{"id":8873,"date":"2010-01-08T08:00:51","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T13:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/?p=8873"},"modified":"2010-01-21T17:18:13","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T22:18:13","slug":"five_best_players_without_a_major","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/trap_five\/five_best_players_without_a_major","title":{"rendered":"Five Best Players Without a Major"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trap Five Logo\" src=\"\/b\/imgs\/trap_five\/tf_title.gif\" width=\"110\" height=\"81\" \/>In this <em>Trap Five<\/em> you are going to be reading about one of the many things that are up for debate within the world of golf. I&#8217;ve decided to give you my top five picks for the best active professional golfers to have not won a major. Although a few them will most likely be contested (and with good reason), I looked through about 50 players&#8217; wins, top-tens, and stats.<\/p>\n<p>These are my picks.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>Number Five: Colin Montgomerie<\/strong><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/b\/imgs\/other\/colin_montgomerie_augusta.jpg\" height=\"141\" width=\"256\" alt=\"Colin Montgomerie\" class=\"bordered\" \/>&#8220;Monty,&#8221; as he&#8217;s known to many, has had five second-place finishes in the majors, has won the European Tour Order of Merit eight times (including seven in a row from 1993-1999), and has won 31 European Tour events. Also noteworthy is his exceptional performance in Ryder Cups with a record of 20-9-7. He is also well known for having poor posture and a negative disposition towards those who are watching him play. I mean c&#8217;mon; can&#8217;t you look happy while your playing such a fun game? His attitude could be a factor in his inability to win a major, although his 31 wins would suggest otherwise. In the last three years he has played in nine majors missed the cut in seven of them and had a high finish of T42 (2007 PGA). His last close call was at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where he fatted a 7I and made double bogey from the fairway on the 72nd hole.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:<\/em> Sorry to say, but at this point, I think Monty has a better chance of seeing God than picking up a Major win.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Number Four: Sergio Garcia<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen Sergio was 19 it was predicted that he would be the man to challenge Tiger Woods. At nineteen he was the low amateur in the 1999 Masters. A few months later he became known worldwide after a duel with Tiger ended with a second-place finish at Medinah. He also went through a period of gripping and re-gripping that came to attention at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage, where after Sergio was gripping and re-gripping, a fan famously yelled &#8220;Hit the ball, Sergio!!&#8221; He has also been portrayed as a bit of a whiner by the media for stating at a post round press conference that &#8220;If Tiger Woods would have been playing the round would have been delayed&#8221;. Nonetheless Garcia has seven PGA Tour wins, nine European wins, and has a top-ten and two T2 finishes in the last three years at the majors. Sergio is also something of a Ryder Cup powerhouse with a record of 14-3-3.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/b\/imgs\/pga\/2k7_memorial_sergio_garcia_disgusted.jpg\" height=\"618\" width=\"490\" alt=\"Sergio Garcia Disgusted\" class=\"bordleft\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:<\/em> I feel it is still highly likely that he will win at least one major, if not more. If he doesn&#8217;t, he will leave golf disappointed with an otherwise good career.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Number Three: Adam Scott<\/strong><br \/>\nWith six PGA Tour and six European to wins to his credit since his first full year as a pro in 2001, Adam Scott went winless in 2009 and only made the Presidents Cup team via a captain&#8217;s pick from fellow Australian Greg Norman. In the past three years he has made the cut in only seven major appearances, with a high finish of T12. Since reaching a career high of third in the Official World Golf Rankings in 2007, Scott dipped below 50 but has been steadily improving and currently sits at 34th.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/b\/imgs\/pga\/2k7_memorial_adam_scott_and_caddie.jpg\" height=\"307\" width=\"490\" alt=\"Adam Scott @ Memorial\" class=\"bordleft\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:<\/em> Scott clearly is not at a loss when it comes to talent. But, it is unclear the direction he will continue in his career. I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to see him win at least one major if he can keep his game on the up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Number Two: Justin Rose<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter a breakout performance at the 1998 British Open (T4) as an amateur, Rose turned pro a week later and missed the cut in his first 21 appearances. He soon began to make a name for himself, totaling seven professional wins since 1998 and nine cuts made with three top-ten finishes at majors since 2007. Although he hasn&#8217;t amassed many wins, His consistent play has brought him into the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings, where he has spent 30 weeks since 2007.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/b\/imgs\/pga\/justin_rose_18_tee_2k8_memorial.jpg\" height=\"737\" width=\"490\" alt=\"Justin Rose @ Memorial\" class=\"bordleft\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:<\/em> Although he is something of a dark horse on this list, getting more consistent around the greens will give him a better shot at getting a major win under his belt. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Number One: Ian Poulter<\/strong><br \/>\nAlthough widely know for his fashion sense, Poulter&#8217;s ability on the course cannot be overlooked. He has 10 professional wins and has made the cut in all but two majors in the last three years with a high of T2 at the British Open in 2008. He scored the winning points in the 2004 Ryder Cup and the most total points in the 2008 Ryder Cup. The thing that most drew me to put Poulter on this list was not only his win at the Barclays Singapore Open but his scrambling percentage in 2009. It was 74.2% and ranked first, which is something that really stuck out because he is in the middle of the pack on almost every other significant stat. And, I personally enjoyed watching him hole out from 15 yards off the green on the same hole I watched Tiger Woods make double bogey at the 2009 Deutche Bank Championship.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/b\/imgs\/pga\/ian_poulter_pink_outfit_2k8_memorial.jpg\" height=\"736\" width=\"490\" alt=\"Ian Poulter @ Memorial\" class=\"bordleft\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:<\/em> If he does win a major I would see him doing it at the British Open, where home crowd support can go a long way. Or, at the US Open, where his scrambling could be a major factor in the notoriously thick rough.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your Thoughts?<\/strong><br \/>\nWhat do you think? Who would you rank as the top five best active players never to have won a major?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"credit\">Photo Credits: &copy; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.augusta.com\/masters2004\/review1997\/041397\/montgomerie_chips1997.shtml\" title=\"Deseret News\" class=\"external external_icon\">Michael Holahan<\/a>, &copy; Erik J. Barzeski\/The Sand Trap.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Will these players <em>ever<\/em> win a major? Compare my top five to your list and see if we agree on the best active golfers without one of the four biggest prizes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trap_five"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Five Best Players Without a Major (Trap Five) - The Sand Trap .com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/trap_five\/five_best_players_without_a_major\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Five Best Players Without a Major (Trap Five) - The Sand Trap .com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Will these players ever win a major? 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