The four major championships have come and gone in 2025 with three new winners being crowned across the biggest events of the season. Rory McIlroy won his Masters in dramatic fashion this April, completing the career grand slam and punching his ticket into golf’s most exclusive club.
Scottie Scheffler secured his first major championship away from the friendly confines of Augusta National the following month at Quail Hollow as he held off the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm to win the PGA Championship. The three-time major champion, who was favored in all four majors this season by Caesars, raised the Wanamaker Trophy along with expectations of the level his career could ultimately reach.
While two favorites fared well in the first two majors, J.J. Spaun proved the underdog still has some bark in the world of professional golf. After experiencing a brutal start to his final round at Oakmont and turning in 40, Spaun made birdies on his final two holes of the U.S. Open to raise his first major title and finish the week as the only man in red figures at a golf course many consider the hardest in the world.
And then, as it so often does, golf swung back around to Scheffler. Are you really surprised? The world No. 1 capped off the major season with his most dominant performance to date as he walked off the 72nd green at Royal Portrush with the title Champion Golfer of the Year and with his fourth career major title in tow having claimed The Open Championship.
But what about everyone else, though? While those three names will go down as victors in the history books, there were other players who acquitted themselves quite well throughout the 16 most consequential rounds of golf in 2025. Where are their flowers? Who is singing their praises?
Below we identify and highlight the efforts of those who were able to play their best golf in the biggest moments, even if they may have fallen short of the winner’s circle.
2025 major leaderboard (relative to par)
One of my favorite lists to compile at the end of major championship season is the cumulative leaderboard. The qualifications for a player to make his way onto the leaderboard is simple — play in all four major championships and make the cut in all four major championships.
This season, only 15 players were able to say they accomplished both with Scheffler safely securing the top spot on the leaderboard followed by McIlroy and Xander Schauffele, who finished the season with three top-15 finishes in major despite never really sniffing weekend contention.
Scheffler followed in Schauffele’s footsteps from 2024 in the caliber of major season he experienced. In 2024, Schauffele became the seventh player to finish inside the top 10 in all four majors with two (or more) wins in the same season. In 2025, Scheffler grew that total to eight, joining a list that includes Arnold Palmer (1960), Gary Player (1974), Jack Nicklaus (1975), Tom Watson (1977, 1982), Tiger Woods (2000, 2005), Jordan Spieth (2015) and Schauffele (2024).
Scottie Scheffler 🏆 🏆
-32
Rory McIlroy 🏆
-11
Xander Schauffele
-10
Jon Rahm
-6
Harris English
-5
Matt Fitzpatrick
-1
Tyrrell Hatton
-1
J.J. Spaun 🏆
+1
Viktor Hovland
+3
Aaron Rai
+3
Maverick McNealy
+5
Sam Burns
+6
Daniel Berger
+7
Rasmus Højgaard
+14
Brian Harman
+17
2025 major leaderboard (relative to strokes gained)
With the statistical improvements in golf continuing to change how the game is played and perceived, it would be irresponsible to simply look at the major championships by score relative to par when trying to identify the best players in the four biggest events of the season. By introducing a strokes-gained leaderboard — courtesy of Rick Gehman — we are able to better understand which players experienced major runs that may have featured peaks and valleys as opposed to steady gains.
Bryson DeChambeau is the poster child for this as he made three of four cuts in the majors and collected three top-10 finishes in the process. Not qualified for the leaderboard cumulative to par, the two-time U.S. Open champion comes in as the fourth best major player in 2025 in relation to strokes gained.
Other players to jump into the top 15 include Robert MacIntyre — thanks largely due to his runner-up finish at the U.S. Open — as well as Ben Griffin, who had two top-10 finishes. U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley made the cut in the final three majors highlighted by his T8 at the PGA Championship.
Scottie Scheffler 🏆 🏆
56.1
Rory McIlroy 🏆
35.1
Xander Schauffele
34.1
Bryson DeChambeau
30.3
Jon Rahm
30.1
Harris English
29.2
Corey Conners
28.9
Matt Fitzpatrick
25.2
Tyrrell Hatton
25.1
Robert MacIntyre
23.7
J.J. Spaun 🏆
23.1
Aaron Rai
21.1
Viktor Hovland
21.1
Ben Griffin
20.6
Keegan Bradley
19.7