Who Are The Biggest Underachievers in Golf Today

MOST of us are armchair critics. It’s the nature of the beast I guess. We sit in judgment of the sportsmen and women we watch playing their hearts out and then criticise them.

Having just watched another Open Championship I plead guilty to being one of those critics - and it got me thinking about the golfers who really should have achieved rather more than they have.

I want to make it clear at the outset that there is no criticism intended of any of the individuals below. Playing professional golf at the highest level is brutally difficult - unless your name happens to be Scottie Scheffler.

At a Glance

Rickie Fowler: Once a top five finisher in all four majors in a single season, Fowler’s career has stalled, with recent form seeing him fall outside the world’s top 100.

Tommy Fleetwood: A model of consistency with over 40 top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour but still chasing his first win on American soil.

Rory McIlroy: A five-time major winner and current Masters champion but many still see his 11-year major drought as falling short of the greatness predicted.

Cameron Young: With seven runner-up finishes and 12 top-fives, Young has shown elite-level golf but continues to search for his first PGA Tour victory.

Are These The Biggest Underachievers in Golf Today?

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

Tommy Fleetwood

Let me state here and now that Fleetwood is one of my favourite golfers. I also look out for his performances and I am in awe of his incredible level of consistency. You don’t finish in the top 10 on the PGA Tour in excess of 40 times unless you can play a bit - and he certainly can. He has won seven times on the DP World Tour and has earned more than $31m in America alone. He has finished second in majors but, unbelievably, he has yet to record a victory on the PGA Tour. I watched in disbelief when he lost the Travelers Championship and was absolutely gutted for him. I hope he still has still to put that right.

Rory McIlroy

I know, I know, I know. How can you possibly include a man who has achieved the career grand slam, won five majors and is the current Masters champion? Way back when McIlroy was starting off, Jack Nicklaus predicted that the Northern irishman would win at least 10 majors. Tiger Woods said much the same thing. That he went almost 11 years between majors is beyond belief to me. He is one of the most exciting talents I have ever seen and he should easily have claimed 10+ majors. He still has time to add to his tally but when he sits down at the end of what has been a stellar career I believe he will have plenty of regrets.

Ryo Ishikawa

Was once hailed as potentially the greatest golfer ever to emerge from Japan. To date he has made 160 starts on the PGA Tour, making just 86 cuts. He has managed a couple of runner-up finishes and 12 top 10s but has come nowhere close to fulfilling his potential. Still only 33, he has won 20 times on the Japan Tour but has consistently been found wanting when competing alongside the best in the world and his record in the majors is woeful.

Maverick McNealy

By common consent, McNealy has the game to become one of the best players on the planet but there are questions around his hunger and appetite for the game. He is from a privileged background and wasn’t even sure that he wanted to make a living from playing this wonderful game. But he took the plunge and it was soon pretty evident that he was good enough. He finally secured his maiden PGA Tour success at the 2024 RSM Classic. Many believed it would be the first of many wins but he is still looking for victory number two.

Cameron Young

You may remember Young’s stellar rookie season on the PGA Tour. It included a runner-up finish to Cameron Smith in The Open at St Andrews. He has now played in 93 tournaments and has been a runner-up seven times and finished third twice along with 12 top fives. Have you any idea of the quality of golf that requires? He is now 28 years of age and you just have to feel that the longer he goes without that elusive first victory the harder it is going to be to achieve. It would be unforgivable if he were to finish his career without ever winning.

Joel Dahmen

Dahmen is perhaps the most frustrating golfer on the PGA Tour. His sole victory came at the 2021 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. He has recently split from his long-time caddie Geno Bonnalie, a life-long friend. If you watched the first series of Full Swing on Netflix you will know that Dahmen drove Bonnalie nuts. The caddie bluntly told him that he had the talent to become one of the tour’s leading lights but Dahmen effectively admitted that he couldn’t be bothered to put in the work. He now finds himself fighting to keep his card.

Sergio Garcia

When the Spaniard first burst upon the scene in 1999 I was convinced we were witnessing the start of what would become a stellar career. There are those who will argue that this is exactly what has happened, but I do not agree. One major is a pretty poor return for a golfer who possesses so many natural gifts. What is worse is that he seems to have played much of his career with a chip on his shoulder, attacking golf courses, throwing childish temper tantrums and describing the DP World Tour as second class - a tour, by the way, that he has now rejoined.

Tyrrell Hatton

Hatton may well still win a major or two and he is a shoo-in for the 2025 Ryder Cup team. He has won eight times on the DP World Tour and once each on the PGA and LIV Tours. I know that he has many, many admirers. I am not one of them. Like Garcia, he is a hugely gifted golfer but his antics on the course leave me cold - and I am 100% convinced that his temper tantrums have cost him the opportunity to win many more tournaments, and that includes majors. For me, he is an embarrassment.

Rickie Fowler

Fowler has to be top of my list. This is a man who once finished in the top five on all four majors in the same season. I know that there are some who will point to his incredible victory in the Players Championship when he produced a finishing burst to match anything I had ever witnessed. But I believe that even Fowler would admit that he has come nowhere close to achieving what his talent dictates he should have. He has now fallen outside the top 100 in the world rankings and yet still gets invitations to play in the PGA Tour’s Signature Events because he remains a huge crowd favourite.

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