Scottie’s Lost Year: Why He Went Major-less In 2026

This feels like deja-vu. 

Scottie Scheffler let another major championship slide right by his grasp on Sunday at Royal Birkdale in defense of his Claret Jug. 

And much like other majors this year, it seemed like that was already a given earlier in the week. Scheffler entered the final round trailing by six shots and seemingly out of reach for his fifth major. But then he birdied three of his first five holes on Sunday and reached 8-under for the Open Championship after a birdie on the 12^th hole. 

As things ended, Scheffler would have only needed to play the final six holes at 2-under to reach the winning score, and he had two par-5s remaining. 

He did make two birdies—but he added three bogeys and eventually finished T4, the same result as the U.S. Open. 

Scheffler makes the hard things look easy and the easy things look hard

Let’s talk about why Scottie didn’t bag a major this year despite being the best player in the world.

In the four majors this year, Scheffler’s Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green ranks were first, first, fourth and fifth. In the PGA, he was No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking (a metric that combines off-the-tee and approach play). His cumulative score for the four majors was matched only by Sam Burns and they were well ahead of the next pack of players.

Yet Scheffler was never in a great position in the final round of a major as he had to relentlessly chase from behind at each championship. 

That nearly changed this week. Scheffler was 4-under through six holes on Thursday morning and instantly in control of the championship. Then he made a shockingly bad swing on the 7^th hole to make bogey and didn’t make a birdie the rest of the round. That was despite two par-5 opportunities on the back side that were plenty reachable each round.

But Scheffler played those par 5s at just 1-under for the week, which ranked 86^th in the field. 

That was the theme for the week. Scheffler somehow struggled on the two easiest holes on the course, much like he struggled to make short birdie putts under 10 feet all week.

Before his birdie on the 12^th hole on Sunday, he had gone 56 holes since making a birdie putt of more than seven feet. 

Scheffler hit all the difficult shots. He ranked fourth in Strokes Gained: Approach and seventh in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. On Sunday, he hit five approaches inside nine feet in the first nine holes.

But nothing would fall. 

And before people point the finger at Scheffler’s putting, he ranks 14^th on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting this year. He gained nearly two strokes to the field with the putter at the U.S. Open and he was just above average at the Masters.

The putter was bad at Birkdale but it wasn’t necessarily bad throughout the season. The only two tournaments where he has lost strokes putting were this week and the PGA—that’s it.

Meanwhile, Ryan Fox won while leading the field in putting, making it four of the last five winners at The Open who led the field in putting. Scheffler is a part of that group after making everything at Royal Portrush a year ago. 

Perhaps it’s time for Scheffler to reevaluate whether to use the claw grip he employs on short putts because he’s been one of the best putters in the world this year from outside of 20 feet when he uses a conventional grip. 

Either way, Scheffler became world No. 1 because of his ability to make everything look easy. That has been the opposite of the case in 2026. Everything has looked taxing and difficult and he’s repeatedly failed to step up to the moment when he had legitimate chances to contend for the win at three of the four majors.

You can even see his frustration boiling over several times this year, whether it was on Sunday at the Open or having heated exchanges with his caddie, Ted Scott, at the Memorial.

The bottom line? Scottie is still playing at an extremely high level but he couldn’t get everything to come together at the same time in a major.

What does 2026 mean for Scheffler’s legacy as he chases major championships?

Scheffler may tell you that he doesn’t care about his legacy but fans often do. And I’d still argue that he cares much more about everything than he lets on, considering that reaction on the 17^th tee on Sunday. 

After 2025, people started wondering how many majors could Scheffler possibly get. He was 29 at the time and showing no signs of slowing down. Could he get past Hogan and become the fourth player to reach double digits? Was Tiger’s 15 in serious jeopardy?

This year turned out to be a reality check in those talks.

Scheffler certainly didn’t fall off from his skill level as we’ve seen from many world No. 1s in recent times. But he reminded us just how hard it can be to win. 

Looking back at the year now, Scheffler had a legitimate shot at three majors. Winning two of them like he did last year would have already given him six in total, tying Rory McIlroy and sitting T12 all-time.

Now we’ll see how he responds. Will a true drop in level happen? Will he bounce back? 

With such high expectations, it’s hard not to wonder how much a major-less year hurts in the middle of a player’s prime. Especially when considering that three major champions this year—Aaron Rai, Wyndham Clark and Fox—would not be considered world-beaters by any means. 

But we can look at the man Scheffler has been compared to in recent years, whether you agree or not. Tiger Woods won 12 of his 15 majors between 2000 and 2008. He won a major in seven of those nine seasons, including four multi-major seasons. But he didn’t win any in 2003 or 2004. 

After his prime began, Scheffler already had a major-less season in 2023. He made up for it with two in 2025 and he’ll need to bounce back again in 2027 if he wants to continue to stack majors and make a run at the game’s best of all time. 

Augusta, Pebble Beach and St Andrews are about as good as it gets as major venues in 2027. And the other major, held at PGA Frisco, is in Scheffler’s home state. 

It will be fascinating to see what Scottie does next.

Top Photo Caption: Scottie Scheffler hits his third shot on the par-5 17th Sunday at The Open. (GETTY IMAGES/Richard Heathcote)