2025 Underdog PGA Majors Best Ball Strategy
The newest Underdog golf contest was launched in early January and unlike their other season-long contests, this one focuses strictly on the four major championships. We have three different buy-in levels, starting with the $3 'The Little Albatross' and a $2k top prize, followed by the $10 'The Albatross' with $50k up top and 'The Big Albatross' with a $50 buy-in and $40k to first.
All three contests will run the same in that drafts have six teams with 10 golfers apiece, although the number of entrants varies by buy-in, so I'll focus on the $10 Albatross contest in this section. The top two performing teams from your six-person league in The Masters will advance to Round 2 for the PGA Championship and randomly assigned into a 10-team league. The top team from those groups will advance to the U.S. Open in Round 3 and randomly assigned to a six-team league. The top team from each of those groups will advance to The Open Championship, where the 310 remaining teams will battle for the grand prize.
If you're looking to see who is currently qualified for each major, click here.
Player Rankings
These will be updated on this page weekly. In parentheses are the number of majors each golfer is currently qualified for.
- Scottie Scheffler (4)
- Rory McIlroy (4)
- Xander Schauffele (4)
- Jon Rahm (4)
- Ludvig Aberg (4)
- Collin Morikawa (4)
- Bryson DeChambeau (4)
- Patrick Cantlay (4)
- Hideki Matsuyama (4)
- Justin Thomas (4)
- Brooks Koepka (4)
- Tommy Fleetwood (4)
- Tyrrell Hatton (3, projected 4)
- Shane Lowry (4)
- Viktor Hovland (4)
- Tom Kim (1, projected 4)
- Sungjae Im (3, projected 4)
- Russell Henley (3, projected 4)
- Tony Finau (3, projected 4)
- Sepp Straka (4)
- Cameron Smith (4)
- Sahith Theegala (4)
- Jordan Spieth (4)
- Joaquin Niemann (3, projected 4)
- Wyndham Clark (4)
- Corey Conners (2, projected 4)
- Keegan Bradley (4)
- Akshay Bhatia (4)
- Will Zalatoris (1, projected 4)
- Sam Burns (4)
- Robert MacIntyre (4)
- Adam Scott (3, projected 4)
- Taylor Pendrith (3, projected 4)
- Matt Fitzpatrick (4)
- Thomas Detry (2, projected 4)
- Aaron Rai (4)
- Jason Day (2, projected 4)
- Min Woo Lee (1, projected 4)
- Billy Horschel (4)
- Davis Thompson (3, projected 4)
- Justin Rose (3, projected 4)
- Maverick McNealy (2, projected 4)
- Harris English (2, projected 4)
- Brian Harman (4)
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout (3, projected 4)
- J.T. Poston (2, projected 4)
- Max Greyserman (1, projected 4)
- Denny McCarthy (1, projected 4)
- Tom Hoge (3, projected 4)
- Lucas Glover (1, projected 4)
- Nick Taylor (2, projected 4)
- Dustin Johnson (4)
- Nick Dunlap (2, projected 4)
- Cameron Young (1, projected 3)
- Byeong Hun An (1, projected 3)
- Si Woo Kim (0, projected 3)
- Daniel Berger (0, projected 3)
- Chris Kirk (3, projected 3)
- Rasmus Hojgaard (2, projected 3)
- Max Homa (2, projected 2)
Unlike the season-long contests that place a large importance on projection schedules, we don't have to worry about that quite as much here, but it's still relevant. Projecting players that aren't qualified for certain majors is a little tricky, but we should be able to do it fairly accurately. Tom Kim, for example, is only currently qualified for The Masters via finishing 2024 in the top-50 in the OWGR but we project him into the remaining majors. The Open Championsip and U.S. Open both allocate spots to those in the OWGR top 50 in the weeks leading up to those events, and at 24th in those standings as of mid-February, Kim will get in. He's also currently 24th in the PGA Championship Points List, which gives spots to the top-70. Min Woo Lee is much harder to project in that regard in that he's at the border in 69th in the points list and 55th in the OWGR. That's where I'm projecting that his talent will help him rise in those rankings and get him into every major.
Underdog PGA Majors Best Ball Draft Review
Here's a recent draft I did in which I started with Rahm despite a disappointing major season last year in which he underwhelmed at Augusta, missed the cut at Valhalla and then withdrew due to a foot injury for the U.S. Open. Nevertheless, with two major championships to his name, there's no question that he's one of the best on this stage and a strong bounce-back candidate. Rahm posted a pair of victories after the majors ended last year and was T2 in the first LIV event of 2025, so I have zero concerns in taking him in the first round.
Cantlay often gets hated on in majors as he's rarely in contention to win, but that's not the be-all, end-all of this tournament. He's made 10 cuts in a row in majors and was two back at Pinehurst. Thomas went the pick after me and while he offers more upside, he has seven less top-25s in majors than Cantlay during that same stretch.
One other player I wanted to touch on here is Niemann, whose struggles in majors are well documented with a best finish of T16 at the 2023 Masters. He's being too heavily discounted as a result, often going after the likes of guys such as Pendrith and McNealy who haven't shown much in majors either. Niemann's locked into the every one except the U.S. Open, which added a spot to the top player in the LIV standings not otherwise qualified. Niemann won LIV Adelaide in February and said he'll go through qualifying, if necessary.
Recent Major Strokes Gained Leaders
These golfers have gained the most strokes per round in majors since 2023.
- Xander Schauffele 3.27
- Scottie Scheffler 2.74
- Rory McIlroy 2.16
- Collin Morikawa 2.15
- Jon Rahm 2.11
- Thomas Detry 2.11
- Bryson DeChambeau 2.02
- Viktor Hovland 1.97
- Ludvig Aberg 1.88
- Russell Henley 1.87
Schauffele tops the list after winning two of the last three majors and his streak of 11 consecutive top-20s makes him an incredibly safe bet. The only question mark is that a rib injury has sidelined him since the season opening event, but he's expected to return in March and should have plenty of time to get into form before Augusta. The one player on this list you wouldn't expect to see is Detry, although maybe that's not as true following his dominant win at the WM Phoenix Open. He's made his last five major cuts including three consecutive top-15 results. I'm a little surprised Detry hasn't become more expensive as I got him in the above draft in the back-half. I think he's one of the best values around, especially if you can get him in the seventh or eighth round.
Best Ball Sleepers
Horschel is an attractive option considering that he's locked into all four majors and can be drafted in the eighth or ninth round. He posted top-10s in two of three major appearances last year. I get that he's not the most exciting pick but experience matters and the veteran has plenty of it.
After missing his first three major championship cuts, Thompson sprung to life with a top-10 at Pinehurst No. 2 last year. He ranked eighth in SG: Total last year and doesn't have an apparent weakness in his game. As we saw at Torrey Pines recently in a signature event, he's capable of playing well at tough venues against difficult fields.
Greyserman is only locked into The Masters at the moment, but at 36th in the OWGR, it would take quite the collapse for him not to get into all four. He's a long hitter off the tee and a strong putter which is always a good combination to have. The surprising thing is that he's usually getting drafted in the last round, if at all. Greyserman finished T21 at the U.S. Open in his only major appearance last year.
Best Ball Fades
Fading Koepka in this format comes with some risk, but he's gone five consecutive majors without a top-25 and his form has been much more inconsistent than his other top LIV peers. I'm not opposed to taking him at the 2-3 turn, but he rarely drops that far.
Zalatoris is only qualified for The Masters and at 66th in the OWGR and 76th in the PGA Championship points list, I can't confidently project him to play in every major but have to spend a fourth or fifth round pick on him. He also hasn't posted a top-10 since last April. He has high upside, sure, but the cost is too high for my liking.
Young's another player with a high ADP due to his five top-10 major finishes, but his level has dipped significantly since then. He's lost strokes on approach in seven of his last eight tournaments and has been wildly inaccurate off the tee. His ranking continues to fall, and I'm not sure he gets in every major.
