Now that we\u2019re nearly a third of the way through the PGA Tour season, let\u2019s take a look at some of the biggest risers and fallers of the year (so far). Three months of play feels like a sufficient sample size to cast some judgment on which directions players are trending. Below are the players whose on-course \u2014 and, in some cases, in-arena \u2014 performances in 2026 have most changed the way I think about them.<\/p>\n
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Jacob Bridgeman is the singular player who has most altered my perception this year. He is a very, very good player. A reasonable comp is 2025 Ben Griffin \u2014 someone who steadily improved over his first couple of seasons before breaking out and becoming a bona fide top-20 player in the world. Bridgeman\u2019s four top 10s on the PGA Tour this year are tied for the most of any player, a total that includes an enormous win at Riviera, where he edged out Rory McIlroy by a stroke. Bridgeman is solid throughout the bag, but his putting is outrageously good. He is gaining 1.33 strokes per round<\/a> on the greens this season, a number that would stand as the best-ever if maintained. The year is young and his putting may very well regress, but Bridgeman could still post the best strokes gained putting season of the ShotLink era even if his putter cools off a little bit. For reference, Jason Day currently holds the record at 1.13 strokes gained per round in 2016. Bridgeman may not be on the short list of favorites entering major season, but I do expect him to contend in more big tournaments this season, and a run at a major championship is not out of the realm of possibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most people would probably place Cameron Young<\/a> in the Super Risers category with three straight top-10 finishes in strong fields, including a win. But those of us who have been longtime Young believers aren\u2019t surprised by his recent results. A big-time win at the Players Championship and a rise to No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking<\/a> has always been in the cards for a player of Young\u2019s caliber. Impressive? Definitely. Surprising? No.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m encouraged by Min Woo Lee<\/a> and the signs he\u2019s showing of becoming a much-improved player than he has been the last couple of years. Ten months ago, I (fairly) dubbed Lee<\/a> a ball-speed fraud. He bashed the ball around without much control, leaning heavily on an excellent short game while his iron play was also poor. His record at major championships, where demanding setups expose tee-to-green weakness, reflected an incomplete skill set. The Australian has just one top-10 finish in 17 major starts, with no top 20s in the last two years. But so far in 2026, Lee has evolved into a more complete golfer. He mentioned in a press conference ahead of the Houston Open that he has dialed back his speed off the tee a little bit, which has translated to more control. He has improved from 159th on Tour in Driving Accuracy<\/a> at 55.5% last year to 37th at 62.8% this year. He has also significantly improved his iron play, jumping from 166th to 77th year over year in Strokes Gained: Approach<\/a>. I am not quite yet ready to retire the \u201cball-speed fraud\u201d label, but I am getting close, because I have cautiously high expectations for what Lee could accomplish in major championships this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n I am mildly disappointed by Tom Kim\u2019s on-course performance this year, even though it represents a small improvement over last season. However, I am extremely disappointed by his in-arena antics at TGL. I somewhat respect how seriously Kim takes his TGL appearances, but between his showboating<\/a>, trampling rough<\/a> down before a Kevin Kisner drop (in freaking TGL), and suggesting<\/a> his Sunday at the Cognizant Classic was all in preparation for that night\u2019s TGL match, it\u2019s been an embarrassing display for a golfer people compared to Tiger Woods when he won three times on Tour shortly after turning professional. By the way, remember when people earnestly made that comparison? Woof! Look, this is mostly tongue-in-cheek. I don\u2019t really care what Kim does at the SoFi Center. But he should probably have a little more self-awareness and keep his performance in Jupiter Links colors in perspective, considering he hasn\u2019t recorded a top 10 in real golf since February 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some people would argue that placing Michael Thorbjornsen in the Risers category is overly generous. Those people would be wrong. The 24-year-old nearly won the WM Phoenix Open in February and also played his way into the final pairing at the Players Championship a few weeks ago. Sure, he collapsed on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, but contending late in multiple strong-fielded tournaments is the type of growth you want to see from a young player with elite traits. The arrow is pointing up and to the right for Thorbjornsen, who very well could win in Houston this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n My biggest disappointment of the season is J.J. Spaun. I don\u2019t know if there is some kind of injury or if Spaun\u2019s game has just fallen off a cliff after a truly excellent 2025 escapade. Spaun wasn\u2019t just a one-hit wonder last summer at Oakmont. He lost in playoffs at both the Players Championship and FedEx St. Jude Championship, too. But 2026 has been a different story. He is yet to record a top-20 finish this year and has missed four cuts in his last six starts. The putter is the primary culprit \u2014 he is losing nearly a full stroke per round<\/a> on the greens \u2014 but poor putting alone doesn\u2019t fully explain the significant decline in form. His ball-striking has also slipped. Hopefully we start to see signs of improvement soon, but 2026 has not been a pretty scene for the reigning U.S. Open champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that we\u2019re nearly a third of the way through the PGA Tour season, let\u2019s take a look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-545678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}