Ask me off the highest of my head who’s been taking part in the very best golf in 2026 and I’d inform you Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Younger, most likely Chris Gotterup and even Jake Knapp. However intuition solely takes you thus far so I went and pulled the Strokes Gained numbers to see what the information says. The outcomes confirmed a number of issues, difficult a number of others, and threw up some names I genuinely wasn’t anticipating.
The general leaderboard: Scheffler nonetheless stands alone
Even in what counts as a quiet yr by his requirements, Scottie Scheffler is taking part in a unique sport than the remainder of the sphere. His SG common of two.22 leads the PGA Tour by practically half a stroke. That’s down from 2.74 on the finish of 2025 and he’s nonetheless lapping the sphere.
The risers: A brand new-look high 10
Ludvig Åberg leads all gamers with a +1.23 swing—from 0.51 on the finish of 2025 all the best way to 1.74 this yr, backed up by a sixth-place FedEx Cup place. Min Woo Lee (+1.21) and Sahith Theegala (+1.00) spherical out the highest three with Cameron Younger (+0.86) and Matt Fitzpatrick (+0.86) shut behind.
Fitzpatrick (+0.86) is probably probably the most compelling story of the season. He has three PGA Tour wins in 2026: the Valspar Championship, the RBC Heritage and the Zurich Traditional alongside his brother Alex. He’s third in FedEx Cup factors.
The fallers
Garrick Higgo has seen the only largest drop on Tour, falling from +0.78 to -1.23. It has been a season to neglect for the South African, most memorably on the PGA Championship the place he was two-over par earlier than he even stepped foot on the primary tee at Aronimink, arriving one minute late for his tee time and receiving a two-stroke penalty because of this. With out the penalty, he would have been tied for the first-round lead. He in the end missed the reduce by one shot and subsequently parted methods along with his caddie. He sits 152nd within the FedEx Cup standings.
Emiliano Grillo (-1.46), Kevin Yu (-1.35) and Lucas Glover (-1.33) have all tumbled sharply, with their FedEx positions deep within the standings confirming what the numbers recommend. Adam Schenk (-1.26) and Nico Echavarria (-1.21) spherical out a bunch of gamers who’ve gone from contributing positively to the sphere common to dragging under it within the house of a single season. Echavarria is the fascinating outlier. He nonetheless sits thirty fifth in FedEx factors due to a win on the Cognizant Traditional.
The underside line
With the again half of the season nonetheless to play, the query is which tendencies maintain and which of them reverse. Who do you assume goes to maneuver up and down?
The publish PGA Tour Strokes Gained 2026: The Greatest Improvers And Greatest Declines So Far appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
