Among the beauties of the PGA Tour’s calendar is how it ebbs and flows. The season traverses the Hawaiian islands — well, at least one this year — hits up the desert and moves along the California coast before transitioning to Florida with major championships on the horizon.
The first portion of the 2026 PGA Tour schedule started with some doubts. Will there ever be another trip to Kapalua where players vie for the first title of the season on the Plantation Course? Will one of the longest-running events on the PGA Tour calendar, the Sony Open, cease to exist in the near future?
While questions were raised, particularly given the murmurs of a West Coast playoff in August featuring three venues already played on — you can read between the lines there — players provided answers.
Answers in the form of play. Answers in the form of performances. And even in the case of Tiger Woods, answers in the form of a single one-word response. Those who were up to the challenges were rewarded with victories, elevation into new categorizations and now awards doled out by yours truly.
So, without further ado, here are our award winners for the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing.
MVP: Chris Gotterup
There are several candidates here — Scottie Scheffler and Jacob Bridgeman were both among the nominees — but the clear-cut winner is Gotterup. The big-hitting right-hander went from being a guy to potentially being the guy as he rose to world No. 5 with his playoff win at the WM Phoenix Open over Hideki Matsuyama.
While his power off the tee and surprising touch on and around the greens are easy to pinpoint and should be applauded, what was most impressive may have been his demeanor. Everything seems to bounce off him; no moment seems too big nor too small for a man with four wins over the last three seasons.
Monday morning QB: Scheffler’s first rounds
If there were a dedicated hot-take show designed for golf, Scheffler’s first-round performances would be making serious headlines. After starting the season with a runaway victory at The American Express, Scheffler opened his next three tournaments with rounds of 73, 72 and 74. Despite leading the PGA Tour in overall scoring average, the world No. 1 ranks No. 116 in Round 1 scoring alone.
There are two sides to this conversation. First, holy cow, Scheffler is still contending despite his rough starts. He finished one stroke out of a playoff in Phoenix, two strokes behind winner Collin Morikawa at Pebble Beach and nearly snuck inside the top 10 at Riviera. The other side is that he may be letting some serious big-time wins — in the context of his career — slip through his grasp — a tournament-record number of wins, a victory at Pebble Beach and receiving a trophy from Woods.
All of this would be an unfair criticism for most golfers, but considering what Scheffler has proven he can accomplish and the level to which he has been playing the last few years, the microscope is zoomed in tighter on him than most.
Unsung hero: Jake Knapp
Over the last three months, the second-best player in the world, according to true strokes gained, is … drum roll please … Jake Knapp! Not Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood or Jon Rahm, who seems to be allergic to the winner’s circle on LIV Golf and perpetually stuck in the runner-up position. Rather, it’s a one-time PGA Tour winner.
In five starts, Knapp has done no worse than a T11 finish to kick off his 2026 season as he has blended his immense distance using the driver with some serious swagger on the greens. A favorite in the mayoral race in Tempo Town, Knapp is knocking on the door of a big-time win. Don’t be surprised if it comes in Florida. (Keep an eye on his Official World Golf Rankings spot as he is currently No. 43; the top 50 the week before the Masters earn invitations.)
One for the olds: Justin Rose (and Adam Scott)
There is a parallel universe where two of the first three major champions of 2025 included Rose at the Masters and Scott at the U.S. Open. With so many throughlines between the two careers and players, perhaps the wily veterans can draw a couple more this season as the form is still relevant.
Rose raced away from the field at Torrey Pines to climb to world No. 3 and become the oldest winner on the PGA Tour since, well, himself at last season’s St. Jude Championship. The Englishman’s eyes are on Augusta National, where he has finished 72 holes without anyone beating him twice, and yet he still remains without a green jacket.
Meanwhile, Scott was somewhat forgotten until two rounds of a 63 at Riviera catapulted him inside the top five and into his best finish since the end of the 2024 season. Both of the 45-year-olds still possess plenty of speed — they can touch mid-180 mph — and plenty of game.
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It’s just nice to win one: Collin Morikawa
It had been too long since Morikawa had won, and a trophy was more than overdue for the two-time major champion. Without one since the 2023 Zozo Championship, Morikawa may have surprised himself at various points in the proceedings at Pebble Beach, but the performance ended with a win.
You can discuss his iron play, his pinpoint accuracy with his scoring clubs and how his ceiling approach performances may be as high as that of Scheffler, but it’s more than that. Much more. A win takes so much of that mental angst away, that angst that was visible last season when he lashed out at the media not once but twice, and when he fired his caddie not once, not twice, not three times … you get the point.
Yeah, he’s still got it: Tiger Woods
All it took was two letters for Woods to get the golf world excited when he was asked if a possible appearance at the Masters was off the table.
“No.”
Let’s take it one step further, though: What if we see Woods before the Masters? That’s right, let the imagination wander as Woods has a resource this season that he has never had in his entire career. What could this be, you may be thinking? The PGA Tour Champions.
Now 50, Woods could tune up for his first tournament since the 2024 Open with perhaps a start on PGA Tour Champions, which hosts tournaments the final two weeks of March at La Paloma Country Club in Tucson, Arizona, and Newport Beach Country Club in California. Allowed to take a golf cart while facing little pressure playing with longtime peers, Woods would be wise to jump at the opportunity to see the state of his competitive game.
