Who Are the Top Five Golfers in the World Right Now?
Now that the four major championships and the Olympics are all behind us. Now is a great time to reflect on what was an extremely exciting year of major tournament golf on the PGA Tour. This has been one of the more dramatic and entertaining PGA Tour seasons that the golf world has seen in a long time, as The U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, and the Olympic tournament were all decided by just one shot on the last hole of play. With all that said, let’s assess who the best five golfers in the world are now that all the majors are in the books.
5. Ludvig Åberg
Åberg is one of the best young and rising stars in the game of golf right now. The 24-year-old from Sweden is just in his second season as a professional golfer, and he has been turning heads in nearly every tournament he has been in. He has seven top-10 finishes this season, including a second-place finish at the Masters in April. Åberg is one of, if not the best, iron players in the world already, so do not be surprised if he is in contention for nearly every major in 2025.
4. Rory McIlroy
The 2024 season may be viewed as a disappointment from Rory’s perspective, given the high standards he is often held to. However, it is clear that he is still one of the most dangerous players in the world on a weekly basis. He won the Wells Fargo Championship back in May, and he finished in the top-25 in three of the four majors this year, including a heartbreaking second-place finish in the U.S. Open. He ranks 1st on the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee and second in total driving and driving distance. However, he does not rank inside the top 20 in any putting category. The talent is still there for McIlroy even in his age-35 season, but he must clean up the short game if he wants to claim another major title.
3. Bryson DeChambeau
It has been an incredibly memorable year for Bryson DeChambeau. Besides The Open Championship, where he missed the cut, he was in serious contention for every other major this season. He finished sixth at the Masters, second at the PGA Championship by just one stroke, and then won the U.S. Open over Rory McIlroy by one stroke. Three top-six finishes in majors, including one win, is a massive success for DeChambeau, who has been scrutinized over the years for his outlandish personality and then his departure for the LIV Tour. There has been a narrative that LIV golfers only left the PGA for the money and do not care about winning anymore; well, it is safe to say that Bryson has firmly put that narrative to rest after his performances this season at the major tournaments. As a result, he seems to have gained much more of a positive following over the course of this season. With his powerful driving ability not going anywhere anytime soon and his significant improvements in his putting game, you can expect to see DeChambeau at the top of many more major tournament leaderboards over the next couple of years.
2. Xander Schauffele
There is not a golfer in the world who has flipped the script on their career in one calendar year more than Xander Schauffele has this year. At this time last year, Schauffele was considered one of the best players in the world never to win a major, and many wondered if he had what it took to ever get it done. In the first major of the year, the Masters, he came away with yet another top-10 finish but still no victory. Then, at the PGA Championship, he went absolutely nuts as he finished the tournament at 21-under-par, beating Bryson DeChambeau by one stroke to win his first-ever major. However, he was far from finished; he went on to finish seventh in the U.S. Open, and then we won The Open just a month ago in Scotland for his second major of the season. So, not only did he win two of the four majors, but he made history by finishing in the top 10 of all four major tournaments in the same season. Schauffele has proven that he has what it takes to close out big tournaments, and he has been the model of consistency all year long, and there is no reason to think that will stop anytime soon.
1. Scottie Scheffler
What else is there to say about Scottie Scheffler at this point? He is the closest thing golf has seen to the great Tiger Woods since Tiger himself. In every tournament Scheffler is in, he is favored to win, and with good reason. He cruised to a Masters victory back in April, and that was in the middle of a streak where he finished 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, and 1st in five consecutive tournaments spanning from March 10th to April 21st. That is domination that the sport has not seen in a long time. What makes his dominance even more impressive is all the distractions away from golf that he has experienced this year. His wife was in labor with their first child during the final round of the Masters, and then he was arrested before the second round of the PGA Championship over a traffic dispute. Of course, he still shot a 66 later that day and finished eighth in the tournament. If that is not enough to justify him as the best golfer in the world, he just secured a gold medal for the United States in Paris thanks to a final round 62 to complete the comeback victory over Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama. Scheffler had one of the best statistical seasons in recent history, and at just 28 years old, the sky is the limit for the New Jersey native.
