Scheffler's bid for career slam and Koepka's search for new home among topics for '26

This was always going to be a different year in golf with the PGA Tour trying to blow up a model that has been around longer than the sand wedge. So it only seems fitting that 2026 starts with a soggy piece of coincidence. The Sentry, the season opener on the PGA Tour since 1999, was canceled because of water issues that include a dispute over how water is delivered to Kapalua. On what should have been the first official day of tournament week, Maui was under a flood watch Monday. Go figure. The PGA Tour season starts next week on a different island and a weaker field amid concern about the future of the Sony Open, in the final year of its title sponsorship and waiting to see whether The Sentry returns to Kapalua. There's a lot of moving parts and still one central figure — Scottie Scheffler — whose latest run at No. 1 in the world began two weeks before the PGA Tour announced a framework agreement with Saudi-backed LIV Golf. Both seem a lot longer ago. Here are key topics to contemplate as golf embarks another year. Scheffler and the career Grand Slam Four days after Rory McIlroy won the Masters to become the sixth player with the career Grand Slam — and first in 25 years — Scheffler was asked, "Who's next?" "I've only won one, technically," he said of his two Masters titles. "I've been playing some pretty good golf and I'm not even close." Now he is. Scheffler won the PGA Championship (by five shots) and the British Open (by four shots) and suddenly looks more equipped to get the final leg than McIlroy did for a decade. His first opportunity comes in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, the only U.S. Open for which Scheffler did not qualify in the last 10 years. He already has had one close call. Scheffler had the lead going to the back nine at The Country Club in 2022, missed a 25-foot putt on the 18th and finished one shot back. Brooks Koepka and the path forward The chatter at the Saudi International last November was whether Koepka would be part of the LIV Golf League or if he would look at a schedule of some European tour events to go with the four majors. Now that he is no longer part of LIV, the focus is on his path back to the PGA Tour. In his favor is letting his PGA Tour membership expire when he joined the Saudi-funded league in 2022, and he was not among the LIV players listed on the antitrust lawsuit against the tour. The PGA Tour bringing him back this season — before the one-year period since his last LIV appearance — could lead to a precedence that causes division among the loyalists, even though his return would only benefit the tour. The European tour schedule is not appealing in the weeks leading up to three of the majors — South Africa and Asia ahead of the Masters, Turkey and Spain before the PGA Championship, the Dutch Open two weeks before the U.S. Open. The return of Nelly Nelly Korda became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2010 to go from seven victories one year to none the next, extremely peculiar considering Korda was without significant injury or personal drama except for getting engaged at the end of the year. She was runner-up by two shots at the U.S. Women's Open, which seemed to take a lot of momentum away. Perhaps most alarming is how few chances Korda had to win after that. Korda is not the first No. 1 women's golf who went from looking unbeatable to searching. Lydia Ko went through such a spell. Yani Tseng and Ariya Jutanugarn practically disappeared a year after they were No. 1. There wouldn't seem to be any cause for alarm with the 27-year-old Korda, but her next victory will be an important one. The PGA Tour schedule The buzz word when Brian Rolapp began as CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises was "scarcity," which seemed to indicate a leaner schedule to lend greater importance of tournaments. And then over the next few months, the tour announced fall stops in Austin, Texas, and Asheville, North Carolina. Where will it all lead? The big acronym at the tour's GH (Global Home) is FCC (Future Competitions Committee), which is led by TW (Tiger Woods). And the big question is whether a new model can be defined in time for 2027, or whether there will be a bridge year. Also to be considered are media rights that by the current contract go through 2030. Does the PGA Tour wait until after the Super Bowl to start? Also on the plate is a push to get into bigger markets. The U.S. Open (New York), PGA Championship (Philadelphia) and Presidents Cup (Chicago) combined to give golf a presence in the top five media markets in 2026. Next year, the tour will not be in five of the top 10 markets. Spieth's future This might be shaping up as a make-or-break year for Jordan Spieth, who has not qualified for a U.S. team since the 2018 Ryder Cup. He hasn't played on the last two teams. Coming off surgery on his left wrist in August 2024, Spieth narrowly missed out on advancing to the second FedEx Cup playoff event, which would have qualified him for the $20 million signature events. And then he took off the entire fall in a bid to have mind and body ready to go for 2026. He gets another chance for the career Grand Slam at the PGA Championship outside Philadelphia (his parents grew up in eastern Pennsylvania). He has played 50 consecutive majors and has been exempt for 49 of them dating to the 2013 U.S. Open. He goes into 2026 with his spot not yet secure for the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. What about Tiger? This has become an annual question for the FCC chairman because of injuries and surgeries, particularly coming off his first year as a pro that Woods did not play in a single tournament. Woods turned 50 on Dec. 30, making him eligible for the PGA Tour Champions. He can ride a cart on the senior circuit. Woods never liked the idea of riding a cart in real competition. On the PGA Tour, Woods has not finished closer than 16 shots to the winner in the 11 tournaments he has played since his February 2021 car crash outside Los Angeles. The target is April for the Masters, where Woods has never missed the cut as a pro. Central to his 2026: Does he have interest in being Ryder Cup captain for Ireland in 2027? ___ On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf