Editor's note: This story was originally published August 27, 2025, on The First Call's Substack platform.
Welcome to the Costco of major championships, as I have provided one-stopping shopping for all 17 professional major championships held in 2025.
These are the Majorest Majors of the Year — according to me — ranked arbitrarily by drama, marquee value, strength of field and whatever else I felt like considering.
Taking arbitrary to a new level, The Players Championship is included as a fifth major on the PGA Tour (ex-commissioner Deane Beman better send me a thank-you note and maybe a bitcoin transfer for that). I also included two women’s senior major tournaments, which even most discerning golf observers probably missed.
The rankings follow and … what? Oh, my word, well, thank you very much for all that applause and please sit down, you’re embarrassing me. A standing ovation is too much.
No. 17: U.S. Senior Women’s Open
The finish was closer than the score indicated as Becky Morgan, of Wales, won by seven strokes over Juli Inkster at San Diego Country Club. Morgan made a key par putt at the 14th to stay three ahead of Maria McBride, who played in the final pairing behind Morgan and made a quadruple-bogey 9 on the 14th to fall from contention.
No. 16: LPGA Legends Championship
Cristie Kerr, 47, earned her first win since 2017 after taking a two-shot lead into the final round at Copper Rock Golf Course in Hurricane, Utah. She shot 70, 2 under, and defeated Moira Dunn-Bohls by two strokes. “It’s never easy to win on any tour,” said Kerr.
No. 15: KPMG Women’s PGA
Minjee Lee took a four-shot lead into the final round and despite some early bogeys, was never seriously threatened. She closed with a 74 and won by three strokes over Auston Kim and Chanettee Wannasaen. “I looked calm but I was not as calm as everybody thinks,” said Lee, an Australian who now lives in Irving, Texas.
No. 14: U.S. Women’s Open
An even-par 72 at Erin Hills in Wisconsin was good enough for Sweden’s Maja Stark, who led throughout the closing round and finished two shots ahead of Nelly Korda and Rio Takeda. Before the final round, Stark heard from the only two other Swedes to win a Women’s Open, Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann. “They texted me and said to bring it home,” said Stark, 25, who played college golf at Oklahoma State University.
No. 13: ISPS HANDA Senior Open
Padraig Harrington swept both 2025 senior Opens with a victory at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England. He began the final round with a two-shot lead, eagled the opening hole and never let anyone get closer than two shots. Thomas Bjorn and Justin Leonard finished second. Masters champ Rory McIlroy was in Harrington’s gallery for part of the round but Harrington said he was so focused, he never noticed him.
No. 12: U.S. Senior Open
The final round at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., felt more like a basketball game with five lead changes and three ties. Padraig Harrington closed with 67 to edge Stewart Cink by one stroke. Harrington, who won a pair of Open Championships and a PGA Championship on the regular tour, played U.S. Open-like golf, parring the last seven holes. Miguel Angel Jimenez racked up eight birdies and got within a shot of the lead but bogeyed the 18th after an errant drive. About winning, the Irishman said, “It kind of validates your career. You’re reliving past glories, waving at the crowds. It validates the past in a lot of ways.”
No. 11: Senior PGA Championship
Did anybody have a better week than Angel Cabrera in 2025? He won the Regions Tradition on a Monday morning, then outdueled Padraig Harrington in the Senior PGA at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, six days later. Cabrera trailed Harrington by two strokes after Harrington birdied the 14th hole in the final round but Harrington doubled the 15th and Cabrera birdied it a short time later to take the lead for good. “Maybe you cannot see but I’m very, very emotional inside,” Cabrera said. “Especially after all of the things that I went through.”
No. 10: Regions Tradition
Former Masters champ Angel Cabrera, of Argentina, made nine birdies during the final round and shot 64 for quite a charge. Play was suspended Sunday due to darkness with Cabrera and Jerry Kelly tied at 18-under par. On Monday morning, Cabrera birdied the 16th and 18th holes to edge Kelly by one. It was Cabrera’s first PGA Tour Champions major title and his second senior win since being released from an Argentine prison in 2023 on charges of assault. “It was a great day,” said Cabrera, 55.
No. 9: PGA Championship
The most exciting part of this PGA at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, was the predictable punchline when Scottie Scheffler won — from jail to Quail. A year earlier, Scheffler was arrested by Louisville police by the Valhalla Golf Club entrance when he tried to drive around stopped traffic. He was taken downtown, booked and placed in a jail cell. This time, it was Scheffler who took names and prisoners, playing superlative golf and winning by five over Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English and Davis Riley. Another highlight was the even-keeled Scheffler firing his cap onto the 18th green after he holed out for the victory. Hey, Louisville police, how do you like him now?
No. 8: Kaulig Companies Championship
Miguel Angel Jimenez earned his first senior major title in seven years with a clutch birdie-birdie finish in regulation at Firestone Country Club’s South Course in Akron, Ohio. Then Jimenez, 61, beat Steven Alker on the second hole of a playoff by making another birdie, this time a 20-foot putt. “I knew I had to make birdie-birdie to have any chance,” Jimenez said. “I make birdie on the 17th, gives you wings to go to 18th, and then the rest is history.”
No. 7: Women’s British Open
The final-round drama was mostly created by England’s Charley Hull, who made three birdies in a four-hole stretch and holed a 20-footer at the 14th hole to close within one of Japan’s Miyu Yamashita. Hull, who was 11 shots off the lead after the first 36 holes, drove into a pot bunker at the 16th hole and made bogey, then added another bogey at 17 and Yamashita regained a three-shot edge with two to play and cruised home the winner at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in Wales. The event also witnessed the viral shot of the year. Stephanie Kyriacou hit a shot to within inches of the hole on the par-3 fifth during Sunday’s final round. Then playing partner Mimi Rhodes struck a shot that rolled toward the pin, glanced off Kyriacou’s ball and went into the cup for a stunning ace. Weirder still, Kryiacou made a hole-in-one in an earlier round.
No. 6: Players Championship
It looked like another Rory McIlroy runaway train when a four-hour rain delay held up the Players Championship’s final round. McIlroy had a three-shot lead over J.J. Spaun, then still a little known former San Diego State University player. Then Spaun vaulted into household-name status with a big finish and nearly holed a 30-footer on the final green for the victory. Darkness halted play before the three-hole playoff could begin, so the conclusion moved to Monday. “Everyone expects him to win,” Spaun admitted. Everyone was right. McIlroy made quick work of the underdog. McIlroy reached the par-5 16th in two shots and made birdie. At the fearsome par-3 17th, Spaun flew his shot over the green into the water, made triple bogey and the outcome was secure.
No. 5: Chevron Championship
The playoff for the Chevron Championship drew a crowd at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, and not just spectators. Five LPGA players went into a sudden-death playoff for the title. That logjam could have been prevented if Ariya Jutanugarn had not bogeyed the 18th hole, where she stubbed her third shot and moved it only a few inches. Japan’s Mao Saigo, 23, birdied the 18th in regulation and shook in a 3-footer for birdie in the playoff to defeat Jutanugarn, Hyo Joo Kim, Ruoning Yin and Lindy Duncan. Yin had a 12-footer for eagle on the playoff hole but three-putted to lose.
No. 4: Open Championship
Yes, the drama was lacking in the final round at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, but the dominant performance by Scottie Scheffler and the golf he played was impressively Tiger Woods-esque, which made the Open riveting. Scheffler set the tone in the final round with an approach shot to 1 foot on the opening hole, then won by four over Harris English. Scheffler made only one bogey over the closing 36 holes as he picked up his fourth major title in three years. “He is the bar that we’re all trying to get to,” admitted Masters champ Rory McIlroy. Well, Ireland’s Shane Lowry was probably trying to get to a different bar than that.
No. 3: Amundi Evian Championship
Grace Kim, a 24-year-old Australian, knocked a hybrid shot stiff for eagle at the 18th hole and made it into a playoff when Jeeno Thitikul missed an 8-foot birdie putt for the win at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, France. Kim flared her hybrid approach into a greenside pond when the playoff went back to the 18th. Game over? Remarkably, no. Kim holed an incredible pitch over the pond for birdie to match Thitikul’s birdie. Playing the 18th a third time, Kim hit another superb approach to 12 feet while Thitikul hit into a bunker. Kim poured in the eagle putt for the victory and Thitikul never got to try her 6-footer for birdie. Kim was seven-under par on the last six holes she played. Kim’s reaction to the drama: “I couldn’t breathe.”
No. 2: U.S. Open
Oakmont Country Club reinforced its reputation for being stupid hard, which may have explained the lack of thunderous roars all week. Or it could have been the almost daily rain showers. However, world-famous J.J. Spaun saved the Open with one of the great clutch finishes and certainly the most memorable conclusion to any Oakmont Open. He drove the green at the par-4 17th hole and made birdie, then sank a ridiculous curving birdie putt measured at somewhere between 65 and 67 feet on the final green when he needed a par to clinch his first major championship. It defied belief although a big role in that roll was playing partner Viktor Hovland, who was putting from just outside Spaun’s putt, allowing Spaun to see the speed and the break. The finish also provided karmic justice after Spaun’s brilliant approach shot at the second hole hit the flagstick and clanked Careen-Abdul-Jabbar-like (sorry, Kareem) 30 yards back down the fairway. Even runner-up Bobby MacIntyre, watching on TV from the scoring area, applauded Spaun’s final putt. One for the ages.
No. 1: The Masters
I had zero confidence that Rory McIlroy would ever win a Masters and get his Career Grand Slam, but I stand corrected. The back nine on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club was a zigzag of emotions and McIlroy hit the shot that appeared to clinch his win, then a shot to lose it, then clinch it, then lose it — rinse and repeat. He finally survived a playoff with Justin Rose, a gamer and a gentleman, and was brought to his knees by the emotion of the moment when he finally, incredibly won his green jacket. It was one of the great Masters of all time, no question about it.
