Eight Golfers Surpassing Expectations in 2024: Why Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala Stand Out This Season
Scottie Scheffler’s 2024 season is majestic by any measure, but that’s not the only effort worth discussing coming out of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. While Scheffler has far exceeded even the highest expectations that could have been placed on him at the start of the year, many of his peers have put together successful campaigns — some of them without even recording a win.
Success on the golf course is often viewed through the prism of major championships, signature event wins and weekly tournament wins. No one has built a more impressive resume than Scheffler, who won his second Masters, won The Players Championship and earned $62 million — much of it in a six-month span — by amassing signature wins and high rankings on the rare occasions he wasn’t in the winner’s circle on Sundays. Oh, and he also picked up an Olympic gold medal as a feather in his cap before winning the FedEx Cup and the biggest money in golf history.
Still, many of his peers — even those with far less impressive resumes — have far exceeded expectations heading into the 2024 season.
Let’s take a look at who exceeded expectations this year. Just remember: This is all relative. Expectations for Rory McIlroy are not the same as expectations for, say, Beau Hossler.
Golfers Surpassing Expectations in 2024
Xander Schauffele: The question surrounding Schauffele has long been whether he would put all the extraordinary aspects of his game together to finally win his first major. After going 0-26 entering the season despite 11 top-10s at majors, including a pair in 2023, Schauffele finished eighth at the Masters, leaving most to believe that his close-but-no-smoke efforts would continue. He finally broke free of the schneid by winning the PGA Championship. And then he doubled up two months later by winning The Open. He also finished T7 at the US Open, making it the first time in his career that he has finished in the top 10 at all four majors.
Schauffele was the only player all season who even came close to beating Scheffler for the money. Until Scheffler won the Olympic gold medal and the FedEx Cup, there was no real talk of PGA Tour Player of the Year between them. With Schauffele not winning on the PGA Tour in 2023 and only entering the season hoping to win a major, the final performance was far beyond what anyone could have expected.
Collin Morikawa: According to Data Golf, the 27-year-old two-time major champion has the highest projected win value without actually winning a PGA Tour event. Oddly enough, it’s statistically his best year as a pro. Morikawa also posted personal bests in ball striking, greens and putting. However, he didn’t win a tournament. That’s a shame, to be sure, but it also signals a change in fortunes — and the potential for a title or more — in 2025 and beyond if he continues to play at this level.
Aaron Rai: The statistical profile is fantastic as he has improved year-on-year in each of his last six seasons. He went from an average PGA Tour player in 2020 to a 1.0 stroke per round gain and a first PGA Tour win in 2024. Reaching the Tour Championship is a huge achievement for players as it means being in the top 30 players on the PGA Tour for seven months straight and Rai easily qualified and finished 23rd in the FedEx Cup standings, an improvement of 55 spots from his previous best.
Nick Dunlap: Even the most ambitious expectations for Dunlap, who played in the Walker Cup a year ago this time, didn’t lead to him winning twice on the PGA Tour this year. He did so once as an amateur in January at the American Express and then again at the Barracuda Championship in July. Dunlap played his way into the top 50 in the FedEx Cup despite not receiving FedEx Cup points for his American Express win. So he’s already qualified for the big money signature events in 2025. A reminder: He 20 five years old.
Akshay Bhatia: Another young guy who keeps improving. Bhatia was really bad two years ago — a -1.0 SG on the Korn Ferry Tour. Now? He’s a +1.0 on the PGA Tour and a two-time champion with a real chance of making the U.S. team events in the future. Bhatia won the Texas Open and should probably make the Rocket Mortgage Classic, too. No matter how much you like Bhatia’s game, no one saw this leap happening in his age-22 season.
Ludvig Aberg: Expectations were sky-high when he debuted, but somehow Åberg has met and exceeded them. No, he hasn’t won in 2024, but he has competed in major championships and has finished in the top 10 at the Tour Championship in the FedEx Cup. After last year’s Ryder Cup, it’s easy—though still a bit of a dream—to imagine him as a top-10 player in the world. Åberg has been ranked 11th or higher every week since the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. Now it seems like that was always going to be Åberg’s trajectory, but he certainly made it look a lot easier than it actually was to make that leap.
Bryson DeChambeau: Technically, DeChambeau’s LIV Golf season isn’t over yet, but he’s worth mentioning here because of his performance at majors. DeChambeau started the year ranked No. 155 in the world and is currently ranked No. 10 simply because of his performance at the first three majors, one of which he won and another in which he finished second. He’s always been a wild card because his ceiling is so high, but there’s always the possibility that he could roll over with some mental or physical lapses. Still, DeChambeau has been playing his best majors ever, and he was chasing one of the better major seasons in recent golf history before missing the cut at the Open Championship.
Sahith Theegala: Finishing third in the FedEx Cup, Theegala is another player who has improved his ball-striking game every season over the past six years. He has improved his ball-striking and become the most accurate hitter he has ever been as a pro. He also somehow made himself more likable and easier to cheer for in the future by calling a two-shot penalty that cost him $2.5 million at the Tour Championship. It has been a terrible year for the former Haskins Trophy winner.
