The best ball striker on the PGA Tour right now is Scottie Scheffler, who shows up in the greens-in-regulation top 10 in four of the six season tables we checked, hitting between 72.3 and 74.4 percent of greens. This list replaces our old 2014 ranking, which put Graham DeLaet first at 72.01 percent. It covers the 2020-21 season through the 2026 season to date.
Our method is the one the original article used: greens in regulation, counted across several years, with repeat appearances as the tiebreaker for who is the real thing. The difference is a 50-round minimum, so a hot streak over four events no longer ranks as a ball-striking career. Tiger Woods is not here, same as in 2014. He plays too little now to qualify.
| Rank | Player | Top-10 seasons (50+ rounds) | GIR range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scottie Scheffler | 4 | 72.3 to 74.4% |
| 2 | Doug Ghim | 3 | 71.5 to 72.7% |
| 3 | Ben Kohles | 2 | 72.9 to 74.3% |
| 4 | Jon Rahm | 2 | 71.6 to 72.0% |
| 5 | Russell Knox | 2 | 71.4 to 71.7% |
| 6 | Collin Morikawa | 2 | 70.8 to 71.0% |
| 7 | Patrick Fishburn | 1 | 74.2% |
| 8 | Michael Thorbjornsen | 1 | 73.6% |
| 9 | Ludvig Åberg | 1 | 73.3% |
| 10 | Austin Smotherman | 1 | 73.2% |
Who are the best ball strikers on the PGA Tour?
Each entry shows the seasons in which the player made the top 10 in greens in regulation with at least 50 rounds. Our data source labels some seasons as split years (such as 2022-23) and others as a single year (such as 2024), and we kept its labels.
1. Scottie Scheffler: 72.3 to 74.4 percent
Scheffler is the one name that appears in four of the six season tables we checked, with 88 rounds at 72.3 percent in 2021-22, 96 rounds at 74.4 in 2022-23, 79 rounds at 73.2 in 2024 and 78 rounds at 72.9 in the 2026 season so far. The sample sizes matter: he did that over a full schedule, not a handful of events. He has four major championships, the latest at the 2025 Open Championship, and is world number one. We ranked him first because nobody else pairs that volume with that consistency.
2. Doug Ghim: 71.5 to 72.7 percent
Ghim is the quiet entry on the list. He turned professional in 2018 after finishing as the top-ranked amateur in the world, and his numbers since have been steady rather than flashy: 71.5 percent over 93 rounds in 2022-23, 72.7 over 94 rounds in 2024, and 72.3 over 71 rounds this season. Three appearances put him second on our count.
3. Ben Kohles: 72.9 to 74.3 percent
Kohles won five times on the Korn Ferry Tour, including his first two professional starts in 2012, then spent years bouncing between tours. He is back among the tour regulars and hit 72.9 percent of greens over 85 rounds in 2025, then 74.3 over 55 rounds in 2026. His weighted average across the two seasons is about 73.4 percent, the best of anyone with two appearances.
4. Jon Rahm: 71.6 to 72.0 percent
Rahm appears in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 tables (72.0 percent over 77 rounds and 71.6 over 70). He left for LIV Golf in 2023, so the PGA Tour no longer records his rounds, but those two seasons were enough to place him ahead of the other two-time entries. He won the 2021 U.S. Open and the 2023 Masters. The ranking takes the percentage as recorded, with no projection for the seasons he missed.
5. Russell Knox: 71.4 to 71.7 percent
The Scot has been a ball-striking regular for years, hitting 71.4 percent over 89 rounds in 2021-22 and 71.7 over 118 rounds in 2022-23. That 118 is the heaviest workload in our table. He won the 2015 WGC-HSBC Champions and the 2016 Travelers Championship, and he is now listed on the Korn Ferry Tour.
6. Collin Morikawa: 70.8 to 71.0 percent
Morikawa is known as an iron player, so it is a small surprise that he sits sixth. His numbers are 70.8 percent over 78 rounds in 2020-21 and 71.0 over 89 rounds in 2022-23. He has two majors, the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship, both won on his first try at each.
7. Patrick Fishburn: 74.2 percent
Fishburn led the pack in 2024 among full-time players, with 74.2 percent over 77 rounds, higher than Scheffler that year. One season is all we have, so he sits behind the repeat names, but the number is the best single-season mark from any player with a real sample.
8. Michael Thorbjornsen: 73.6 percent
Thorbjornsen topped the 2025 table at 73.6 percent over 83 rounds. He won the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur, played at Stanford, and picked up his first PGA Tour title at the 2026 Rocket Classic.
9. Ludvig Åberg: 73.3 percent
The Swede hit 73.3 percent in the 2022-23 season over exactly 50 rounds, the minimum for our list. He turned professional in June 2023 and was runner-up in his major debut at the 2024 Masters. He also helped Europe win the 2025 Ryder Cup.
10. Austin Smotherman: 73.2 percent
Smotherman hit 73.2 percent over 53 rounds in 2024. He was a college teammate of Bryson DeChambeau at SMU, has one tour win and is a current member.
What happened to the 2014 list?
None of the original ten make our top 10. DeLaet retired in June 2022 because of back injuries. Of the 2014 group, only Bill Haas shows up in the 2026 top 10, with 73.6 percent over just 6 rounds, too small a sample to rank. Ball striking, it turns out, is a young person’s measurement.
Where to see the live stats
The official tour site, pgatour.com, publishes greens in regulation and the strokes-gained categories every week.
FAQ
Who is the best ball striker on the PGA Tour in 2026?
Scottie Scheffler. He made the greens-in-regulation top 10 in four of the six seasons we checked, each time with a full workload, at 72.3 to 74.4 percent.
How do you measure a ball striker?
The simplest yardstick is greens in regulation, the share of holes where the ball is on the green in two shots fewer than par. Our ranking counts how often a player shows up in the season top 10 and then breaks ties by average percentage across those seasons.
Why is Tiger Woods not on the list?
Woods is no longer a full-time competitor, so he does not post the seasons of 50 or more rounds that our cut-off needs. He would have been a regular on the 2000s version of this list.
What happened to the original number one, Graham DeLaet?
DeLaet led the tour in greens in regulation in 2014 at 72.01 percent. He announced his retirement from professional golf on 7 June 2022, citing back injuries, and now works as an analyst for Canadian broadcaster TSN.
Why do you use a 50-round minimum?
Small samples distort the table. Seung-Yul Noh topped 2024 at 75.3 percent over 37 rounds, and Paul Goydos led one season over 4 rounds. A full-time player plays about 70 to 100 rounds, so 50 keeps the list honest.
Is greens in regulation the same as good iron play?
Not exactly. It also rewards driving distance and a short approach, so long hitters can score well without the best irons. That is one reason we treat it as a measure of ball striking overall.
How we put this list together
We counted appearances in the top 10 of the annual greens-in-regulation leaderboard across six seasons, using the tour’s own season totals. We required 50 or more rounds in a season and broke ties by average percentage across those seasons.
Last updated: October 2026.
