The Major season has ended with the Open at Royal Troon and it is worth reviewing the data that the four major events of the year have yielded, the ones that truly separate the wheat from the chaff, according to the specific form states, it is obvious, but also to the ability of some chosen ones to perform so many times at a good level. Beyond certain subjective analyses, there is no simpler and more rigorous way to know who have been the best than adding up each one’s world ranking points in these four tournaments. Anyone would suspect that Xander Schauffele, for example, with his two victories in the PGA and the Open, has been the best, or off the top of one’s head would highlight the excellent campaign in the majors of Bryson DeChambeau, despite having missed the cut in Troon. These two players, indeed, have been the best. But other data, rankings or curiosities are also revealed that may go more unnoticed or we do not have so much on the surface.
Let’s start by pointing out the top fifty players in the 2024 Majors according to the world ranking points added, out of a total of 157 players who have managed to add even some tenths, or in other words, who have at least made a cut in one of the four Majors.
1. Xander Schauffele, 233 points
2. Bryson DeChambeau, 179
3. Scottie Scheffler, 133.83
4. Collin Morikawa, 76.58
5. Rory McIlroy, 75.3
6. Ludvig Aberg, 71.5
7. Justin Rose, 69
8. Billy Horschel, 67.5
9. Russell Henley, 50.1
10. Shane Lowry, 49.40
11. Patrick Cantlay, 47.11
12. Tommy Fleetwood, 44.39
13. Tony Finau, 43.9
14. Viktor Hovland, 40
15. Max Homa, 38.08
16. Thomas Detry, 36.75
17. Matthieu Pavon, 36.67
18. Thriston Lawrence, 30
19. Hideki Matsuyama, 28.55
20. Corey Conners, 26.97
21. Cameron Smith, 24.22
22. Adam Scott, 22.2
23. Byeong Hun An, 21.16
24. Cameron Young, 20.49
25. Alex Noren, 20.16
26. Tyrrell Hatton, 20.07
27. Jon Rahm, 19.08
28. Justin Thomas, 18.45
29. Dean Burmester, 18.16
30. Sam Burns, 17.95
31. Harris English, 17.45
32. Jason Day, 17.21
33. Chris Kirk, 16.95
34. Will Zalatoris, 16.75
34. Taylor Moore, 16.75
36. Sahith Theegala, 16.65
36. Robert MacIntyre, 16.65
38. Sungjae Im, 16.33
39. Keegan Bradley, 16.2
40. Min Woo Lee, 15.72
41. Sepp Straka, 15.65
42. David Thompson, 15.20
43. Brooks Koepka, 14.96
44. Tom Kim, 13.61
45. Daniel Brown, 13
45. Matt Jordan, 13
47. Nicolai Hojgaard, 12.94
48. Patrick Reed, 12.92
49. Akshay Bhatia, 12.4
50. Brian Harman, 11.84
– As already published in Tengolf, only thirteen players have scored in the four Majors (Schauffele, Scheffler, Morikawa, Henley, Lowry, Cantlay, Matsuyama, Conners, Young, English, Koepka, N. Hojgaard and Fox have made the four cuts), a circumstance that does not guarantee to appear in this top 50… Ryan Fox made the four cuts but only scored 10.94 points, which took him to the 55th place in our ranking. There is also the opposite case: players who have only made one cut in this year’s Majors, but have had a great performance and appear even in the top 20. This would be the case of Hovland or Lawrence.
– There is only one player from LIV Golf among the top twenty (DeChambeau, who is second), although there are two among the top 25 (add Smith), five among the top thirty (add Hatton, Rahm and Burmester) and seven in the top 50 (add Koepka and Reed). Some will understand that the booty of the Saudi league is scarce and some will think that it is not so bad… Let everyone draw their own conclusions.
– Morikawa has not won any major this year, but his great consistency in the four events is striking, as his worst result was 16th in the Open (he was third in the Masters, fourth in the PGA and 15th in the US Open).
– Rory is impossible not to have among the best. Here he appears fifth in the points ranking of this year compiled by Tengolf.
– One of the great ‘entries’ of the year is Russell Henley, ninth. He has made the four cuts for the second time in his career (he also did it in 2017). Not in vain, he started the year as Number 24 in the world and now he is Number 12, the best position of his career, thanks among other things to the two top ten finishes in the US Open (7th) and the Open (5th). Of course, it is mandatory to highlight the presence of Pavon among the top twenty of our particular top 50 of the Majors (17th).
– A curious fact: if we look closely at this top 50 of the 2024 Majors, the first seventeen are Americans (9) or Europeans (8).
– Needless to say, the performance of Brooks Koepka is striking, more than anything because of what is always expected of him in these events. Although he always leaves his mark, with those four cuts made. Neither has Rahm been up to previous years, but his top ten finish in Troon redeems him in some way.
– As has been said, thirteen players scored in the four Majors. And another thirty scored in three of the four: Fleetwood, Homa, Smith, DeChambeau, Hatton, Pavon, Straka, Kirk, An, Bradley, Min Woo Lee, Scott, McIlroy, Niemann, Fitzpatrick, Tom Kim, Day, Si Woo Kim, Fowler, Kitayama, Theegala, Finau, Olesen, Horschel, Burmester, Eckroat, Harman, Rai, Todd and Spieth. Some of them made a lot of progress, with DeChambeau or Horschel as standard bearers, and others very little: Olesen has only scored 4.8 world ranking points.
– Another fact that perhaps also went unnoticed, regarding Shane Lowry. It has been the best year of his career in the Majors, that’s for sure, but the fact of making the four cuts is actually the confirmation of a trend, as the Irishman has only missed two cuts in the last 22 Majors he has played.
– Finally, to highlight on the negative side the horrible year of Majors of Wyndham Clark, who has only made one cut and has scored 1.60 points. In this sense, Dustin Johnson also relatively stands out, with only 6.70 points to his credit and two cuts missed.
