2026 Golf Majors: Winners, Scores, Venues and the 2027 Calendar
The men’s major season closed on 19 July with three of the four championships decided by a single stroke. The one that wasn’t ended with the eventual champion playing his last ten holes in six under while six major winners fell away behind him.
The women’s season still has one event left: the AIG Women’s Open begins at Royal Lytham & St Annes on 30 July, its 50th staging.
Everything below is sourced from championship organisers — the R&A, USGA, PGA of America, LPGA and Presidents Cup — plus contemporaneous reporting from Golf Channel, Sky Sports, ESPN and the Associated Press. Where a claim could not be verified against one of those, it is marked as unverified rather than guessed at.
The 2026 men’s majors at a glance
| Championship | Dates | Venue | Champion | Score | Margin | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masters (90th) | 9–12 April | Augusta National GC, Georgia | Rory McIlroy | 276 (−12) | 1 | Scottie Scheffler |
| PGA Championship (108th) | 14–17 May | Aronimink GC, Newtown Square, PA | Aaron Rai | 271 (−9) | 3 | Jon Rahm, Alex Smalley |
| U.S. Open (126th) | 18–21 June | Shinnecock Hills GC, Southampton, NY | Wyndham Clark | 276 (−4) | 1 | Sam Burns |
| The Open (154th) | 16–19 July | Royal Birkdale GC, Southport, England | Ryan Fox | 270 (−10) | 1 | Cameron Young |
Four different champions, two of them first-time major winners, and a combined winning margin of six strokes across the whole year.
The Masters: McIlroy joins a list of three
Augusta National, 9–12 April. Rory McIlroy, 276 (−12), by one over Scottie Scheffler. Round-by-round
McIlroy opened 67 to share the first-round lead with Sam Burns, then added a 65. That 132 gave him a six-stroke lead at halfway, the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history according to Golf Compendium’s tournament record.
Then it went sideways. A third-round 73 erased the entire cushion and he began Sunday tied with Cameron Young. A closing 71 was enough by one. Scheffler finished second at 11 under; Tyrrell Hatton, Justin Rose, Young and Russell Henley shared third at 10 under, per Sky Sports’ final leaderboard.
The result made McIlroy the fourth player to win consecutive Masters, after Jack Nicklaus in 1965–66, Nick Faldo in 1989–90 and Tiger Woods in 2001–02. It was his sixth major and his second in twelve months, following the 2025 playoff win over Rose that completed his career Grand Slam.
Field: 91 players, 54 after a cut at 148. Purse $22.5m, winner’s share $4.5m.
The interesting thing about this win is that it was the ugly kind. McIlroy’s reputation was built on the front-running blowouts at Congressional in 2011 and Kiawah in 2012, and the criticism of him for a decade was that he could not win from a tie on a Sunday. He won this one having already thrown away six shots.
PGA Championship: Aaron Rai, and Aronimink’s revenge
Aronimink, 14–17 May. Aaron Rai, 271 (−9), by three over Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley. Round-by-round
Rai began the final round three off Alex Smalley’s lead and played his last ten holes in six under for a closing 65, finishing at nine under. He was 31, with one previous PGA Tour title — the 2024 Wyndham Championship.
The PGA Tour’s final-round report describes a leaderboard whose top 15 included Rahm, Justin Thomas, Ludvig Åberg, McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler. Rai beat all of them.
He became the first English winner of the Wanamaker Trophy since Jim Barnes in 1919, and the first non-American winner since Jason Day in 2015, per Golf Channel and the PGA Tour.
Aronimink is a Donald Ross design playing to par 70 at 7,394 yards. Field: 156 players, 82 after a cut at 144. Purse $20.5m, winner’s share $3.69m. The club last hosted the PGA in 1962, won by Gary Player, who now has a room named after him there.
Aronimink was the surprise of the year. A par-70 Ross course under 7,400 yards was supposed to be the soft spot on the calendar, and it produced the strongest leaderboard of the four.
U.S. Open: Clark survives Shinnecock and the crowd
Shinnecock Hills, 18–21 June. Wyndham Clark, 276 (−4), by one over Sam Burns. Round-by-round
Clark’s first 36 holes were the story before Sunday was. He posted 133, which Bleacher Report noted beat the previous Shinnecock championship 36-hole record of 134 set by Phil Mickelson and Shigeki Maruyama in 2004. He led after every round and took a six-stroke lead into Sunday.
He then shot 73. Burns closed in 67 and had birdie looks at both 17 and 18 to tie; both missed. Clark two-putted from just outside 50 feet on the last for par and the win, per the Associated Press report carried by the PGA Tour.
He became the ninth wire-to-wire U.S. Open champion, the first since Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst in 2014, and the 24th multiple champion. It was his second U.S. Open in four years after Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.
Sunday also involved spectators being removed for heckling Clark, reported by both ESPN and Golf Channel. Purse $20m, winner’s share $4.5m.
Four under won a U.S. Open at Shinnecock, which is presumably the number the USGA wanted. Burns became only the fifth player to break par over 72 holes at a Shinnecock U.S. Open.
The Open: Fox birdies the 72nd
Royal Birkdale, 16–19 July. Ryan Fox, 270 (−10), by one over Cameron Young. Round-by-round
Young got in first with a 6-under 64, the low round of Sunday, but bogeyed the 18th to post nine under rather than ten. Fox, playing behind him, made a poor bogey at the par-3 15th and then went birdie-par-birdie to finish, holing from just under 12 feet on the 72nd green for a closing 68 and the Claret Jug. The R&A’s own account and Golf Monthly both describe four birdies in his last six holes.
Fox was 39 and had never won a major. He arrived with two PGA Tour titles and four DP World Tour wins. Si Woo Kim led the final nine at one stage. Sam Burns, runner-up at the U.S. Open a month earlier, was in the mix again.
Purse $17.75m. This was Birkdale’s 11th Open and its first since Jordan Spieth’s win in 2017.
The New Zealand line is the one worth keeping: Fox is the first Kiwi to win The Open since Bob Charles in 1963. He is also the son of All Blacks first-five Grant Fox, which makes him one of the more unusual second-generation athletes in golf.
Presidents Cup, not Ryder Cup
There is no Ryder Cup in 2026. The team event is the 16th Presidents Cup at Medinah Country Club’s Course No. 3, outside Chicago.
Competition runs Thursday 24 September to Sunday 27 September, with practice rounds on 22–23 September. Brandt Snedeker captains the United States, Geoff Ogilvy the International side. Each team has twelve players: six automatic qualifiers and six captain’s picks. The American six come off FedExCup points through the BMW Championship, the International six from the world ranking on 31 August 2026.
Format is 30 matches, each worth a full point, with 15.5 needed to win: five foursomes Thursday, five four-ball Friday, four and four on Saturday, twelve singles Sunday. No points are held back, unlike the Ryder Cup.
Ogilvy’s design company, OCM, ran Medinah No. 3’s recent renovation, reported at $23.5m. He is the away captain on a course he rebuilt. The United States has not lost this event since 2003.
The Ryder Cup returns 17–19 September 2027 at Adare Manor, County Limerick, for the 46th edition and the competition’s 100th anniversary. Europe are the holders after Bethpage Black in 2025.
Women’s majors 2026
| Championship | Dates | Venue | Champion | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chevron Championship | 23–26 April | Memorial Park GC, Houston, TX | Nelly Korda | Wire-to-wire, by five over Patty Tavatanakit and Ruoning Yin. Korda’s third major, 17th LPGA win. |
| U.S. Women’s Open (81st) | 4–7 June | Riviera CC, Pacific Palisades, CA | Nelly Korda | By one over Charley Hull and Gaby López. Her fourth major, and a first U.S. Women’s Open. |
| KPMG Women’s PGA | 25–28 June | Hazeltine National, MN | Haeran Ryu | First major title, by two over Ina Yoon. |
| Amundi Evian Championship | 9–12 July | Evian Resort GC, France | Haeran Ryu | Beat Brooke Henderson at the first playoff hole. |
| AIG Women’s Open (50th) | 30 July – 2 August | Royal Lytham & St Annes, England | To be played | $10m purse, a record for the championship. Miyu Yamashita defends. |
The Evian is the one to go back and watch. Ryu shot 60 in the third round, eleven under, recorded as the lowest round in women’s major history and one better than the four 61s that preceded it. She then made no birdie at all until the 72nd hole on Sunday, closing with 71 for 265 (−19), while Henderson shot a second consecutive 64 with a hole-in-one at the 8th and two eagles to force the playoff from seven back. Ryu birdied the first extra hole.
Korda and Ryu won the first four women’s majors between them. Royal Lytham decides whether anyone else gets one this year.
The 2027 calendar
| Championship | Dates | Venue | Defending champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masters (91st) | 8–11 April | Augusta National GC, Georgia | Rory McIlroy |
| PGA Championship | 20–23 May | PGA Frisco, Fields Ranch East, Texas | Aaron Rai |
| U.S. Open (127th) | 17–20 June | Pebble Beach Golf Links, California | Wyndham Clark |
| The Open (155th) | 15–18 July | Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland | Ryan Fox |
| Ryder Cup (46th) | 17–19 September | Adare Manor, County Limerick, Ireland | Europe |
2027 women’s majors, for planning
Chevron returns to Memorial Park in April on a date still to be confirmed. The U.S. Women’s Open is at Inverness Club, Toledo, 3–6 June. The KPMG is at Congressional, 24–27 June. Evian is in July, date to be confirmed. And the AIG Women’s Open goes to Royal St George’s for the first time, 28 July to 1 August.
Three things to watch. McIlroy can become the first player to win three consecutive Masters. Frisco gives Texas its first men’s major in more than sixty years. And St Andrews hosts its 31st Open, five years after Cameron Smith won the 150th there, which makes the 2027 ballot the one to actually enter.
Which 2026 venues can you play on a simulator?
This is where most write-ups say something untrue, so here is the honest version.
None of the four 2026 major venues is officially licensed to a consumer simulator platform in a form carrying the club’s own name and endorsement. What exists is one commercially licensed course and several community-built recreations that are unaffiliated with the real clubs. Simulator Golf Tour states the position plainly for GSPro: the courses are free, user-generated, and not endorsed by or affiliated with the real-world courses they resemble.
| 2026 venue | What is actually available | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Augusta National | Community recreation in GSPro, listed as Georgia Golf Club | Built by designer Tekbud, free, no Patreon needed. There is also an autumn version. Not licensed, and it does not use the club’s name. |
| Royal Birkdale | Listed in E6 Connect’s championship collection; also a free community build in GSPro under its own name | The GSPro version is by designer GrapelFarmer. |
| Shinnecock Hills | Not confirmed | Availability on either platform is unverified. |
| Aronimink | Not confirmed | Availability on either platform is unverified. |
| Medinah No. 3 | Not confirmed | The real course has been renovated since most recreations would have been built. |
What to practise for each venue, based on published course data
These are suggestions drawn from course setup figures and championship reporting, not from anything XS Golf has played on a simulator.
Augusta-style setup. The greens ran fast enough that a 73 was possible for the leader from a six-shot lead. If your software lets you set green speed, take it up and practise lag putting from 30 to 50 feet rather than working on your driver.
Aronimink-style setup. Par 70 at 7,394 yards is short by modern major standards and heavy on approach play. Long and mid irons into elevated greens is the practice that matches it.
Shinnecock-style setup. Firm and fast, and only five players have ever broken par there over 72 holes in a U.S. Open. Turn firmness up, accept that missing a fairway costs a full shot, and practise 50-footers for pace rather than line.
Birkdale-style setup. Wind is the defence. The fairways sit in flat valleys between dunes, so lies are level and the difficulty is entirely in the air. Turning wind down makes it play like ordinary parkland, which defeats the point.
If you are picking software rather than a course, our comparison covers what each platform actually licenses: Best Golf Simulator Software 2026. For Augusta itself, there is also our Augusta and Georgia golf travel guide.
Watching and rewatching
In the UK and Ireland, Sky Sports Golf carried all four men’s majors in 2026 and holds the majors alongside the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into 2027.
In the United States, the Masters split between ESPN and CBS as it does every year, and the U.S. Open and The Open ran across NBC and Peacock. Rights arrangements change, and rather than guess at a package that may already have moved, check with the broadcaster directly before subscribing to anything for 2027.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the four men’s majors in 2026?
Rory McIlroy at the Masters, Aaron Rai at the PGA Championship, Wyndham Clark at the U.S. Open and Ryan Fox at The Open.
Is there a Ryder Cup in 2026?
No. The 2026 team event is the Presidents Cup at Medinah Country Club, 24–27 September. The Ryder Cup returns 17–19 September 2027 at Adare Manor in Ireland.
When is the next Masters?
8–11 April 2027 at Augusta National. McIlroy will be attempting a third consecutive win, which no one has done.
Has anyone won back-to-back Masters before McIlroy?
Three players. Jack Nicklaus in 1965 and 1966, Nick Faldo in 1989 and 1990, and Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002.
Can I play the 2026 major courses on a simulator?
Partly, and not officially. Royal Birkdale appears in E6 Connect’s championship course collection and as a free community build in GSPro. Augusta National exists in GSPro only as an unaffiliated community recreation named Georgia Golf Club. Current availability for Shinnecock Hills and Aronimink could not be verified, so it is not claimed here.
What was the lowest round of the 2026 major season?
In the women’s majors, Haeran Ryu’s 60 in the third round at Evian, recorded as the lowest round in women’s major championship history. In the men’s majors, Cameron Young’s closing 64 at Royal Birkdale was the low round of that Sunday.
Who is the defending champion at each 2027 men’s major?
Masters, Rory McIlroy. PGA Championship, Aaron Rai. U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark. The Open, Ryan Fox.
How this page was put together
XS Golf does not attend championships or conduct first-party testing. This page is compiled from championship organisers (the R&A, USGA, PGA of America, LPGA, Presidents Cup), from published tournament records for field sizes, cut lines and purses, and from contemporaneous reporting by Golf Channel, Sky Sports, ESPN, the Associated Press, the PGA Tour, Golf Monthly and Golf Digest. Simulator course availability is drawn from platform course listings and the Simulator Golf Tour course policy. Anything that could not be confirmed against one of those is labelled unverified rather than filled in.
Details on our sourcing and correction practice are on the XS Golf standards page.
Affiliate links are not currently live on XS Golf. When they are, they will be disclosed plainly on every page that carries them.
Last updated 27 July 2026.
