Quick: Name one player who\u2019s going to win a men\u2019s major championship in 2026.<\/p>\n
If you answered Scottie Scheffler, well, chances are you\u2019re probably not wrong. The world\u2019s No. 1-ranked player is coming off a two-major campaign and can follow Rory McIlroy as the seventh member of golf\u2019s career grand slam club if he wins the U.S. Open at Shinnecock on his 30th birthday.<\/p>\n
Of course, picking a player to win a major and making a futures bet on a player to win a major can be two very different things.<\/p>\n
Scheffler\u2019s recent success and current price serve as a great example of this.<\/p>\n
Beginning at the 2022 Masters, Scheffler has won four of the last 16 majors \u2013 a pretty simple mathematical equation of 25 percent, or an even simpler rate of once per year.<\/p>\n
That would perhaps suggest he\u2019d be even-money to tack on another title this year, but if you\u2019re expecting to find that price, dream on. Scheffler is currently -175 at BetMGM to win a major this year, which certainly makes sense on the surface level, but doesn\u2019t exactly provide much value in the market.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s similarly tough to back McIlroy at +130 after he\u2019d just recently gone more than a decade without a major win or Tommy Fleetwood at +450 despite never having won one.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean I won\u2019t bet someone who hasn\u2019t done it yet, I\u2019d just like a slightly bigger number. In fact, below are five players who make some sense in this market \u2013 and four of \u2018em have yet to win a major.<\/p>\n
5 Futures Bets for the 2026 Men\u2019s Golf Major Championships
\nViktor Hovland (+650)<\/p>\n
With top-four finishes at majors in each of the past four years, Hovland is clearly knocking on the door of what would be his greatest career accomplishment. What really has me bullish is that those four results have come in the PGA Championship (twice), U.S. Open and Open Championship (once apiece), while he has a T-7 at the Masters during this time, as well. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve long believed that what separates the uppermost echelon of players from the next tier is that the best of the best can win anyplace, anytime and while Hovland hasn\u2019t done that yet, he\u2019s proven that he doesn\u2019t have any blind spots at the big four.<\/p>\n
Best bet: Open Championship (+2800)<\/p>\n
Despite a T-2 and solo third at the PGA over the past three years, I still think The Open offers his best chance, as he really wasn\u2019t as far off as the final leaderboard showed at the Old Course in 2022. Royal Birkdale should test a player\u2019s mettle with those long- and mid-irons, which happens to be Hovland\u2019s specialty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hideki Matsuyama (+900)<\/p>\n
Personally, there are very few times during the year when Matsuyama\u2019s name makes my card for a specific tournament. There\u2019s always the risk that his notoriously balky neck issue springs up or that he\u2019s benching yet another putter, although each of those specific instances have led to victories in the past anyway. <\/p>\n
That said, if you give me Hideki for an entire year \u2013 or in this case, for four tournaments \u2013 I know with a decent amount of confidence that he\u2019ll play well at some point. Since 2013, he owns multiple top-10s at each of the four majors except The Open, which would appear his least likely place to win his next major.<\/p>\n
Best bet: Masters (+3000)<\/p>\n
As McIlroy will find out in a few months, it\u2019s a whole lot tougher to try and win at Augusta National for the first time than the second time. Playing with the knowledge that no matter what, you\u2019ll be back at the next year\u2019s Champions\u2019 Dinner along with all of the other festivities can help ease a player\u2019s nerves when he\u2019s playing the most famous back-nine in golf. Matsuyama claimed his green jacket five years ago and could certainly do it again this year.<\/p>\n
Robert MacIntyre (+1000)<\/p>\n
If you Google the moniker \u201cBig Shot Bob,\u201d the search engine will yield results for former NBA player Robert Horry, who was never a superstar, but made plenty of big shots while winning seven team titles. Don\u2019t be surprised if MacIntyre starts stealing that nickname, as he\u2019s shown a propensity early in his career for playing his best golf at the biggest moments. He was runner-up at the U.S. Open at Oakmont last year and already owns three top-10s in six starts at The Open.<\/p>\n
Best bet: The Open (+2800)<\/p>\n
This is a somewhat easy call, and I\u2019m actually surprised Bob\u2019s price is this high in advance of heading to a classic links course, which should suit his game perfectly. It still feels like he\u2019s playing something of an underdog role, but at No. 7 in the world ranking, being ninth on this odds board suggests a bit of value.<\/p>\n
Cameron Young (+1000)<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve written in multiple places that while I won\u2019t make any comparisons to Scheffler, I do think that Young\u2019s performance in last fall\u2019s Ryder Cup (when he posted a 3-1-0 record and won in the opening singles match on Sunday afternoon) could similarly lead to success, just as Scheffler\u2019s play in the team competition did for him four years ago. Add in the fact that Young finally got himself into the winner\u2019s circle at the Wyndham Championship and we should expect him to be playing with a rare combo of confidence and momentum this season.<\/p>\n
Best bet: PGA Championship (+5000)<\/p>\n
The New York native has played some of his best golf in limited starts in the northeast, and a trip to Aronimink GC in the Philadelphia area should have him licking his chops as we head toward the month of May.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marco Penge (+2000)<\/p>\n
If you think I\u2019m going overboard in my awe for this 27-year-old\u2019s game, then consider this: In the past 52 weeks, he went from 414th in the OWGR to 29th. Or this: After starting last season suspended, he came back to win three times on the DP World Tour. <\/p>\n
Or this: He was first in SG: Off the tee and fifth in scoring average on the Euro circuit last year. I\u2019ll maintain that Penge is a star developing in front of our very eyes and it might not take long for him to become one of the world\u2019s best players. I don\u2019t mind the idea of buying at 20\/1 to see if it comes to fruition in the form of a major.<\/p>\n
Best bet: PGA Championship<\/p>\n
You might think The Open would be the most sensible selection for any Englishman, but I\u2019m a firm believer that Penge\u2019s game is going to be much better suited for the big ballparks of the U.S. than any links courses back home. He finished top-30 at Quail Hollow last year and it wouldn\u2019t shock me to see him overpower Aronimink, especially if he\u2019s got a PGA Tour win under his belt by that time already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick: Name one player who\u2019s going to win a men\u2019s major championship in 2026. If you answered Scottie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-405743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}