The 2025 Season Autopsy: What the Numbers Really Tell Us About Golf’s Elite

Well, we’re officially a month into 2026, and I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks doing what I do best—digging through the data from last season like a caddie searching for a lost ball in the rough. After 35 years covering this tour, I can tell you that year-end audits like this one are where the real stories hide. Anyone can watch a tournament. It takes a different kind of eye to understand what’s actually shifting beneath the surface.

What I’m seeing in 2025’s strokes-gained breakdown is this: the game’s hierarchy is stabilizing in interesting ways, and there are some remarkable individual journeys worth unpacking.

The Redemption Arc Nobody Saw Coming

Let’s start with Rickie Fowler, because honestly, this one caught even me off guard. Here’s a guy who, just two years ago, lost strokes off the tee for the first time in his career. At 37, you don’t typically expect a meaningful resurgence in the power game. But Fowler didn’t just improve—he jumped 90 spots in strokes gained off the tee, posting his best driving season since 2018.

“After losing strokes off the tee for the first time in his career in 2024, Fowler fought back in a major way. The former Players Championship winner experienced his best driving season since 2018 and set up the rest of his game, allowing him to gain strokes throughout the bag.”

In my experience, when a player makes that kind of mechanical adjustment, it tends to cascade. Good driving creates good position, good position creates good approach shots, and good approach shots make your short game’s job infinitely easier. Fowler found that formula, and we may very well see him back in contention for tournaments this year.

The Puzzling Case of Xander and What It Means

Now, I need to talk about Xander Schauffele’s 91-spot decline in driving, because it speaks to something deeper about expectations and pressure. Look, the guy won two majors in 2024—two! That’s an elite season by any measure. He comes into 2025 injured, returns to Florida (where every other shot requires threading the needle between water), and he’s swinging a new driver he doesn’t trust yet.

“There were a few factors to go into Schauffele’s decline: (1) he had a monster 2024 season, (2) he was injured to start 2025 and (3) when he did return, he did so in the state of Florida (i.e. a lot of water on those golf courses) with a new driver in hand, which he ultimately bagged.”

What strikes me here is that Schauffele’s recovery late in the season—including his win in Japan—suggests the problem was situational, not fundamental. His swing didn’t break. His confidence did. Having caddied for Tom Lehman back in the day, I watched him manage similar stretches. The mental side of golf at the highest level isn’t about talent; it’s about trusting your preparation when the world seems to be working against you. Schauffele’s late-year resurgence indicates he found that trust again.

The Putting Revolution That Matters Most

Justin Thomas and Cameron Young’s transformation with the putter might be the most underrated story of 2025. Thomas gained 146 strokes with the flat stick—the biggest single improvement on tour. Young wasn’t far behind at 138. These aren’t marginal gains we’re talking about. These are career-altering improvements.

“He was the season’s biggest gainer, going from a bottom 11 putter in 2024 to inside the top 30 with the wand. Thomas credited a conversation with Schauffele over practice habits, and it led to his win at the RBC Heritage, where he holed one from distance in a playoff over Andrew Novak.”

Here’s what fascinates me: Thomas credits Schauffele for a conversation about practice habits. In an era where everyone’s got a putting coach, a sports psychologist, and access to TrackMan data that would’ve seemed like science fiction when I started covering the tour, sometimes the answer is just talking shop with a peer who gets it. Young’s win at the Wyndham Championship wasn’t luck—it was the culmination of mechanical changes finally clicking at the right moment.

The Scottie Question

Scottie Scheffler improved in putting, his only potential weak spot, which tells you everything you need to know about his dominance. The guy employs the claw grip from inside 15 feet and becomes one of the best putters on tour. That’s not normal. That’s generational talent recognizing a gap and closing it mid-season.

The Tougher Truths

Not everything is uplifting, though. Tony Finau’s 133-stroke decline in approach play is concerning for a player with his physical gifts. Sungjae Im somehow played his way into the Tour Championship while finishing second-to-last in strokes gained approach—a statistical miracle that probably isn’t sustainable. Those are the kinds of stories that keep you awake at night when you’re trying to figure out what’s real and what’s luck.

The 2025 season tells me that the elite tier is becoming more defined, not less. Your Schefflers and McIlroys are pulling further ahead because they’re not just talented—they’re coachable enough to fix weaknesses mid-stream. Meanwhile, the middle tier is more volatile than ever.

That’s golf in 2026. It’s still the greatest game ever made, but the gap between the haves and the almost-haves just got a little wider.