The upcoming 2026 PGA Tour season could be an extremely important one for certain players who have been on the periphery of consistent success recently.

Of course, it’s perfectly understandable for every player to have one below-par season every now and again.

However, the PGA Tour is an unforgiving place to test your skills, and there are many highly talented young players coming up onto the scene.

The current Official World Golf Rankings are skewed somewhat because of LIV’s inability to offer points.

As a result, there are certain players currently ranked inside the top-20 who simply shouldn’t be anywhere near there.

So, let’s take a look at three players who will be desperate to turn things around in 2026 after incredibly disappointing seasons last year.

Three big-name players who might flop on the PGA Tour in 2026

There are plenty of big-name players who have been struggling for quite some time now.

Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth only have one PGA Tour win between them since May 2022, while Collin Morikawa has been in the midst of a painful regression for two years now.

So if any of those three players struggled in 2026, it really wouldn’t surprise anyone.

However, there are three other big-name players who could struggle during the 2026 season…

Xander Schauffele

The past 18 months have been a real struggle for Xander Schauffele.

After a stellar 2024 season which saw the 32-year-old bag two major championships, Schauffele suffered an injury at the start of 2025 that kept him out of action for two months.

And he never recovered.

Now, the American did manage to return to the winner’s circle in October with his victory out in Japan at the Baycurrent Classic.

However, it’s fair to argue that that victory came out of the blue. Aside from his Baycurrent triumph, Schauffele managed to record only three other top-10 finishes and not one single top-5.

The two-time major winner could well struggle again in 2026 unless he gets off to a hot start and manages to rebuild his confidence.

Viktor Hovland

It’s fair to say that Viktor Hovland took to the PGA Tour like a duck to water straight out of college.

The 29-year-old recorded six wins during his first four years out on Tour, and it seemed like the sky was the limit for him.

However, the Norwegian hit a brick wall after his Tour Championship triumph in 2023 after changing his swing in order to hit more draws.

What a huge mistake that was.

Hovland did win in 2025 but his performance at the Valspar Championship proved to be a one-off. He struggled desperately with his driver last year.

And Hovland will have to make big improvements in 2026 if he is to return to his former glories.

Hideki Matsuyama

With 11 PGA Tour wins to his name including his Masters triumph in 2021, Hideki Matsuyama is a real powerhouse name at the highest level of the game.

However, his game has been on a downward trajectory for quite some time now.

He recorded just one top-10 finish on the PGA Tour in 2025, and his form in general was hugely underwhelming.

The 33-year-old missed three cuts and didn’t look like winning all season long.

Matsuyama was ranked outside the top 100 in strokes gained driving and putting in 2025, so they are two areas of his game that he simply must improve during the off-season.

Stopping the rot will be crucial for Schauffele, Hovland and Matsuyama

We’ve seen big-name players drift off into obscurity on numerous occasions in the past.

Remaining at the very highest level of the game for more than three years is an incredibly difficult thing to do.

That’s why the likes of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and, of course, Tiger Woods, deserve so much credit.

It will be very interesting to see how Schauffele, Hovland and Matsuyama all perform during the 2026 season.

While one poor season can be chalked up as a one-off, two in a row could well constitute panic stations for the big-name players listed above.

Now’s the time for all three of them to prove that they are not going anywhere.