The Top 10 Best Players From The 2023 Major Championship Season
By Bill Felber
Top Major Players: 5th and 4th
5. Xander Schauffele (-0.78)
Like Cantlay, Schauffele never did anything that threatened to contend for a Major title. But he was steady, the second of the four players who produced a negative standard deviation in all four events. That’s why he ranks fifth for the season as a whole.
He tied for 10th at the Masters, and again at the U.S. Open, both times with scores ranging between -0.80 and -1.00 standard deviations better than the field averages. He tied for 18th at the PGA and for 17th at the British, in both cases his standard deviation score falling between -0.50 and -0.75. The -0.78 average for the season would never contend for a title, but a player doing that well on a consistent basis would be very rich indeed.
4. Brooks Koepka (-0.92)
The highlight of Koepka’s season came quickly. His runner-up at the Masters produced a standard deviation score of -1.59, and his win at the PGA came when he bettered the field average by 2.67 standard deviations. Only Harman at the British Open produced a more dominant performance the entire Major season.
But Koepka’s mojo declined at the U.S. Open, when he tied for 17th. His tie for 64th at the British, with a score that was 1.22 standard deviations worse than the field average, knocked him out of contention for the season-long championship, and left him in fourth place.