Question: What is special about the year 2014 in the golfing calendar?
Answer: It was the last year when not at least one of the four major championships wasn’t won by a first-time winner of them.
The only other year in the 21st century that this feat didn’t happen was 2000 so the chances are that we’ll see another major maiden in 2026.
But who will emulate JJ Spaun (who completed his major breakthrough in 2025)?
Here are the seven most likely candidates:
Tommy Fleetwood
The Englishman is almost certainly the best player in the world who is yet to win a major and now that he has finally landed a victory in America – at last August’s Tour Championship, no less – he should be primed to finally land one of the four tournaments that truly define a career.
He’s been second in the US Open (2018), second in the Open (2019) and T3 in the Masters (2024). In all, he has seven top five finishes from 41 major championship starts. But, against that, has a best of only T16 in his last seven appearances in them.
That really ought to change in 2026 and Royal Birkdale, the Open host venue, is essentially his golfing backyard.
Ludvig Aberg
On potential alone the Swede is probably second only to Fleetwood and he’ll be licking his lips about the first major of the year because he’s taken a real shine to Augusta National and the Masters.
He was second on debut in 2024 and T7 last year when bang in the mix until very late in the final round. He was also T12 in the 2024 US Open but he’s missed four cuts in his eight major starts so there is a sense of boom or bust about his efforts.
He’s still just 26, with two Ryder Cup wins behind him, and take note that one of his two PGA Tour wins was at a major-hosting course – Torrey Pines in 2025.
Cameron Young
It took the New Yorker an unexpectedly long time to land a win on the PGA Tour but, having done so in last August’s Wyndham Championship, he went on to thrive at the Ryder Cup and it ought to prompt a further gain in confidence in 2026.
Like Aberg, he tends to thrive or struggle in majors. He’s made 18 starts with six top 10s against nine failures to break the top 60. He’s played well in all four majors, though: second at the 2022 Open, third in that year’s PGA Championship, two top 10s in the Masters and fourth last year in the US Open.
Always superb tee-to-green, his putting is now much improved.
Robert MacIntyre
Now a four-time DP World Tour winner, two-time PGA Tour champion, a Ryder Cup star in 2023 and 2025, and ranked in the world’s top 10, the Scot’s next obvious step is major championship success.
He’s a three-time top 10 finisher in the Open and has also won the Scottish Open and Dunhill Links Championship so he’s an obvious links expert. But he’s also finished T12 at the Masters, T8 in the PGA Championship and was second in last year’s US Open.
Maiden major winners tend to contend in another major shortly before their breakthrough so that latter effort could be key this year.
Tyrrell Hatton
The Englishman has a very well-rounded career CV with 13 career worldwide wins including eight on the DP World and one each on the PGA Tour and LIV as well as Ryder Cup glory.
The gap is in the majors but he did finish top 20 in three of four of them in 2025 and he has a top 10 finish in all four throughout his career.
Given his fondness for links golf (he’s a three-time Dunhill Links Championship winner), you’d suspect the Open is his best chance of success.
Sam Burns
It took the 29-year-old a long time to come to terms with playing major championship golf. Indeed, despite winning five times on the PGA Tour (the most recent of them the elite 2023 WGC World Match Play), he didn’t finish top 10 in a major until 2024.
That was 16 majors with more or less nothing to show for the effort but top 10s came in both of the last two US Open and he did briefly contend in the 2024 Open (albeit helped greatly by a significant change in the weather).
He struggled when leading the US Open in the final round last year so the question is: will that be a learning, or a scarring, experience?
Russell Henley
Harris English might easily have landed this last nod because in 2025 he finished second in the PGA Championship and T2 in the Open. But we’ll plump for another 16-year-old instead.
Henley, like Burns, took a long time registering a first top 10 (fourth at the 2023 Masters, his 32nd major). But, significantly, he’s finished top 10 in the last two US and British Opens (which means he’s got four top 10s in his last six majors).
He’s learning to love links golf and all five of his PGA Tour wins have been at windy locations. He also owns Masters connections: he’s from Georgia and his birthday falls on Masters Sunday in 2026.
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