Qualifiers for all 2026 Signature Events, THE PLAYERS and majors

For quite a bit of what Scottie Scheffler taketh, he giveth away. It’s what happens for a touring professional who’s already earned it all.

Scheffler prevailed at the FedEx St. Jude Championship by eight strokes on Sunday. His runaway stride matches his previous largest margin of victory at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson in 2025. It’s his second title of the season and 21st career PGA TOUR victory. It’s also his third in the FedExCup Playoffs and the 70th in the history of the series.

Only the freshest fans of the sport would rush to believe, mistakenly, that the $3.6 million that he banked will somehow change the 30-year-old who now is a few bucks shy of $120 million in official career earnings. But even the reasonably curious fan might think that the win padded more than his bank account, his significant lead atop the FedExCup (that he was guaranteed to keep even if he didn’t peg it at TPC Southwind), his Official World Golf Ranking value or extend any of the exemptions into tournaments for which this page is dedicated. Nope, nope, nope and nope.

The world’s top-ranked talent already is exempt into THE PLAYERS Championship and the U.S. Open through 2030, The Open Championship through age 60 and the Masters and PGA Championship for life. His status as a winner on the PGA TOUR also already is pushed out to its five-year maximum through 2031. To be fair, because he went, gasp, winless in his last 16 starts, we haven’t had a chance to revisit his array of perks since he opened 2026 with victory at The American Express, but now, consider yourself updated.

The moral of the matter is that when he wins, an additional golfer gains entry into THE PLAYERS and the PGA Championship, tournaments for which exemptions are reserved for all winners of PGA TOUR stops. So, when those events roll around in 2027, the last men in those fields can tip their visor in Scheffler’s direction for the assist, even if they were victims at PGA WEST in January.

While Scheffler dominated the headlines for his appropriately dominating performance in Memphis, it wasn’t long before that a pair of his future opponents at 2027 majors were identified.

The championship match of the 126th U.S. Amateur was contested at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. Jack Whaley defeated Jay Leng Jr. 4-and-3 in the scheduled 36-hole tilt.

It yields a start in the Masters, the U.S. Open and The Open Championship for Whaley, although he can turn professional before the U.S. Open and still play off the exemption in that major. Leng Jr. is exempt into both the Masters and the U.S. Open but must remain an amateur to play in both as the U.S. Amateur runner-up.

Whaley grabbed the first lead with a birdie on the first hole and expanded to 2-up through three. Leng Jr. regained even footing by the 10th hole and eventually stood 2-up through 19. That’s when the momentum shifted drastically for both guys.

Whaley rode a birdie-birdie-par-bogey stretch to four consecutive wins through the 23rd hole to go 2-up, and he didn’t relinquish the lead thereafter. The Brit closed it out with a mid-range birdie on the par-4 15th hole.

After winning the 2025 NAIA Men’s National Championship while representing Dalton State College in Georgia, Whaley transferred to Florida State University ahead of his junior year. He adjusted well enough to deliver four top 10s but still sat at 90th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking when he got going at Merion. Now, he’s the third native of England to win the U.S. Amateur and the most recent since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.

Leng Jr. arrived at Merion at a career-best 23rd in the WAGR after a win at the Western Amateur Championship two weeks ago, but the San Diego native had been surging since before the NCAA Division 1 National Championship. He’s poised for his junior season at Stanford University this fall.

Neither Whaley nor Leng Jr. has ever appeared in a PGA TOUR event. The 2025 U.S. Amateur champ, Mason Howell, also had never pegged it on the PGA TOUR, but he’s made seven starts on the circuit in 2026, including the three majors into which his victory rewarded entry. He missed the cut in all. In his title defense at Merion, Howell was eliminated in the first round of match play by Ryder Cowan.

With the amateur season complete, the USGA and The R&A will be announcing the winner of the 2026 Mark H. McCormack Medal in the coming days. Rewarded to the world’s top-ranked amateur, the winner receives exemptions into the U.S. Open and The Open Championship in 2027, provided he remains an amateur for each.

Preston Stout currently is No. 1 in the WAGR with a cushion of about 212 points over Tyler Weaver in second. To put that gap into perspective, Weaver’s bulge over Connor Graham in 25th is just over 206 points. Stout was announced about a month ago as the preseason leader for PGA TOUR University. He’s entering his senior season at Oklahoma State University.

NOTE: The opening list of qualifiers for the 2027 season will publish in the coming weeks.