A year ago, a broken glass injury in the kitchen forced Scottie Scheffler to have a late start. But this January, he arrives at Waialae with no bandages, rather just the weight of a historic season behind him and another one waiting to begin.

The World No. 1 will kick off his 2026 PGA Tour season at the Sony Open in Hawaii, teeing off January 15–18 at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. The event becomes the de facto season opener after drought conditions at Kapalua Resort forced the cancellation of The Sentry—a tournament Scheffler never got to play in 2025.

The compressed 2026 schedule, a nine-month sprint from January to September, demands selectivity even from the game’s best players. Scheffler confirmed the Sony Open as his starting point but acknowledged on Golf Channel in mid-December that his full calendar remains unfinished.

“It’s quick from January to September,” Scheffler said. “There’s definitely some weeks where I would love to be able to play, but I need to be able to be rested, to be able to go back out and compete.”

His expected path traces through the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and THE PLAYERS Championship in March, and the Masters in April. The Memorial Tournament in early June would serve as a sharperner before he attempts to achieve a career grand slam at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

On Christmas Day 2024, Scheffler sliced his right hand on broken glass while preparing ravioli during a family dinner. Surgery followed. So did withdrawals from The Sentry and American Express. His season started late, but it didn’t matter.

Scheffler steamrolled through 2025 anyway. Seven wins. Two majors: the PGA Championship and The Open Championship. A fourth consecutive PGA Tour Player of the Year award, placing him in rare air: only Tiger Woods has matched it, from 1999–2003. Woods holds the record for five consecutive and 11 total. Scheffler, at 29, is walking paths only Woods has traveled.

The statistical portrait was equally staggering. Scheffler led the PGA Tour in 28 categories, his 67.99 scoring average and 2.743 strokes gained total sitting alone at the summit. He stacked 17 top-10 finishes across the entire season. Zero missed cuts. His $29.2 million in official earnings shattered the all-time single-season record.

And yet, for all the dominance, one glaring void remains.

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Scottie Scheffler’s 2026 goal is to get a missing piece

The U.S. Open is the only major absent from Scheffler’s collection. He owns the 2024 Masters, the 2025 PGA Championship, and the 2025 Open Championship. Shinnecock Hills in June offers his next chance to complete the career Grand Slam, with the final round falling on his 30th birthday.

Should he lift that trophy, Scheffler would become just the seventh player in modern history to achieve the feat, joining Rory McIlroy, who completed his own Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters.

The kitchen accident feels distant now. So does the delayed start to 2025. What remains is the World No. 1, healthy and hungry, with a schedule mapped toward history. The sprint begins at Waialae. Where it ends depends on how much further Scheffler can separate himself from everyone else.