$\":yellow_circle:\"$ Welcome back to the DG Live Blog.

This will likely be our last one of the year unless the Internationals can improve their situation ahead of the Presidents Cup. We are going to use this offseason to revamp our live coverage of tournaments by taking things down to the shot level ( $\":eyes:\"$ ). This will require a new front and back end to our live model, which are both due for a much-needed refresh.

With that said, let’s set the scene for the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Here’s an update on the lackluster 2026 DG Points Race:

Coming off his first MC since 2022 last week, Scottie Scheffler continues to lead despite only winning once. He’s on track to take a step down from not only his all-time best seasons in 2024 (9 wins, 153 points) and 2025 (6 wins, 174 points), but also his breakthrough 2022 and 2023 seasons. The most glaring issue is his approach play, which is down ~0.7 strokes per round from past years. If Scheffler holds on to win DG PoY without winning again, he would join Jon Rahm (2021) as the only players to win the points race with a single win to their name (although Rahm should have won the Memorial that year).

The chasing pack is full of players who have threatened to overtake Scheffler at various points in the season before slowing down:

Matt Fitzpatrick has been the most consistent player outside of Scottie, picking up 3 wins and 4 additional top 5 finishes. Two of his wins earned him less than 10 DG Points though, which explains why he’s still looking up at Scheffler.

Chris Gotterup also deserves a mention. He is successfully building off his breakthrough 2025 summer and on track to post career-best numbers again in 2026. Like Fitzpatrick, Gotterup’s wins have come away from the big-DG-points tournaments.

Earlier this year Cameron Young made the biggest push—both in terms of numbers and eye test—to challenge Scheffler, winning 2 times (Players and Cadillac) in 4 starts alongside huge strokes-gained numbers. But he has cooled off since, especially on the greens.

It felt like Morikawa was ready for a big year but a back injury at The Players derailed his major season. The same could be said for Knapp, who finished T11 or better in 7 of his first 8 starts.

McIlroy won his second consecutive Masters but has been relatively quiet outside of that. With that said, he’s still on track to post his 12th season with a +2.0 or better adjusted strokes-gained average. The other major winners (Rai and Clark) were surprises, even though Clark had won prior to Shinnecock. This makes the PoY conversation more interesting, as we are forced to compare the value of major versus non-major wins.

With 28 points going to the winner this week, The 154th Open should play a big role in determining the 2026 DG Player of the Year.