Sports
Who Is the Best Golfer Without a Major? Breaking Down the Top Contenders
In this space just last month, I wrote that Tommy Fleetwood was “certainly the best player without a major title” going right now. I think Cameron Young might have pulled a Michael Jordan and taken that personally.
For an avid golf follower, I was slow to the Young hype train, but others like Fried Egg Golf’s PJ Clark were in the conductor’s chair. I vividly remember reading his piece “Confessions of a Cameron Young Addict” as we covered the U.S. Open last summer, before Young had even won on the PGA Tour.
Not only has Young won three times since then, two of them were The Players Championship (the “unofficial fifth major” of golf) and the PGA Tour’s newest signature event, the Cadillac Championship this weekend at Doral.
His opening-round 64 allowed him to go wire-to-wire and win by six strokes Sunday over Scottie Scheffler — and watching Young’s explosion, you get the feeling Scheffler is a good comp, a prospect people considered the best player yet to win on tour in 2022 until he started winning everything in sight.
We’re a week away from PGA Championship week, so I think it’s time for one of the more fun debates in sports: Who’s the best golfer in the world without a major title?
It feels like we don’t have the discussion as much as we did in the Tiger/Phil era, perhaps because of the great spread of winners since the turn of the decade. There have been 13 first-time major champs since Gary Woodland at the 2019 U.S. Open, with guys like Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa claiming two and Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka padding their totals.
With all due respect to Colin Montgomerie and the generations before, we’re only going to explore active players and the current scene.
Two at the Top
Cameron Young: This New Yorker has been contending longer than you may realize. His T3 at the 2022 PGA Championship and runner-up to Cam Smith at St Andrews that year were the first two of his seven top-10 major finishes. He is an elite ball-striker who leads the PGA Tour this year in true strokes gained (which is adjusted for field strength), per DataGolf. Young’s major breakthrough is coming.
Tommy Fleetwood: Young is the hot commodity, but what Fleetwood has in his favor is longevity. His eight major top-10s are spread out since 2017 and he rarely misses cuts anymore. Instead of a Players Championship, he’s now the proud winner of a Tour Championship along with eight titles on the European Tour. It’d be a shame if his major career goes the way of Lee Westwood — always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
The Nordic Golf League
Ludvig Aberg: Briefly the next big prospect in golf, Aberg has settled into a good rhythm of contending at signature events, but he has just two wins on tour to show for it. Though he kicked off his major career by finishing second and seventh in consecutive Masters, he hasn’t shown up at any of the others.
Viktor Hovland: More accomplished than his Swedish counterpart, with a Tour Championship and FedEx Cup title on his resume, Hovland has one top-five at each major since 2022. Too bad he just hasn’t gotten his game in order yet in 2026.
The Dark Horse
Tyrrell Hatton: He may get overlooked because he’s currently with LIV Golf, but after tying for third at the Masters, Hatton may be the player on this list closer than anyone to winning major No. 1. The numbers are eerily similar to fellow Englishman Fleetwood: one PGA Tour title, eight wins in Europe and eight major top-10s.
The Lee Westwood Award for Lifetime Achievement
Rickie Fowler: Look, he’s no longer the most talented player on this list, but Fowler is the most accomplished. We won’t forget his generational run in the 2010s, but of his 13 major top-10s, only two have come this decade. His fans can only hope he has a final act in him; Fowler’s been one of the best putters on tour and just posted top-10s at back-to-back signature events.
Sports
Manchester City look to extend win streak, take on Everton
[Subscription Customers Only] Jun 30, 2025; Orlando, Florida, USA; Manchester City forward Erling Haaland (9) celebrates scoring their second goal with midfielder Rodri (16) during a round of 16 match of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Lee Smith-Reuters via Imagn Images Manchester City will try to keep pace with Premier League front-runner Arsenal on Monday night when they pay a visit to an Everton side still on the fringes of the European picture.
City (21-5-7, 70 points) will begin the day six points back of Arsenal with two matches in hand after the Gunners dispatched Fulham 3-0 on Saturday. The Cityzens won’t be even on games played until May 13, when they make up a postponed match against Crystal Palace that was delayed because of City’s triumphant League Cup run.
As a result, there continues to be the appearance of a chase, although the teams would finish level on points if they win out.
Manager Pep Guardiola insists it shouldn’t matter.
“It’s normal, so it’s the calendar,” Guardiola said on Friday. “Sometimes you play first. Sometimes behind. It is what it is. So, nothing changes in these stages, and you know exactly what you have to do.”
City have won six in a row in all competitions, the last three by a single goal: A 2-1 home league win over the Gunners on April 19, a 1-0 league victory at Burnley three days later, and a 2-1 FA Cup semifinal triumph over Southampton on April 25.
Erling Haaland scored once in both league fixtures to bring his EPL-leading total to 24. In the FA Cup semifinal, Jeremy Doku and Nico Gonzalez scored inside the final 10 minutes to complete a late rally.
Everton (13-13-8, 47 points) finished Saturday in 11th place, but only four points out of seventh, which currently would earn a berth in the UEFA Europa Conference League. Should City win the FA Cup, it could be the top eight English league finishers who earn a spot in Europe.
And if Everton could return to continental competition for the first time since 2017-18, it would conclude a much-improved first season at their new Hill Dickson Stadium, after bringing the curtain down on historic Goodison Park last May.
“We still believe there could be something out there for us. And we’ll keep pushing,” manager David Moyes said. “Building Everton back up is a process which I think is going to take quite a bit of time, but I think the first year or so here, we’ve certainly put decent foundations down. And hopefully we can continue to build on it.”
The Toffees are looking to avoid a third consecutive league defeat for the first time this season after a 2-1 home loss to derby rivals Liverpool on April 19 and a 2-1 away defeat at West Ham last weekend.
Beto, one of two Everton players with eight goals, departed the former contest late with a head injury and missed the latter fixture working through the league’s concussion protocol. He should be available Monday night, Moyes said.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Yankees tee off on Orioles to win third straight in 4-game series
May 3, 2026; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) hits a two run home run in the third inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images Jasson Dominguez scored the tiebreaking run in the sixth inning before hitting a two-run homer and an RBI double during a seven-run eighth as the New York Yankees pulled away for an 11-3 victory over the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Sunday afternoon.
The Yankees won for the 13th time in 15 games and beat the Orioles for the 11th time in the past 12 meetings.
Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer off Baltimore rookie Trey Gibson. Ben Rice hit his 12th home run of the season in the first and doubled ahead of Judge’s 13th homer in the third.
Rice exited after the Yankees batted in the third because of a bruised left hand. The Yankees announced X-rays were negative and the first baseman is day-to-day. Rice appeared to get injured fielding a low pickoff throw from Max Fried and was replaced by Paul Goldschmidt.
Dominguez started the tiebreaking rally with a double to left field against Grant Wolfram (1-1) and advanced to third on a groundout by Austin Wells. Ryan McMahon, facing a drawn-in infield, followed with a single that first baseman Coby Mayo couldn’t handle after diving to stop it.
Dominguez started New York’s big inning with a two-run drive into the right field seats off Andrew Kittredge for a 6-3 lead. After an RBI sacrifice fly by Trent Grisham, Goldschmidt ripped a two-run single after the Yankees executed a double steal.
Following a sacrifice fly by Jazz Chisholm Jr., Dominguez added a double to left field for an 11-3 lead.
The Orioles tied it twice before losing their fourth straight and for the 12th time in 18 games.
Blaze Alexander had an RBI single in the third before getting thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double. After Judge’s 413-foot drive bounced into Baltimore’s bullpen in left field, Leody Taveras hit an RBI infield single and Tyler O’Neill scored on a double play grounder by Jeremiah Jackson in the fourth.
Fried allowed three runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings. The left-hander struck out six and walked three.
Fernando Cruz (3-0) got the final two outs of the sixth and the first out of the seventh. Brent Headrick ended the eighth by getting a double play grounder against Mayo.
Gibson allowed three runs on four hits in 4 2/3 innings during his major league debut.
The four-game series concludes Monday.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Cam Smith drives in 2 in 10th, Astros edge Red Sox
May 3, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Houston Astros right fielder Cam Smith (11) hits a two run RBI against the Boston Red Sox during the tenth inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images Cam Smith had three hits, including a two-run single in the top of the 10th inning, to help the visiting Houston Astros earn a 3-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.
Smith’s two-out single came against Zack Kelly (0-2) and drove in Braden Shewmake and Jose Altuve.
Boston had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 10th, but Bryan Abreu got Ceddanne Rafaela to ground into a double play to end the game.
Jarren Duran hit a solo home run for the Red Sox, who stranded 13 runners and were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Duran’s home run was his third of the season and his second of the series. He hit a three-run homer in Boston’s 3-1 victory Friday night.
Abreu (1-2) pitched two scoreless innings to get the win. He gave up one hit, walked one and struck out one.
Willson Contreras collected three of Boston’s nine hits in the loss.
Christian Walker and Christian Vazquez each had two-hit games for the Astros, who won two games in the three-game set.
Boston starting pitcher Ranger Suarez was pulled after four scoreless innings because of hamstring tightness. He gave up three hits, walked one and struck out three. Suarez threw 70 pitches.
Duran’s home run off Houston reliever AJ Blubaugh opened the scoring in the fifth. Houston tied the game in the sixth, when Walker reached on an infield single, took third on Altuve’s double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brice Matthews.
The Red Sox had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth. An error on Abreu allowed Contreras to reach second with two outs in the inning, but Roman Anthony grounded out to first to end the inning.
Houston had the bases loaded with no outs in the 10th, but Altuve grounded into a 6-2-5 double play. Following a walk to Matthews, Smith delivered his two-run single.
–Field Level Media
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Manchester City look to extend win streak, take on Everton
