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
Michael Busch drives in 4 as Cubs win, sweep D-backs
May 3, 2026; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs designated hitter Moises Ballesteros (25) celebrates his two-run home run with second baseman Nico Hoerner (2) against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the third inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images Michael Busch drove in four runs to lead the host Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks Sunday.
Busch doubled and scored a run in the second and broke the game open for good with a three-run triple in the fifth as Chicago finished the three-game sweep with its 11th straight win at home.
Matthew Boyd (2-1) picked the win. The southpaw gave up four hits and two earned runs over six innings, walking one and fanning five in 94 pitches. The quality start was the Cubs’ seventh in their last 10 home games.
Chicago tied a season high with six extra-base hits. Busch, Nico Hoerner, Moises Ballesteros, Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly all contributed a pair of hits.
The Cubs extended a 3-2 lead with a three-run fifth.
Ballesteros led off with a walk and Alex Bregman reached on a fielder’s choice when Nolan Arenado’s throw was too late to get Ballesteros at second.
Ian Happ loaded the bases with a walk and Busch tripled into the right-field corner to clear the bases and give Chicago a 6-2 lead.
The triple chased Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly (1-3). The veteran right-hander went 4 1/3 innings, giving up eight hits and six earned runs. He struck out five and walked three in 92 pitches.
The Diamondbacks opened the scoring in the second when Arenado doubled with one out and Gabe Moreno hit his first home run of the season deep to left field for a 2-0 lead.
The Cubs cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning when Kelly singled in Busch with two outs.
Chicago took the lead for good in the third when Hoerner singled to deep short and Ballesteros smashed an opposite-field home run to left-center for a 3-2 advantage.
The Cubs scored a pair of insurance runs in the seventh when Happ led off with a walk and Suzuki doubled into the left-field corner.
Busch drove in his fourth run of the game with a deep sacrifice fly to right to make it 7-2 Cubs and Kelly singled in Suzuki to give Chicago an 8-2 lead.
D-backs pinch-hitter Adrian Del Castillo hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth to finalize the scoring. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. went 2-for-3 with a run for the visitors.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Padres' Walker Buehler looks for better results vs. Giants
Apr 28, 2026; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher Walker Buehler (10) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Chicago Cubs at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: David Frerker-Imagn Images A pair of two-time All-Stars accustomed to big-time winning will look to wipe out losing records when Walker Buehler and the San Diego Padres continue a brief three-game road trip against Logan Webb and the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday.
The Giants snapped a six-game losing streak in Monday’s series opener, riding Trevor McDonald’s pitching to a 3-2 victory. It was San Francisco’s third win in four meetings with San Diego this season.
Buehler (1-2, 5.40 ERA) will take the mound in San Francisco for the 10th time in his career. The right-hander has gone 6-2 with a 3.65 ERA at Oracle Park and 7-3 with a 3.00 ERA overall in 15 appearances (13 starts) against the Giants in his career.
In his first season with the Padres, Buehler has struggled in his past two starts, lasting a total of 7 1/3 innings in a pair of 8-3 losses to the Colorado Rockies and Chicago Cubs.
“Just not good enough,” Buehler told reporters after his most recent outing a week ago against the Cubs. “Got to get deeper and get more efficient. We’ve kind of established that the stuff has improved, and I’m in a lot better spot. But I haven’t quite had that one that it all kind of clicks together in terms of the execution.”
Buehler will be facing a Giants team that has totaled just 12 runs in its last seven games.
San Francisco went homerless while going winless on a six-game trip to Philadelphia and Tampa Bay last week, a drought Casey Schmitt ended in the first inning of Monday’s win.
The Giants have won their past three home games. The long flight home from Florida and a change of scenery was just what the doctor ordered, Schmitt said.
“The big thing was to flush that road trip. Obviously it didn’t go any way we wanted it to go,” Schmitt said. “It’s a new series, a new day.”
No doubt, Webb (2-3, 4.30) also would be perfectly happy to turn the page after having nothing to show for a pair of hard-luck efforts in his past two outings. The right-hander allowed just four runs over 14 innings to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Phillies in those starts, games the Giants lost 3-0 and 3-2.
Webb would like nothing better than to get the level of support he received when he pitched in a 9-3 win at San Diego in the first week of the season. It improved his career record against the Padres to 5-5 with a 3.23 ERA in 18 games, including 17 starts.
Schmitt got the loudest of San Francisco’s six hits in the series opener on Monday and Luis Arraez chipped in with a pair of doubles and scored twice. The biggest news of the night offensively, however, was the two-RBI performance of Rafael Devers, who hadn’t had a multiple-RBI game since April 8.
Playing first base, Devers responded on a day when the Giants promoted one of their top prospects, Bryce Eldridge, who is seen as the future of the first base position in San Francisco.
Eldridge was used as the DH in his big-league season debut Monday, going 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
The 21-year-old, who got 37 plate appearances last season, has never faced Buehler.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Former WNBA MVP Tina Charles retires after 14 seasons
Aug 21, 2025; Uncasville, Connecticut, USA; Connecticut Sun center Tina Charles (31) reacts after his basket against the Washington Mystics in the second half at Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images Eight-time All-Star and former WNBA Most Valuable Player Tina Charles announced her retirement Tuesday after 14 seasons with six teams.
Charles, 37, is the league’s all-time leader in made field goals (3,364) and rebounds (4,262) and ranks second with 8,396 points behind only Diana Taurasi (10,646).
The 6-foot-4 center posted Tuesday on X that she had “experienced the highest highs and lowest lows, and I’m thankful for all of it.”
“At some point, you have to edit your life,” Charles wrote. “Not everything and not everyone is meant for the whole journey. Growth requires honesty, and for me, that meant recognizing when my impact was being called in a new direction.”
Charles never won a WNBA championship but won two national championships at UConn and three Olympic gold medals with Team USA.
The No. 1 pick in the 2010 WNBA Draft by the Connecticut Sun, Charles won 2010 Rookie of the Year and 2012 Most Valuable Player honors. She led the league in scoring twice and rebounding four times while making nine All-WNBA teams and four All-Defensive teams. She twice won the Dawn Staley Award for community leadership.
Charles averaged 17.8 points and 9.0 rebounds in 473 games (464 starts) with the Sun (2010-13, 2025), New York Liberty (2014-19), Washington Mystics (2021), Phoenix Mercury (2022), Seattle Storm (2022) and Atlanta Dream (2024).
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert issued a lengthy statement on Tuesday.
“Tina Charles has defined excellence and consistency throughout one of the most remarkable careers in WNBA history. From earning unanimous Rookie of the Year honors to being named league MVP, to becoming the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder and second all-time leading scorer, Tina’s impact on the game will be felt for generations to come.
“Beyond her extraordinary accomplishments, Tina has represented the very best of the WNBA throughout her career. Through her leadership and dedication to giving back — including her work with her Hopey’s Heart Foundation — she has made a meaningful impact far beyond the game, earning the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award twice. On behalf of the WNBA, I want to thank Tina for her lasting contributions to the league and the sport of basketball. Her legacy will be defined not only by her excellence on the court, but by the standard she set as a leader, a teammate, and a champion for the communities she touched.”
–Field Level Media
Michael Busch drives in 4 as Cubs win, sweep D-backs
Padres' Walker Buehler looks for better results vs. Giants
