to his 2024 level in 2026. If there was a theme for the injured golfer in 2025, it was that it takes a long time to get back into the swing of things. Towards the end of the year, Schauffele did just that by playing beautifully at the Ryder Cup and winning the Baycurrent Classic in Japan. The putter was putrid for his standards last year, and once water finds its level on the greens, he should be contending for multiple wins and major championships. | |
| 3 | |
| The move to 72 holes for LIV Golf should only help Rahm. The Spaniard won the season-long race despite not entering the winner's circle and returned to major championship contention with a Sunday run at the PGA Championship. The longer those tournaments go, the more time Rahm has to assert himself on leaderboards. Last year marked the first time in Rahm's career he went winless across a campaign. That is not lost on him. Expect a big bounce back. | |
| 4 | |
| The stars aligned for McIlroy in 2025; he won the Masters, led Europe to a victory at the Ryder Cup and claimed the Irish Open and Players Championship again. But it also aligned from a motivational standpoint where he had all these checkpoints to keep his attention throughout the year like, say, The Open at Royal Portrush. He has made it known that he will scale back his tournaments on the PGA Tour to play where he wants, so don't be surprised if he racks up multiple DP World Tour wins and one or two stateside. Interestingly enough, McIlroy managed his best putting season in 2025 but also his worst approach season. Something to keep an eye on as he puts new irons in the bag. | |
| 5 | |
| Fleetwood not only won on the PGA Tour in 2025, he gave himself chance after chance. For all the discussion of his inability to close before raising the FedEx Cup, the Englishman had never played himself into that position on a consistent enough basis to warrant some of that criticism. In his last 11 starts of 2025, he created six legitimate runs at entering the winner's circle and did so on two of those occasions. If he can keep the momentum on the greens, he can keep doing that. | |
| 6 | |
| Iron play held him back at various points, but the rest of his game was still good enough to put him in position to contend at the Masters and PGA Championship. Seems like it is a matter of when, not if, DeChambeau will get his hands on a Wanamaker Trophy given what that championship has turned into. His chances only improve when his spin control with his scoring clubs does, too. DeChambeau is too good to only win once on LIV Golf these last two years. | |
| 7 | |
| Young is the breakout candidate of the golf community, given his win at the Wyndham Championship, play at the Ryder Cup and previous major championship performances. Young's rise in the game came courtesy of a newfound confidence on the green and deciding to play his comfortable shot shape (a draw) in the second half of the year. His last six starts of 2025 all produced top-11 finishes. | |
| 8 | |
| On a week-to-week basis, Matsuyama may be difficult to predict, but when spanning out, all this guy does is win. The man from Japan has notched four victories across his last two years and had a positive campaign on the greens in 2025 for the first time since 2019. His floor is so high thanks to his elite approach play and underrated touch around the greens, and if he becomes a bit more consistent off the tee and continues to have those spike putting performances, Matsuyama may well win multiple times for the third straight season. | |
| 9 | |
| It has now been over three years since Cantlay has claimed a trophy, as we have to go back to the 2022 BMW Championship -- the week that all the players met in Delaware to change the PGA Tour -- for his last victory. That changes in 2026 as he found something in his game late in the summer and is simply too talented to go another calendar year without entering the winner's circle. His putting took a nice step in the right direction once he started working with Phil Kenyon. | |
| 10 | |
| MacIntyre continues to get better. He notched two wins on the PGA Tour in 2024 and more than doubled his total strokes gained from that campaign in 2025. The left-hander came close at the U.S. Open and won on the DP World Tour the week after the Ryder Cup. Every aspect of his game was sharper, and the consistency followed which he previously lacked followed. He is quietly No. 7 in the Official World Golf Rankings. | |
| 11 | |
| Rebounded nicely from a 2024 season that marked his first winless year since 2019. The Englishman looked stuck in the mud for the beginning of 2025, but then found his groove at the PGA Championship and was well on his way. Fitzpatrick defeated McIlroy in a playoff at the DP World Tour Championship. The iron play is to credit as it jumped to near career-high marks. If his wedge play makes a similar leap this year, he will be in a very nice position. | |
| 12 | |
| We are monitoring the situation when it comes to Hovland. The Norwegian continues to win and contend in major championships, even when he laments about the state of his game. His short-game woes are well-documented, but it is another area -- his speed -- that has our attention as Hovland has dropped a decent amount these last two years. Despite this, he ranked second on the PGA Tour in approach play only behind Scheffler in 2025. | |
| 13 | |
| The Swedish superstar grabbed his biggest win to date on the PGA Tour by winning the Genesis Invitational and was in position to slip on a green jacket for the second straight year before settling for a seventh-place finish. Åberg was steady throughout the bag but could use some more shots at his disposal around the green. If he does that, he be a fixture in big-time events. | |
| 14 | |
| After battling for playing privileges in 2024, Spaun soared to new heights in 2025. He won the U.S. Open in dramatic fashion while also settling for four podium finishes. The 35-year-old was so improved in every aspect of the game, it is hard to imagine him taking another step forward, but even if he doesn't, don't count on him taking a massive jump back. He has more wins and major championship runs under his belt for my money. | |
| 15 | |
| A year that started with him playing every event trying to earn an invitation into the Masters ended with three wins and a spot inside the top 10 of the OWGR. Griffin's added distance was a cog in the machine, but he also improved drastically on the greens and with irons in hand. Something tells me that 2025 will be as good as it gets for the 29-year-old, but he still has a lot of runway to prove me wrong. | |
| 16 | |
| At some point, his lack of pop has to catch up to him, right?! Henley defied conventional wisdom in 2025 and showed that proper golf still has a place on the PGA Tour. Despite ranking as one of the shortest hitters, he won at a difficult Bay Hill and finished runner-up at the Travelers Championship and Tour Championship. After beginning his career as a fantastic putter, he has returned to that quality on the greens. | |
| 17 | |
| Take away big names like Scheffler and McIlroy, and Bradley is the most intriguing player heading into 2026. Without the weight of a Ryder Cup captaincy on his shoulders, wukk the 39-year-old continue to play at an elite level and possibly even play his way into the Ryder Cup conversation for 2027? His ball striking is so, so solid, but it was his chipping and pitching that caught the eye in 2025. | |
| 18 | |
| I'm on record saying he will be on the U.S. Presidents Cup team because what is life without a few bold predictions? Brennan bypassed the Korn Ferry Tour by racing away from the field at the Bank of Utah Championship during the FedEx Cup Fall. His speed has speed and although there will be some rough patches in his first year on tour, he will come out the other side better for them and as a top-20 player in the world. | |
