The 2026 golf season may not be over in its entirety -- the DP World Tour takes center stage in the golf world starting this week -- but the PGA Tour and LIV Golf campaigns have concluded, and that inevitably leads to an offseason of post-game analysis and look-ahead projection. This past year, as is the case every year, there were players who did not live up to their potential -- at least, according to some, to what their potential should have been.
What exactly does it mean to fall short of expectations? Whose expectations? Internal or external expectations? Professional sports are largely built on an expectation-versus-reality quotient. Who steps up to their potential, and who falls short?
Amid a year in which players like Aaron Rai and Ryan Fox went from sturdy, solid professionals to major championship winners -- a year in which Rory McIlroy won a second straight Masters and Scottie Scheffler claimed the FedEx Cup after consecutive wins to end the season -- others fell short of what they could have achieved.
For all the champagne bottles popped and winner's circles entered, other players were left watching it all unfold from the sidelines. These are seven players who fell short of expectations largely held for them entering the 2026 season.
Golf's most underwhelming players of 2026
Jordan Spieth
This season, it was all supposed to come back together for Spieth. He was past the wrist injury and subsequent procedure, fully healthy and confident in his game. The signs were there early with three top-15 finishes in the Florida Swing, but the three-time major champion failed to register a single top-10 result by year's end for the first time in his career.
Ask a dozen folks around the game; each will give you a different answer about what Spieth needs to change. As much as his putter is capable of garnering momentum, it is just as likely to gift it away in the form of a short miss. His lively discussions on the course have always been part of the experience, but now, they seem as if he wants it too badly.
At age 33, it will be interesting which direction he goes in 2027 after finishing the year No. 52 in the FedEx Cup standings and missing out on his third straight U.S. team appearance.
Brooks Koepka
In his first season back on the PGA Tour, Koepka competed in just 16 tournaments as some injuries lingered throughout the season. Not only did that hang around, so did his putting woes from the last two years. Since winning the 2023 PGA Championship, the five-time major champion has bled strokes on the greens in three consecutive seasons.
Before 2024, he had done that just once since his first year on the PGA Tour in 2014. All of this led to Koepka missing the FedEx Cup Playoffs, failing to make any noise in major championships and remaining outside the top 100 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He finished inside the top 10 just once and failed to finish inside the top five of any tournament for the first time in his career.
Jon Rahm
A player who seemed to be walking down the pathway towards all-time greatness has taken a step off it during his tenure with LIV Golf. Call a spade a spade. While this season resulted in two wins for Rahm, his third straight season-long crown and a run at the PGA Championship, it was another year that lacked any defining moment.
The two-time major champion will return to Augusta National in 2027, four years removed from his last major championship and playing who knows what kind of schedule. From a statistical standpoint (true strokes gained), Rahm had his worst season since his sophomore year on the PGA Tour in 2018. The Spaniard took a misstep, but don't go believing he will never rediscover his sense of direction.
Bryson DeChambeau
Let's start with the positives -- DeChambeau's iron play was its best since his last full season on the PGA Tour in 2021. The bad is that his driver numbers dipped, and his play in major championships was forgettable. After a major campaign in 2025 that saw him finish runner-up at the PGA Championship and the Masters, the two-time U.S. Open champion missed the first three cuts of the major season.
He made some amends by finishing T14 at The Open, which was remembered for a rules infraction rather than his renewed enthusiasm on a links golf course. DeChambeau has become the champion for LIV Golf during its turbulent times, and while that has not affected his game on that circuit, it likely did not help when it mattered most in 2026.
Keegan Bradley
This time last year, Bradley made the unselfish decision not to pick himself for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. He won the Travelers Championship, put together solid showings in the majors and made his way through to the Tour Championship. This year, he did not even make the postseason.
The former PGA Championship winner discussed numerous times how the Ryder Cup hangover was affecting him mentally throughout the season. Late in the summer, he looked as if he started to shake it and emerge from the fog, but it was ultimately too late to make any sort of impression on 2026.
Tony Finau
The best of Finau may very well be in the past, but the six-time PGA Tour winner is still better than this. Finau turned into an average PGA Tour player in 2026, as he experienced his worst approach season since 2016 and the worst driving campaign of his career.
To compound the drop-off in ball striking, Finau also lost strokes putting for the fourth straight season. All of it added up to Finau missing the postseason in its entirety for the first time, as he did not even sniff a possible berth. He has just one top-five finish across the last 43 starts that span these last two seasons.
Ben Griffin
Most times, when coming off a three-win season, there is only one way to go -- down. That's the case for just about everyone not named Scheffler, and it was indeed the case for Griffin in 2026. The former loan officer failed to make the Tour Championship despite racking up seven top-20 finishes in 25 starts.
On the inside track to qualify for the Presidents Cup team with four rounds remaining, he dropped from No. 5 in the standings to outside the top-six cutoff point. For all the talk about his distance gains in 2025, Griffin was just about average in that regard in 2026, leaving us wondering if 2025 was his apex mountain.
