What Is the Next Golf Major?

The next major on the men's professional golf calendar is the PGA Championship, but the thrill of major season doesn't stop there. This guide breaks down the rest of the year's major championships, explaining what makes each tournament a unique test and offering practical tips you can borrow from the pros to improve your own game.

A Quick Primer: The Four Pillars of Professional Golf

In men's golf, four tournaments stand above all others, defining careers and cementing legacies. These are "the majors." Winning even one grants a player a place in history, along with significant tour exemptions and prize money. While each has its own identity, they are a player's ultimate proving ground. The modern schedule, designed for maximum excitement, unfolds throughout the spring and summer:

• The Masters Tournament (April)
• The PGA Championship (May)
• The U.S. Open (June)
• The Open Championship (July)

Watching the best players compete under the most intense pressure isn't just entertainment, it's a masterclass in a wide range of skill sets from course strategy, to handling mental and physical discomfort, and staying focused on a single shot despite the enormity of its context. Understanding the challenge of each major can provide valuable lessons for your own game.

Up Next: The 2024 PGA Championship

The Tournament: May 16-19, Valhalla Golf Club

The PGA Championship, run by the PGA of America, brings together one of the strongest fields in golf. A cool feature of this event is that it extends invitations to the top 20 finishers from the PGA Professional Championship, giving club and teaching pros a chance to compete alongside the world's best tour players.

The 2024 venue, Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, is a massive Jack Nicklaus design built for drama. It's a modern parkland course that demands length and precision. Expect to see players needing every club in their bag to navigate its rolling terrain, challenging water hazards, and tough signature holes that often have a large impact on the player's outcome for that hole and the tournament.

How the Pros Will Tackle It: A Coach's Perspective

At a big course like Valhalla, you'll hear a lot about "bomb and gouge," but it's more nuanced than that. Players who succeed here will demonstrate control over three key areas:

• Power and Purpose: Sheer distance off the tee is a huge advantage, as it shortens the approach shots into long par 4s. However, golfers who mindlessly rip the driver without a clear strategy will find themselves in plenty of trouble. The fairways are protected by thick rough and well-placed fairway bunkers. The winning strategy combines power with a specific plan for each hole, knowing when being aggressive with the driver is the smart move and when to use a different club for the sake of caution and a lower score on that hole.
• Masterful Long-Iron Play: Because Valhalla is so long, players will face a ton of approach shots from over 200 yards. This is where the elite ball-strikers separate themselves. Their ability to hit high, soft-landing 4-irons and hybrids to precise locations on the firm greens is what creates birdie opportunities that other players just don't have.
• Composure on the Finish Line: The final stretch at Valhalla is electric. The famous 18th hole, a par 5 with a dramatic, split green surrounded by water, can produce anything from an eagle to a double bogey. Players will need to control their adrenaline and stick to their shot routine.

What You Can Learn For Your Game

1. Develop Your "Fairway Finder" Tee Shot. Every golfer should have a go-to play off the tee when a fairway is required. It might be your 3-wood or even a hybrid. Practice with it on the range until you develop absolute confidence that you can find the short grass when you need to avoid a blow-up hole. Pick a club that helps you advance your ball and your game to the next shot without putting yourself in a compromised scoring opportunity.
2. Learn to Love Your Hybrids. Amateurs often fear long approach shots, but a modern hybrid is one of the most forgiving clubs in the bag. Spend time learning to hit your hybrid solidly from the fairway. Making confident, solid contact with this club will revolutionize how you play long par 4s and par 5s.

Next on the Tee: The 2024 U.S. Open

The Tournament: June 13-16, Pinehurst No. 2

If the Masters is about tradition and beauty, the U.S. Open is famously known as "golf's toughest test." The USGA sets up courses to reward precision and punish even the smallest mistakes. This year, the championship returns to a venue that personifies this philosophy: Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina.

Architect Donald Ross' masterpiece doesn't use the standard tricks of deep US Open heavy rough or countless water hazards. Instead, its defense is its fiendishly creative greens. Shaped a bit like upside-down tortoise shells, they repel anything but the most perfectly struck approach shots, sending balls trickling down into tight collection areas. Players will also have to contend with sandy waste areas and wire grass that line the fairways, demanding a totally different kind of recovery shot.

How the Pros Will Tackle It: A Coach's Perspective

Pinehurst No. 2 asks a different set of questions. Winning here requires a specific skill set often developed with countless hours of focused practice:

• Surgical Iron Play: Hitting the "green" isn't good enough. Pros need to hit small, specific sections of the putting surfaces. Landing on the wrong quadrant of the green often leaves them with an impossible putt or sends their ball careening off the edge. This is a week where distance control and precision are far more valuable than brute force.
• A World-Class Creative Short Game: This is what truly separates the winner from the field. Players who miss greens (and they all will) must be able to pull off a huge variety of shots. They'll be putting from 30 yards off the green, chipping with hybrids and 7-irons from tight lies, and hitting delicate spinners from sandy spots just next to greenside bunkers.
• Patience and Mental Fortitude: The winner of the U.S. Open won't be the player who makes the most birdies, it will be the player who makes the fewest mistakes and accepts their bogeys calmly. Anyone who gets frustrated and tries to force the issue will quickly find their round falling apart. Bogies at a tournament like the U.S. Open need a short-term memory by the player, so each subsequent shot during the round can stand up better.

What You Can Learn For Your Game

1. Build a Short Game "Toolbox." The next time you practice your short game, don't just use your sand wedge. Take several balls and try hitting chips with different clubs like a putter, a hybrid, an 8-iron, and a pitching wedge. See how the ball reacts. Learning which shot works best for which situation gives you more options and more confidence around the greens.
2. Aim for the Fat Part of the Green. This is the oldest piece of advice in golf, and it's never more true than at the U.S. Open. On your own course, forget about hunting for pins tucked on the edge. Aiming for the center of the green consistently will lower your scores more than almost any other strategic decision. It reduces your chances of a "big number" and leaves you with more birdie putts over the course of a round. Good course management is essential in the game we love and call golf.

The Grand Finale: The 152nd Open Championship

The Tournament: July 18-21, Royal Troon

The final major of the year is golf's oldest and most historic championship. To win The Open is to become the "Champion Golfer of the Year" and lift the iconic Claret Jug. This major rotates among a select group of legendary "links" courses primarily in Scotland.

In 2024, the championship heads to Royal Troon in Scotland. Troon's primary defense is the ever-present, biting wind. Its routing is famous: the front nine typically plays with the prevailing wind, offering scoring opportunities, while the brutal back nine turns straight into it. The course also features some unforgettable holes, none more so than the 8th, the "Postage Stamp." At just over 120 yards, it is one of the shortest and most dangerous Par 3s in all of golf, protected by deep pot bunkers that punish anything less than a perfect tee shot.

How the Pros Will Tackle It: A Coach's Perspective

Links golf is a completely different style of golf. It rewards creativity and adaptability more than other tournament setups:

• Commanding Ball Flight: The player who can control their trajectory will have a massive advantage. This means hitting low, penetrating "stinger" drives under the wind, and also knowing when to use the wind to shape a shot into a target. It's an art form that uses the wind as a friend rather than combating it on every hole throughout the round.
• Using the Ground Game: Unlike target golf, where players fly the ball all the way to the hole, links golf encourages players to use the firm, fast turf as an ally. You will see players putting from 50+ yards away from the green, and playing low, running bump-and-run chips instead of high flop shots.
• Strategic Bunker Avoidance: Pot bunkers on a links course are true hazards. Players will intentionally aim away from flagsticks to ensure they don't end up in them, as a shot from a greenside pot bunker often results in a bogey or worse. Their depth and steep lips make them one-stroke penalties that players must avoid to score well under these unique conditions.

What You Can Learn For Your Game

1. Master the Knock-Down Shot. On a windy day, one of the most useful shots to have is a low, controlled iron shot. To practice this, take a mid-iron, position the ball slightly back in your stance, choke down an inch on the club, and make a three-quarter swing. Focus on finishing low. It’s an incredibly reliable way to keep the ball stable in the wind. It starts with small wins, which lead to big success on the course by lowering your scores in conditions that most players would normally avoid given the choice.
2. Manage Your Way Around a Course. The pros at The Open treat pot bunkers like water hazards and proactively play away from them. You should adopt this same mindset for the trouble on your home course. A 3-wood into the widest part of the fairway is often a smarter play than hitting a driver down a narrow section, which can lead to double bogey opportunities.

Don't Forget the First Major of the Year: The Masters

Kicking off the season each April, the 2024 Masters has already come and gone, with Scottie Scheffler claiming his second Green Jacket. Held at the stunning Augusta National Golf Club every year, the Masters is a tournament about tradition, unparalleled beauty, and course knowledge. Its slick, severely sloped greens, and iconic risk-reward holes make it a spectacle unlike anything else in sports. Players must find a balance between discipline and knowing when to go for it, like those who played on Sunday to win past championships.

Final Thoughts

Watching the best golfers tackle the PGA Championship’s mix of power and precision, the U.S. Open’s stern test of accuracy, and The Open’s windy creative challenge is a fascinating study in golf strategy. Each tournament requires a different plan, mindset, and set of shots to be successful.

Understanding which shot to hit in those pressurizing and unique situations shouldn't feel impossible while watching golf on a Sunday afternoon. You can try some of the strategies at your own home course without a caddie. That’s why we built Caddie AI. It helps put you in the right mindset. Having the right mental framework with the physical tools you have will lower your score without swing changes. Caddie AI gives you instant, on-demand strategic guidance for any hole and provides expert shot advice tailored to how you play, helping you with your approach shots, putting, getting onto the green, and hitting long drives, just like your favorite golf athletes. Playing the right shot given the right conditions is a major step in taking your golf game to new heights.