By Gabby Herzig, Brody Miller and Hugh Kellenberger

You know what’s hard? Winning a golf major.

There are only nine a year — four for the men, five for the women — and when you combine limited opportunity and a finite prime in which you are most likely to contend, it is agonizingly hard to describe yourself as a major champion. If you’re not Scottie Scheffler, you may get only one or two chances in your entire career.

Don’t believe us? Just look at any list of top golfers who have yet to win a major championship. It’ll include several big-deal names, which may or may not show up in The Athletic’s list of golfers we’re projecting to win their first major in 2026.

Jeeno Thitikul

Somehow, the best female golfer on the planet hasn’t won a major championship. Jeeno Thitikul, the 22-year-old phenom from Thailand, snagged nearly every top award and accolade in women’s golf this past year but has yet to enter the LPGA major winner’s circle. Thitikul was named Player of the Year, and she won the CME Group Tour Championship for the second season in a row, making her the only LPGA player to win three times in 2025. She also set the record for the lowest single-season scoring average in LPGA history, surpassing Annika Sorenstam’s 2002 average. But this summer Thitikul also lost in a seven-hole playoff to Grace Kim at the Evian Championship, one of the five women’s majors, narrowly missing her latest chance to snag a maiden major victory. Since 2021, Thitikul has posted nine top-10 finishes in the majors. It’s just a matter of time before her premier ball-striking and consistency lead to her hoisting a major trophy.

In addition to Thitikul, Charley Hull is trending toward a major win — the 29-year-old from the English Midlands has four runner-up finishes and says chasing major victories is her priority in the game right now. She stands at No. 5 in the world, a career-high ranking, after her most recent runner-up finish at this summer’s AIG Women’s Open. — Gabby Herzig

For you Frank!! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/L1niemLW2K

— Tommy Fleetwood (@TommyFleetwood1) October 19, 2025

Tommy Fleetwood

Yeah, I know, really original. But this is much, much more than the ol’ “He’s so consistently good, eventually one will go his way” argument. No. Something flipped with Fleetwood late this summer as the struggling-to-finish discourse reached its apex. He just kept playing better. And better. By the time he won the Tour Championship, absolutely dominated the Ryder Cup and won in India, he was no longer just a really nice player. He became elite. He learned how to become confident in crunch time, and it gave the impression that there’s always been an all-time great golfer hidden behind the inherent politeness and kindness of Fleetwood.