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USA Today
a day ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Scottie Scheffler installed as favorite for all 2026 majors, including the Masters
In one of the most honest and introspective moments of the 2025 pro gold season, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler gave one of the most revealing answers of the year during his press conference ahead of the 153rd British Open in what turned into a therapy session of sorts for him. Scheffler insisted that he sometimes wondered what the point of his golf obsession was — and then he went out and dominated the field to capture his fourth major championship. With the major season now in the rearview mirror, it's time to look ahead to 2026 and, according to Vegas oddsmakers, those scheduling tournaments might be the ones asking, "What's the point?" According to BetMGM, Scheffler is the favorite to win each of golf's four majors next year, which was also the case in 2025, when he did capture half of the world's most prized trophies. Scheffler captured the PGA Championship in May, meaning he only needs a U.S. Open to complete a career Grand Slam. The only others in the modern era to pull off that trick are Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.'Any doubts about Scottie Scheffler's British Open pedigree were emphatically squashed by the American at Royal Portrush with an effortless four-shot victory," BetMGM senior trader Matt Wall told USA Today Sports. "BetMGM immediately shortened his 2026 Masters price to +400 from +500 and that could still shorten further should he continue to dominate on the PGA Tour. The comparisons with Tiger Woods certainly don't look out of place right now. All the early action is on Scottie to win all four majors at +25000, and he is the favorite in each one right now.' Here's a look at the early odds to win golf's majors in 2026:BetMGM odds as of July 22 The Masters 2026 odds Scottie Scheffler: +400Rory McIlroy: +550Ludvig Aberg: +1200Bryson DeChambeau: +1400Collin Morikawa: +1400Jon Rahm: +1400Xander Schauffele: +1600Justin Thomas: +2500Brooks Koepka: +2800Viktor Hovland: +2800 PGA Championship 2026 odds Scottie Scheffler: +400Rory McIlroy: +600Bryson DeChambeau: +800Jon Rahm: +1400Xander Schauffele: +1600Collin Morikawa: +2000Justin Thomas: +2000Ludvig Aberg: +2200 U.S. Open 2026 odds Scottie Scheffler: +400Bryson DeChambeau: +800Rory McIlroy: +900Jon Rahm: +1200Xander Schauffele: +1800Ludvig Aberg: +2000Collin Morikawa: +2500Justin Thomas: +3300Tyrrell Hatton: +3300Viktor Hovland: +3300 The Open Championship odds Scottie Scheffler: +400Rory McIlroy: +900Jon Rahm: +1200Bryson DeChambeau: +1600Xander Schauffele: +1800Ludvig Aberg: +2200Tommy Fleetwood: +2500Tyrrell Hatton: +2500Robert MacIntyre: +2800Viktor Hovland: +2800Gambling involves risk. Please only gamble with funds that you can comfortably afford to lose. While we do our utmost to offer good advice and information we cannot be held responsible for any loss that may be incurred as a result of gambling. We do our best to make sure all the information that we provide on this site is correct. However, from time to time mistakes will be made and we will not be held liable. Please check any stats or information if you are unsure how accurate they are. No guarantees are made with regards to results or financial gain. All forms of betting carry financial risk and it is up to the individual to make bets with or without the assistance of information provided on this site and we cannot be held responsible for any loss that may be incurred as a result of following the betting tips provided on this site. Past performances do not guarantee success in the future and betting odds fluctuate from one minute to the next. The material contained on this site is intended to inform, entertain and educate the reader and in no way represents an inducement to gamble legally or illegally or any sort of professional may earn revenue from sports betting operators for audience referrals to betting services. Sports betting operators have no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. Terms apply, see operator site for Terms and Conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available. Call the National Council on Problem Gambling 24/7 at 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, OH), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN). Must be 21 or older to gamble. Sports betting and gambling are not legal in all locations. Be sure to comply with laws applicable where you reside. It is your sole responsibility to act in accordance with your local laws.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Sport
- Boston Globe
British Open champion Scottie Scheffler says comparisons to Tiger Woods ‘a bit silly'
Scheffler fiercely pumped his fist when it dropped, evoking memories of Woods and his 15-shot win at Pebble Beach in the 2000 US Open. Woods had a 12-foot par putt on the 16th hole of that final round, and it was the most emotion he showed all day when he made it. He wanted a clean card and wound up going his final 26 holes bogey-free. Woods was so utterly dominant that his only competition came from himself. That's how it felt with Scheffler when he won the claret jug for the third leg of the career Grand Slam. Advertisement Scottie Scheffler gives a fist pump after making a par save at the sixth hold during the final round of the 153rd British Open at Royal Portrush. Jon Super/Associated Press Scheffler went 32 holes without a bogey until he took two shots to get out of a fairway bunker on No. 8 and made double bogey. What stood out to Scheffler in his 'To only have one double — really one over-par hole in the last 36 holes of a major championship — that's how you're able to win these tournaments,' he said. Advertisement He won the British Open by four shots. There are plenty of numbers to consider, starting with his position at No. 1 in the world. No one has held it longer since Woods. Scheffler and Woods are the only players in the last 50 years to win two majors in the same year by at least four shots. Researchers with time on their hands at the PGA Tour discovered that Scheffler and Woods each went 1,197 days between winning their first and fourth majors. Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler. The list of players to have won The Open while holding top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking. — The Open (@TheOpen) Enough of the comparisons, Scheffler said. 'I still think they're a bit silly,' he said. 'Tiger won, what, 15 majors? This is my fourth. I just got one-fourth of the way there. I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf. He was inspirational for me growing up. He was a very, very talented guy, and he was a special person to be able to be as good as he was at the game of golf.' Tiger Woods won the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach by a major-record 15 shots for his third of 15 major titles. ELISE AMENDOLA/Associated Press For majors alone, a better comparison would be with Rory McIlroy. He also won four majors in three years, including two of them in 2014. McIlroy won a US Open and a And then he went 11 years without a major. Greatness in golf is also about longevity. Advertisement Scheffler won for the fourth time this year and now has 20 victories worldwide. He has won 11 straight times with the 54-hole lead. The 29-year-old from Texas was introduced as champion golfer of the year, a title the R&A has used for more than a century. Scheffler at this rate might be champion golfer of his generation. The winning putt. This is the one. — The Open (@TheOpen) And to think he was slowed at the start of the year recovering from a The year's top highlight still might be 'I also had the three wins when Scottie wasn't quite on his game,' he said. Also driving the comparisons to Woods are high praise from just about everyone who has had to face Scheffler since that first win in 2022. 'He is the bar that we're all trying to get to,' McIlroy said. 'I don't think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon, and here's Scottie sort of taking that throne of dominance,' said A statement start from Scottie. — The Open (@TheOpen) Any hesitation about comparisons — besides the 15-4 tally in majors, as Scheffler is quick to point out — is their style of play. Woods was as dynamic as he was relentless, especially with recovery shots. Scheffler doesn't have that many because he's rarely out of position. Advertisement Woods was groomed for stardom when he appeared on 'The Mike Douglas Show' at age 2. Scheffler never cared about anything other than playing golf and getting better at it. 'He doesn't care to be a superstar. He's not transcending the game like Tiger did. He's not bringing it to a non-golf audience necessarily,' Jordan Spieth said. 'He doesn't want to go do the stuff that a lot of us go do, corporately, anything like that.' He works. He competes. He wins. That's what Woods did, and that's what matters to Scheffler. 'I don't focus on that kind of stuff,' Scheffler said of the comparisons. 'That's not what motivates me. I'm not motivated by winning championships. I don't look at the beginning of the year and just say, 'I want to win X amount of tournaments.' I don't do that. 'When I wake up to practice, what motivates me is getting to live out my dream,' he said. 'I get to play professional golf, and I feel like I'm called to do it to the best of my ability.'
New York Post
4 days ago
- Sport
- New York Post
Scottie Scheffler improved upon his own greatness — and golf is left to reckon with it
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Come and get me. This is the message Scottie Scheffler has delivered — in a subliminal way — to the rest of the golf world. Advertisement That was a recurring theme heard from those competitors of the 29-year-old world No. 1 who nearly lapped the field en route to winning the 153rd British Open on Sunday at Royal Portrush. Scheffler's final margin of victory at the Open was four shots, but it felt like double that with the way he completely controlled the tournament, particularly the final 36 holes.
USA Today
5 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Scottie Scheffler blew away the field to win British Open for his fourth major championship
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – The best players in the world of professional golf have become accustomed to Scottie Scheffler's other-worldly ball striking performances on an almost weekly basis. But when he putts the way he did this week on the greens of Royal Portrush Golf Club, it's not a fair fight. Scheffler topped the field in both Strokes Gained: Approach and SG: Putting to win the 153rd British Open on Sunday in a rout by four strokes over Harris English. Scheffler won his second major of the year, having previously claimed the PGA Championship in May, his fourth career major title, and joins Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson as active players with three legs of the career Grand Slam. The other 155 golfers in the field could only stick out their hands, palms up, and ask, 'What's the point?' That was the question Scheffler posed during his pre-championship press conference when he explained that the euphoric winning feeling only lasted a few minutes, and added, 'This is not a fulfilling life.' But it's the life he leads, and the world No. 1 went out and shot a scrappy 3-under 68 in the toughest conditions of the week while hitting just three fairways. On Friday, he put on a clinic with eight birdies en route to 64 and claimed the 36-hole lead. 'I played with him the first two days, and honestly I thought he was going to birdie every hole. It was incredible to watch,' Shane Lowry said. 'When he starts getting on that roll, he's a hard person to beat.' Scheffler shot a bogey-free 67 on Saturday to stretch his lead to four. Even Rory McIlroy conceded that Scheffler's name being etched on the Claret Jug was a safe bet. 'It's inevitable. Even when he doesn't have his best stuff, he's become a complete player. He's improved so much with his putter.' On Sunday, County Antrim's summer stretched two full days long. It was shorts and sunscreen weather. Bathed in sunshine, Scheffler spun his approach at the first to kick-in range for a birdie. He rolled in birdie putts at Nos. 4 and 5 and for a moment his lead had grown to eight. Scheffler's putter bailed him out with lengthy pars at Nos. 6 and 7 but he got a little greedy from a fairway bunker at the eighth and hit the steep slope of a revetted bunker that resulted in a double bogey. Still, he only made three bogeys all week and avoided any calamity – playing Calamity Corner, the treacherous par-3 16th, in 3 under. Scheffler's lead was trimmed to four shots but he bounced back with an angry 350-yard drive at No. 9, stuffed a lob wedge inside 10 feet and rolled in another birdie putt. He tacked on a birdie at the par-5 12th and cruised to his 17th career Tour title and fourth of the season. It marked Scheffler's 10th consecutive win when holding the 54-hole lead. He just needs to do it 27 more times to match Tiger. But the comparisons to Tiger are growing. 'Having watched Tiger play in his prime – and I think Tiger is the greatest player I've ever seen – I never thought in my lifetime I'd see a player as close to Tiger as this man currently is,' said Jim 'Bones' Mackay. 'Scottie Scheffler just blows my mind every time I watch him play.' English closed with birdies on two of his final three holes to shoot 66 and claim second, a stroke better than Scottish Open winner Chris Gotterup (67), who had a great two-week stretch on this side of the pond. Wyndham Clark fired a 65 to finish T-4 with Matt Fitzpatrick and Haotong Li, who was Scheffler's final-round playing partner. Defending champion Xander Schauffele (68) tied for seventh with Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Robert MacIntyre. Bryson DeChambeau made 19 birdies over the final three rounds and posted the low score of the final round, a 64, to rally from an opening-round 78 and finish T-10. But it was Scheffler who got to enjoy his two minutes of ecstasy as he blew away the field at Royal Portrush to be the Champion Golfer of the Year.
USA Today
18-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Bryson DeChambeau testing prototype golf ball to reduce curve, increase wedge spin
Bryson DeChambeau is testing a prototype ball that he claims flies straighter and spins more with wedges — but it's not ready yet. Bryson DeChambeau's quest for golf equipment that suits his unique swing and game continued this week at Royal Portrush in the days leading up to the 153rd British Open. This time, however, the equipment in question wasn't a driver, a set of 3D-printed irons or a golf shaft stiff enough to do pull-ups on. This time, Bryson was testing golf balls. 'I'm working with somebody that's going to get me a ball that works better for my speeds,' he said Friday after signing his card for a 65 that earned him tee times for the weekend. 'Hopefully there's some more improvements to be made there. That's something I hope to complete in the next year.' For all of DeChambeau's obsession with power, the prototype ball he tested during practice rounds before the tournament doesn't aim to enhance his driver distance. His primary concern, he said, is finding a ball that flies straighter off the tee but spins more with his wedges. 'I compress down on it really hard and the thing just — I spin it like crazy (off the tee), and then on my wedges I don't spin it,' DeChambeau said. 'Launches high with no spin.' DeChambeau feels that his current ball — the Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash — slides up the face of his wedges too easily, leading to unpredictability on approach shots and around the green. On Friday, he didn't identify the manufacturer of the prototype ball, but NBC Sports on-course analyst Smylie Kaufman helped fill in the details on his Instagram page. During one of DeChambeau's practice rounds, Kaufman spotted the American and chatted with him briefly. Kaufman said DeChambeau received prototype balls last week in Spain from Polara Golf and that he had just one with him at Portrush during the practice round. 'He's on a mission to find a ball that is going to curve less,' Kaufman said. What kind of golf ball is Bryson DeChambeau using? Polara is best known for selling the Ultimate Straight, a ball it claims reduces hooks and slices by up to 75 percent, thanks to a unique dimple pattern that reduces drag and sidespin. However, that ball is explicitly designed for amateur golfers and has a compression rating of 85. The Pro V1x Left Dash has a compression of around 102, making it significantly firmer and more suited to deliver the ball speeds fast-swinging pros want. If Polara were to create a firmer version of the Ultimate Straight ball, it would also need to put a different cover on it for DeChambeau. The current model has an ionomer cover, while the spinniest tour balls use urethane. If DeChambeau wants his high-lofted wedges to grab the ball and spin it more effectively, he'll need the softest cover available. DeChambeau said the version he tested isn't ready for competitive play and that the manufacturer — without naming it — is working to produce more. 'They can't make enough as quickly as they'd like,' he said. He expects to have an updated prototype to test within weeks, with a more finalized version targeted for September. And when that day comes, it won't just be a ball designed for links golf or the Open Championship. 'It might be for everything,' DeChambeau said. 'Most likely for everything. I need a golf ball that on wedges can click on the face more consistently. I get a lot of slipping on the face just because of how vertical I am and how much loft I have, and it just rolls up the face and launches with no spin most of the time.' For a player always looking for every edge — and never afraid to chase an unconventional solution — that's one more variable he's determined to control.
