The Power 18 golf rankings: Tommy Fleetwood shakes up top three, Xander Schauffele falls amid 2025 drought
The primary tours are done for 2025 with golfers now preparing for the Ryder Cup and international competition
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8 min read
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf seasons have come to an end, through plenty more golf remains on the horizon through the end of 2025. The DP World Tour will go through a fun stretch in the spotlight with the Irish Open and its flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, held the next two weeks before the Ryder Cup takes center stage at Bethpage Black to conclude September.
During this lead-up to the biennial international event, the PGA Tour will return from its two-week offseason hiatus with FedEx Cup Fall kicking off at the Procore Championship, which will welcoms a field that currently consists of 11 of the 12 U.S. Ryder Cup players. Xander Schauffele is the lone omission, but that could change in due time.
Despite college football kicking off and Week 1 of the NFL season getting underway, there is still plenty of golf to take in. And whenever golf is being played, the best player walking on the surface of this planet to swing those clubs is still Scottie Scheffler.
Although the world No. 1 did not win the FedEx Cup crown for the second straight season as he hoped, he did accomplish a number of other feats in his 2025 campaign. The season-long race ultimately went in favor of Tommy Fleetwood, who was a model of consistency; the equivalent title went to Jon Rahm for the second straight campaign on LIV Golf.
Were those three players indeed the most consistent in 2025? What about those who summited peaks few have ever climbed? This balance of even-keel steady play versus reaching the highest highs is what makes this balancing act of The Power 18 all the more intriguing.
The Power 18 provides insight as to how golfers are currently performing with benefit given to their play over recent events. It is a wider lens than simply what happened at the last tournament to be played but more narrow than the Official World Golf Rankings, which take into account how more than 2,000 golfers perform across an entire season.
The Power 18
| 1 | |
| Scheffler may not have won the Tour Championship, but he claimed the BMW Championship in dramatic fashion to put a bow on another five-win campaign. He is the first since Tiger Woods in 2006-07 to win five or more tournaments in two straight seasons, and he did so without finishing outside the top eight in his last 14 starts. That is the longest such streak since Ben Hogan in the 1950s. Yes, that Ben Hogan. Previous: 1 | |
| 2 | |
| Rahm did everything but win in 2025. His summer was one of near misses as the Spaniard fell short in his country by a single stroke at LIV Golf Andalucia. He continued to fall just outside the winner's circle with a playoff loss at LIV Golf Chicago and another at LIV Golf Indianapolis where he fired a final-round 60. While the individual trophies did not come, the two-time major champion's consistency was enough for him to claim his second straight season-long title and lead his Legion XIII team to the team championship. Previous: 3 | |
| 3 | |
| The best player on the PGA Tour this summer not named Scheffler, Fleetwood had four top-five finishes in his final six starts of the PGA Tour season, including his long-awaited victory at the Tour Championship. The year as a whole marked the best of his career, especially on approach and with putter in hand. Fleetwood switched from a blade to a TaylorMade Spider the week after the Masters and never looked back. Previous: 12 | |
| 4 | |
| McIlroy's 2025 was defined by his peaks and soured somewhat by his valleys. Since the U.S. Open, he has finished inside the top 25 in every tournament, including a runner up at the Scottish Open and a nice showing at The Open in Northern Ireland. The interest gauge read low in the FedEx Cup Playoffs where he finished T23 in a 30-man field at East Lake. The good news is he will fuel up here shortly with the Irish Open, BMW PGA Championship (where he finished runner up in both last year) and the Ryder Cup on deck. Previous: 2 | |
| 5 | |
| The former Georgia star finished his year with seven straight top-20 finishes, including runner-up results at the Travelers Championship and Tour Championship. As steady as they come, Henley has been able to compete with the world's best despite giving up significant distance to his counterparts. (He finished 30th in driving distance at East Lake.) The 2025 season marked the best of his career as the well-rounded nature of his game continued to take a collective step forward even at the age of 36. Previous: 6 | |
| 6 | |
| Finished third in LIV Golf's season-long competition, but he didn't do much over the last couple of months. DeChambeau battled to a top-10 finish at The Open and then placed T11, T13 and T14 in his final three individual starts on LIV Golf. The two-time U.S. Open champion seems to have figured out his iron play, but his short game has been sloppy and held him back from achieving better results against his limited competition. Previous: 4 | |
| 7 | |
| A rightful selection for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Griffin proved this summer that a poor two-week stretch at the John Deere Classic and The Open was the outlier, not the other way around. Griffin finished his career-altering season with four straight top-15 finishes, including top 10s at the St. Jude Championship and Tour Championship. From a statistical standpoint, he was two times better than he was in 2024 as he averaged 1.40 strokes gained per round this year. Previous: 10 | |
| 8 | |
| The Englishman has been red hot all summer, and he continues to rack up top-five finishes no matter what tour he is playing. While Fitzpatrick fell short of qualifying for the Tour Championship, he has since taken his talents overseas and come away with a T6 at the British Masters and solo fifth-place at the European Masters. In his last nine starts worldwide, Fitzpatrick has six top-10 finishes. Previous: 8 | |
| 9 | |
| Unironically, one of the biggest X factors for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Schauffele never got things rolling in the right direction in 2025. He missed the Tour Championship for the first time in his career, experiencing his worst season on the greens and second-worst around them. His game still traveled to major championships, which is a big plus, but outside of those top finishes, the year as a whole was largely forgettable for the man who claimed to majors the year prior. Previous: 5 | |
| 10 | |
| Was the Wyndham Championship a true floodgates opening situation? We'll find out with Young in due time as the former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year claimed his first title on the PGA tour at Sedgefield Country Club and parlayed the momentum into finishes of solo 5th at the St. Jude Championship, 11th at the BMW Championship and T4 at the Tour Championship. His putting took a massive leap forward in 2025. Previous: 16 | |
| 11 | |
| His underlying statistics had been good for most of the year, but he finally found his groove on the greens in the postseason. Cantlay notched a top 10 finish at the St. Jude Championship before he placed runner up to Fleetwood at the Tour Championship playing alongside the eventual champion in the final pair. The American had the best approach play season of his career one year after he had his worst. Previous: Not ranked | |
| 12 | |
| The driver is starting to come around. Hovland was the second-best iron player in the world behind Scheffler in 2025, the only issue was giving himself those opportunities on a consistent basis. He started to do that a little more near the end of the PGA Tour season with solid driving performances at the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship leading to two quality results. Previous: 13 | |
| 13 | |
| A step seems to have been taken in the course management department, and the results have followed suit. Åberg finished his year with five straight top-25 finishes, including top 10s in the first two legs of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He appears to be getting stronger throughout the bag, but his iron play may be the area to watch. He averaged +0.70 strokes gained approach per round in 2024 and just +0.31 in 2025. Previous: 14 | |
| 14 | |
| The Scotsman raced out ahead at the BMW Championship before he squandered a four-stroke lead to Scheffler in the final round. MacIntyre claimed two runner-up finishes in 2025 to go along with a handful of other strong showings like his top 10 at The Open. By far the best he has been in his career as each strokes-gained category saw an uptick compared to last year when he won twice on the PGA Tour. Previous: 17 | |
| 15 | |
| He will go as far as the driver will take him. At TPC Southwind, it took Rose to the winner's circle. Qualifying for the Tour Championship for the first time since 2019, the Englishman proved to himself that his best is still good enough to best the top players in the world. His win in Memphis followed a strong run overseas. Previous: Not ranked | |
| 16 | |
| An automatic qualifier for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, English made the most of his best finishes in 2025 with two of those coming in the form of runner-up results in majors. Outside of that, you can often find his name on the second or third page of the leaderboard like at the BMW Championship and Tour Championship where he finished T12 and T13, respectively. His ball striking much more reliable in 2025; he looked like the English from before his hip injury. Previous: 7 | |
| 17 | |
| It was the worst driving season of his career but simultaneously the best putting season of his career. From fairway in, Thomas remains a top-tier player; the issue has been finding the short grass. He started to do that near the end of the year and culminated in a T7 finish at the Tour Championship. Selected by Bradley for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Thomas now finds himself as the most seasoned player for the red, white and blue. Previous: 18 | |
| 18 | |
| A couple bounces away from being a three-time winner in 2025, Spaun fell in a playoff to McIlroy at The Players Championship and to Rose at the St. Jude Championship. The U.S. Open champion has not done much outside of those three weeks, but when he is on, he is as good as anyone -- as he reminded folks in Memphis. He finished the year No. 7 in terms of strokes gained approach and 10th in strokes gained total on the PGA Tour. Previous: 15 | |
