Who Could Join Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods on Golf’s Mount Rushmore

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Debating who deserves to end up on any sport’s Mount Rushmore is always a hotly debated topic. A popular talking point on sports debate shows, the argument for who deserves to be golf’s Mount Rushmore always inspires lively debates. 

Few would deny that Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods would be the first two faces to be named. The top two when it comes to the total number of majors that have been won, the two are undeniably the two greatest players to have ever picked up a club, but from there, the argument gets a little more complicated. 

Some believe that Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Gary Player should take their places alongside Woods and Nicklaus, but there are certainly players from this crop of modern players who will be hopeful of joining the argument as to who are golf’s greatest players. With the talent at the top of the game extremely talented, let’s look at who could be on course to join the game’s best players. 

Scottie Scheffler  

It makes sense to start our list with the best player in the game currently, Scottie Scheffler. 

Having been the game’s best player for well over three years, Scheffler is coming off one of the best seasons ever recorded on the PGA Tour, the winner of the FedEx Championship, Scheffler was also able to win the Masters, become the first man in history to defend his Players Championship crown, win two further signature events and became an Olympic gold medalist. 

Despite dominating almost everyone before him when it comes to the regular PGA season, if Scheffler is to retire as one of the best players that the sport has ever seen he has to get a bit of a wriggle on when it comes to winning majors. 

With two majors in his back pocket, both of those victories have come at the cost confines of Augusta and as of yet he is yet to win a major title elsewhere. With very few questions to answer, his ability to win a major away from Augusta is almost the only criticism that can be thrown the Texan’s way. 

Having suffered a hand injury to delay his 2025 campaign, Scheffler is making his 2025 debut appearance at the AT&T Pebble Beach Championship. Hoping that he will have his game in peak condition ahead of major season, the world number one will be determined to set his major record straight.

Scottie Scheffler


Brooks Koepka 

Next in our list comes Brooks Koepka. Koepka is a mystery of a player, ranking low when it comes to the amount of overall PGA titles that he was able to win before defecting to LIV, where Koepka comes alive is in the majors. Of this current breed of players who are helping lead the game into the future, it is he who stands alone when it comes to the number of majors won with five and you can rest assured that he isn’t done yet.

Saving his best golf for when it really counts, Koepka has three US Opens and two PGA Championships sitting in his living room but he has also come close to tasting success at the Masters and the Open. 

With a game that seems to suit every course, it’s between the ears where Koepka has a huge advantage. Seemingly able to handle the pressure with aplomb, few players in the history of the game have been able to thrive in the pressurised environment of the final round of a major as well as Koepka has. 

By his own admission Koepka believes that he has several major championships still to win and despite earning millions thanks to his affiliations with the LIV Tour nobody would be surprised if further major success was to follow this year. 

Rory McIlroy

When Rory McIlroy had just sewn up his fourth major title at just the age of 25 it looked like the Northern Irishman was on a collision course to join the greats of the game. However, few would have believed that over the next ten years he would have to wait to taste major success again but sadly that is exactly what has taken place. 

Having won majors at the Open, PGA Championship and U.S Open, the only major missing from his collection is the Masters but it has continued to elude him. What hasn’t helped the discourse around McIlroy is that away from the majors he has dominated. A multiple FedEx Champion, he is a regular winner on the PGA Tour and he has also enjoyed tremendous success back in Europe, winning the Race to Dubai title for the last three seasons. 

Seemingly always there or thereabouts, McIlroy has so much pressure on his shoulders when it comes to the majors that you do wonder if his ten year drought is starting to have a mark on him mentally. 

In a golden position to end his long wait and finally get back into the major winners circle at the 2024 US Open, he blew up spectacularly and allowed Bryson DeChambeau to swoop in and cruelly deny him a fifth major. 

The game is ready for McIlroy to win that elusive fifth major and if it can arrive this season, there will be so many people that will be overjoyed.

Rory McIlroy


Who will break through from the two major club?

There are currently several players who have two majors in the bank and they will be hoping that this season can see them take one more step towards greatness. 

It’s pertinent to start with Xander Schauffele. Long regarded as a special talent, few were surprised that it took until last season for Schauffele to win his first major championship, but as can often be the way, when one major arrives a second can be quick to follow and that’s what happened with Schauffele. 

A gutsy winner of the PGA Championship, he played some of the best golf of his career to hit the top of the leaderboard at the 2024 Open deep into the final back nine of the tournament and once ahead he wouldn’t relinquish his lead. 

Now with the major monkey off his back, Schauffele is playing the game like he truly believes that he is one of the best players in the game. An injury has kept him off the course so far in 2025 but with his return hopefully imminent he will want to hit the ground running and he has to be a contender to win more majors this season. 

Jon Rahm has won the PGA Championship and Masters and after having won individual LIV glory last season, the Spainiard will be hoping that this year comes with more major glory. 

Due to the headlines that he created last season thanks to his huge deal to join the LIV Tour, it perhaps isn’t surprising that Rahm struggled for form during the majors last season. Although he was able to post a top ten finish at the Open he was barely a footnote at any of the three other majors and he will hope to amend that this time around. 

Now comfortable in his role as a LIV leader, Rahm should be able to divert his attentions to the majors and should enter all four as a major contender. 

Often in today’s media we are quick to try and anoint the next Tiger Woods. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas bared that burden for a while and both have struggled in recent times despite being multiple major winners. 

Another man who has struggled in trying to accept that they could be the heir apparent is Collin Morikawa. Having burst onto the scene with U.S. Open and Open victories, Morikawa disappeared into the golfing wilderness for a while but now seems to be back on track. 

Arguably one of the greatest ball strikers in today’s game, when he can get the flat stick firing, there are very few in the game that can live with him. 

Now ranked fourth in the world rankings, Morikawa seems to have refound the consistency that led many to believe that he could be one of the games greatest players. Still young with a tonne of time on his hands at the top end of the sport, he will hope to get his hall of fame trajectory back on track this year.