Eight golfers who exceeded expectations in 2024: Why Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala stood out this season

Scottie Scheffler’s 2024 season was spectacular by any metric, but it was not the only effort worth discussing coming out of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. While Scheffler wildly exceeded even the highest expectations that could have been offered for him at the start of the year, many of his peers put together successful campaigns — some of whom did not even register a single victory.

Success on the golf course is often seen through the lens of major championships, signature event victories and weekly tournament wins. No one put together a more dominant resume than Scheffler, who won his second Masters, claimed The Players Championship and earned $62 million — most of it within a six-month span — by racking up signature wins and high leaderboard placements on the rare occasions he did not stand in the winner’s circle on a Sunday. Oh yeah, he also claimed an Olympic gold medal as a feather in his cap before winning the FedEx Cup and the largest bonus in golf history.

And yet, many of his peers — even those with far-less-impressive resumes on paper — achieved beyond what was expected of them entering the 2024 season.

Let’s see who blew past their expected baseline over the last year. Just remember: All of this is relative. Expectations for Rory McIlroy are not the same as they are for Beau Hossler, for example.

Golfers who exceeded expectations in 2024

Xander Schauffele: The question around Schauffele had long been whether he would put all the extraordinary facets of his game together to finally capture a first major championship. Having gone 0-26 entering the season despite 11 top 10s at majors, including a pair in 2023, Schauffele finished eighth at the Masters leading most to believe his close-but-no-cigar struggles would continue. He finally got off the schneid by winning the PGA Championship over Bryson DeChambeau. And then, he doubled up two months later capturing The Open Championship. He also placed T7 at the U.S. Open achieving top-10 finishes in all four majors for the first time in his career.

Schauffele was the only golfer all season who even came close to giving Scheffler a run for his money. Up until Scheffler doubled up with the Olympic gold medal and FedEx Cup, there was a legitimate PGA Tour Player of the Year conversation between them. Given Schauffele did not win on the PGA Tour in 2023 and only entered the season with hopes he would claim one major, the performance was ultimately beyond what anyone could have expected.

Collin Morikawa: The 27-year-old, two-time major winner had the highest expected win value without actually winning a PGA Tour event, according to Data Golf. Strangely, it was statistically the best year he has ever put together as a professional. Morikawa also reached personal bests in driving, playing around the greens and putting. Yet he did not win a single tournament. That’s a bummer, for sure, but it also portends a shift of luck — and with it, the potential or numerous trophies — in 2025 and beyond should he continue to play at this level.

Aaron Rai: The statistical profile is awesome because he has improved year over year across each of the last six season. He went from being an average PGA Tour player in 2020 to gaining 1.0 strokes per round and winning for the first time on the PGA Tour in 2024. Making it to the Tour Championship is a massive deal for players because it means you were consistently one of the 30 best on the PGA Tour over the course of seven months, and Rai easily qualified finishing 23rd in the FedEx Cup standings, an improvement of 55 spots from his prior best finish.

Nick Dunlap: Even the most ambitious expectations of Dunlap, who was playing in the Walker Cup this time a year ago, did not have him winning twice on the PGA Tour this year. He did so once as an amateur back 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 winning the American Express. Thus, he has qualified forthe big money signature events in 2025. A reminder: He’s 20 years old.

Akshay Bhatia: Another young guy who just keeps improving. Bhatia was downright bad two years ago — about a -1.0 SG guy on the Korn Ferry Tour. Now? He’s a +1.0 guy on the PGA Tour and a two-time champion with a real shot at making future United States team events. Bhatia won the Texas Open and probably should have taken the Rocket Mortgage Classic as well. No matter how much you may have liked Bhatia’s game, no one saw this kind of leap happening in his age 22 season.

Ludvig Åberg: Expectations were outrageously high upon his debut, yet Åberg somehow still met and surpassed them. No, he did not win in 2024, but he was competitive in the major championships and made it all the way to the Tour Championship inside the top 10 in the FedEx Cup. After last year’s Ryder Cup, it became easy — albeit still a bit wishful — to imagine him as a top 10 player in the world. Åberg has been branked 11th or higher every week since the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. Now that feels like it has always been the trajectory for Åberg, but he certainly made it look a lot easier than it actually is to make that leap.

Bryson DeChambeau: Technically, DeChambeau’s LIV Golf season is not over yet, but he’s worth mentioning here because of how well he performed at the majors. DeChambeau started the year ranked No. 155 in the world, and he’s currently ranked No. 10 solely because of his performance at the first three majors, one of which he won and another where he came in second. He’s always a wild card because the ceiling is crazy high, but there’s always a chance he rolls in mentally or physically erratic. DeChambeau was as good as he’s ever been at the majors, though, and he was tracking for one of the better major seasons in recent golf history before missing the cut at The Open Championship.

Sahith Theegala: Finishing 3rd in the FedEx Cup, Theegala is another player who has improved season over season for the last six years. He shored up his driving and was the most accurate he’s ever been as a professional. He also somehow made himself even more likable and easy to cheer in the future by self-calling a two-shot penalty that ended up costing him $2.5 million at the Tour Championship. Monster year for the for the former Haskins Award winner.