Best Player Never to Have Won a Major

[iacas]

Who, in your opinion, is the best current player never to have won a major?

I'm sticking with Monty as my first choice. I remember his playoff against Els and Roberts in the US Open, and he never really had a chance.

But he is a little older, so my new choice is Padraig Harrington. He has a game suited for US courses, too, so I think he'll pick one up in the next three years.

Sergio is still young. He may inherit the title soon.

Who would you pick?

[gas_can]

That's a good question . . . it was always so easy and fun to just say Mickelson in the past.

I'd say Jay Haas, he's been so consistently good for so many years but never broke through to be great. I don't think he's got the power to win any more with the new 7200+ yard courses. But it's hard for me to believe that he's never won a major even though so many no names have snuck in in that time.

[Ben]

Zach Johnson, Adam Scott (one of my picks in the major thread), I'd put Padraig on my list too. Miguel Angel Jiminez (also on my list to win in 2005 major thread). And of course, me.

[skrumple]

I wold have to go with sergio he is awsome also adam scott is another good player and just for fun Michelle wie. just kidding.

[Mr_Slice]

Well, my favorite two players are Sergio and Adam Scott, so those would be my biased emotional picks. Looking at some of the older guys, I think Jay Haas fits the bill very well.

[A Walk in the Park]

I like all of you and value your opinions...that being said, I thnk its the most worthless question in all sports. Its so unecessarily negative..."who has failed to live up to his potential"..."who is a big choker"..."who just can't get the job done..."

This thoughtless, "lowest common denominator" type question was seemingly created just to torment Phil mickelson...he put it to rest in spades, so should we.

You know, winners of majors are not necessarily great golfers. Andy North won three tournaments in his whole life...and two of them were ghastly US Opens he backed into...in fact, the ridiculous 1985 open he won should be scoured from history...had he taken one more stroke it would have been a four way monday playoff with chip beck, TC chen (thats two-chip chen;), and Dave Barr. God, I'd rather watch "Fear factor" then those four drips in an 18 hole playoff.

How bout Hubert Green? Scott Simpson? Orville Moody? Ben Curtis? Paul Lawrie? Why not ask "biggest bust ever to win a major?" Did winning elevate any of their careers? Most golf fans could not pick any of those guys out of a picture of Duke Ellington's band:)

This is not a personal rip on anyone...all of you are great guys and I have a lot of fun jawin' with y'all...but lets please keep it positive and leave the LCD stuff to the ESPN radio guys...our great game deserves all the positive energy we can foster...lord knows we have a tough week ahead of us in the desert...

[iacas]

I like all of you and value your opinions...that being said, I thnk its the most worthless question in all sports. Its so unecessarily negative..."who has failed to live up to his potential"..."who is a big choker"..."who just can't get the job done..."

Jay, I too respect your opinions. However, I disagree that it's a "negative" question. Sergio Garcia is my "best player never to have won a major" and he's 25 or so. He's got plenty of years left to do it, and putting him at the top of my list isn't a negative - I'm not faulting Garcia for not having won yet. He's younger than me! I believe he'll get his sometime. He just hasn't had the four days necessary yet.

Putting Colin Montgomerie at the top of my list is a negative, but what's so wrong with that? How many times did Jack Nicklaus win the Phoenix Open? How many times did he win the Masters? The Open? US Open? PGA? Majors are how a golfer's career is judged. It's how we determine the greatness of a golfer. Europe's best player seven years straight and no majors? I'm sure Monty would have traded in a few of those years atop the Order of Merit for even one major.

This thoughtless, "lowest common denominator" type question was seemingly created just to torment Phil Mickelson...he put it to rest in spades, so should we.

Phil may now be the best current player to only have won one major.

Why put it to rest? Golfers are constantly vying for recognition, honor, and winning. The majors mean more to them than anything. In a sport which so barely lays open the souls of the people who play it, why is it wrong to slap a label on someone? It kicks off debate, and I'm of the opinion that there aren't many debates not worth having. Being tagged with the label puts more pressure on you. It makes you want to win even more. Mickelson felt the pressure for years and I'm sure was glad to have shirked the tag. It probably sucked being labelled for Phil, but Phil chooses to play professional golf (and makes millions doing so). If he didn't want the label, well, I humbly suggest he should have won a major long ago.

You know, winners of majors are not necessarily great golfers. Andy North won three tournaments in his whole life...and two of them were ghastly US Opens he backed into...in fact, the ridiculous 1985 open he won should be scoured from history...had he taken one more stroke it would have been a four way monday playoff with chip beck, TC chen (thats two-chip chen;), and Dave Barr. God, I'd rather watch "Fear factor" then those four drips in an 18 hole playoff.

Ben Curtis won a British Open and may never be heard from again. Golf fans aren't dumb - we recognize flashes in the pan, and we recognize when someone catches lightning in a bottle. That these minor players can win a Major only serves to show that both the competition is very even, and that the better players should walk away with one now and then.

How bout Hubert Green? Scott Simpson? Orville Moody? Ben Curtis? Paul Lawrie? Why not ask "biggest bust ever to win a major?" Did winning elevate any of their careers? Most golf fans could not pick any of those guys out of a picture of Duke Ellington's band:)

Why now ask the question? Go ahead - I'm sure it'd start a debate too.

Did it elevate their careers? Yeah. They are forevermore a "Major Champion." They did what Phil failed to do prior to the 2004 Masters. You can't "luck into" a major victory on the PGA Tour. You've gotta be in the top three or so, and other folks have to crumble, or you have to go out and get it yourself. Luck takes an ordinary player only so far - skill - even if only for four days - will take them further. Did winning one or two US Opens and only one other PGA Tour event elevate Andy North's career? Is he "one of the greats of all time?" No, because golf fans aren't stupid. Which would a golfer rather have: 40 PGA Tour victories and no majors or 15 wins and 3 majors? Majors are what golfers play for. They're what they want to win. Golf fans know it, and why blame us - why call us "negative" - for simply using the same measuring stick the pros themselves use?

This is not a personal rip on anyone...all of you are great guys and I have a lot of fun jawin' with y'all...but lets please keep it positive and leave the LCD stuff to the ESPN radio guys...our great game deserves all the positive energy we can foster...lord knows we have a tough week ahead of us in the desert...

Part of the phrase "best player to have never won a major" is the phrase "best player." Is it necessarily negative? I don't think so. That label, at the same time as it recognizes everyone who

has managed to win a major, is at the same time recognizing very, very good players. The best in a category. Were I to make a "best player never to have won a US Open," I'd hardly sugges that putting a man who won 7 other majors and 81 PGA Tour events would be a negative statement. It's merely a categorization. Best Player Never to have Won a Major - BPNTHWAM. "Never" may be a bit negative, I grant you that. So how about this: "Best Player Yet to Win a Major." That's positive, forward-thinking, and optimistic. Right?

[A Walk in the Park]

Quick...which major and which course did the following win on...

Wayne Grady
Bill Rogers
Lou Graham
Mark Brooks
Steve Elkington
Jeff Sluman
Steve Jones (Steve Jones!)

Stop me anytime.

Its a myth that winning a major "validates a career." Stop letting ESPN tell you what and how to think. They know next to nothing about golf. These guys won a mojor and hell Lee Janzen and Larry Nelson won two and add in Rich Beem and Sean Micheel...and none won squat since. I bet most people here couldn't tell me what majors Nelson won ('83 Open, '87 PGA)

Having a great career validates a great career. Davis Love 1 for 72 in majors...but a great career...how bout the day he ran over everybody at sawgrass in 2003...64 AT SAWGRASS ON SUNDAY IN A WIND AND RAIN STORM!!!...many golfers say that was possibly the best single day of golf they ever saw...BPNTWAM needs to get put on the scrapheap. Stop the madness;););) Its up to us.

Perhaps a better way is "I sure wish ___ would win one..." or who are you rooting for or "who needs to break through and win one.

One last add. I know FOR A FACT that outside thre british Open, Monty loves each of his Ryder Cup wins like a Major...maybe thats why we get beat...we pay lip service too it...

Steve Jones!

BY the way, it goes

PGA
British
US
PGA
PGA
PGA
US

[iacas]

Quick...which major and which course did the following win on...

Jay, I mean no offense when I say this, but it's a silly exercise. I already said that golf fans are intelligent enough to recognize that sometimes, an unknown catches lightning in a bottle and wins a major.

Its a myth that winning a major "validates a career."

I never said it did, Jay. However, I do believe that winning a few majors

coupled with an otherwise strong career validates a golfer's greatness.

Stop letting ESPN tell you what and how to think. They know next to nothing about golf. These guys won a mojor and hell Lee Janzen and Larry Nelson won two and add in Rich Beem and Sean Micheel...and none won squat since. I bet most people here couldn't tell me what majors Nelson won ('83 Open, '87 PGA)

Again, beside the point (and mildly insulting as well, telling me that I can't think for myself and assuming I've outsourced "thought" to ESPN's band of idiots).

Having a great career validates a great career.

Great careers include Major victories. Good careers include lots of ordinary tour event wins.

Davis Love 1 for 72 in majors...but a great career...how bout the day he ran over everybody at sawgrass in 2003...many golfers say that was possibly the best single day of golf they ever saw...BPNTWAM needs to get put on the scrapheap. Stop the madness;););) Its up to us.

Davis Love III doesn't rank very highly in my list of great golfers. He's won one major - and he missed a shortish putt to have a chance to win another. Greg Norman is known not for winning two, but for losing several. He was the #1 player in the world for five years running, yet he's known as a choker. And if you ask me, giving up a six-stroke lead and shooting 40 on the back nine don't help a guy shed the label.

My Steelers had the best record ever in the AFC. Nobody's ever gone 15-1 in the AFC regular season. Yet they're not even playing in the Super Bowl, having lost in the AFC Championship. Are they better than the 49ers, who aren't going to the Super Bowl? You bet. Are they a great team? No. The Patriots, they've won recent Super Bowls. They're a great team. Baseball has the World Series, Hockey has the Stanley Cup, Football has the Super Bowl, and Golf has the Majors. Nobody grows up practicing four foot putts to win the FBR Open.

Perhaps a better way is "I sure wish ___ would win one..." or who are you rooting for or "who needs to break through and win one.

I've already spoken to the negativity inherent in the title. It's there if you choose to see it, and not if you don't.

One last add. I know FOR A FACT that outside thre british Open, Monty loves each of his Ryder Cup wins like a Major...

Good for him. His record in Ryder Cup play is certainly considered when ranking the game's greats. But he never won a major. Something even lesser golfers (as you've pointed out) have done, yet one of the game's supposed best could not.

It's a black mark, a hole, on his record. That's undeniable. Was he good? Sure. Was he great? Nah. To me, he wasn't. Pop in two majors and he's one of the best. Majors are a part of how we judge golfers. I see no reason to "put a stop" to it. I'm not dumb - I look at the whole of a career when I personally determine a golfer's greatness. But 0 majors? Well, that's just a big, glaring, black hole. I'm prepared to agree to disagree with you Jay. Forums are for discussion, and I value and appreciate the discussion we have had on this topic.

[A Walk in the Park]

In a nutshell...my big issue is we need to put a stop to "savaging second."

I knew there was a reason I liked you...I've been a Steelers fan since AGE THREE!!!

We had a GREAT year...I had us 7-9 at season's start and we achieved more than I ever dreamed we would...NO REGRETS.

I didnt mean "you personally" with the ESPN thing...I meant us as a collective sports nation. ESPN is the heroin of the sports nation...I'm hating the game, never the player. See my blog for the reason for my bile...I'm still seething about the while drunk fan thing too...

[AdamScottfan]

i pick adam scott
i think sooner or later he's going to win one..i just hope it's sooner rather than later..he has all the qualities to become a major winner..he just needs to get his putting right

[iacas]

i pick adam scott

Sergio Garcia

Chris DiMarco David Toms Colin Montgomerie Scott Verplank the list goes on and on... Somewhere, Adam is on it, sure...

[DBake]

I'm sticking with Monty as my first choice. I remember his playoff against Els and Roberts in the US Open, and he never really had a chance.

I would have picked Monty but right before he won the euro-thing he didn't care about winning the tournament just winning the order of who cares...I would go with A. Scott

[Prodad]

Some have said Lee Westwood has this dubious honor.  Are there other worthy contenders?

[ChrisP]

1) Xander Schauffele

2) Matt Kuchar

3) Rickie Fowler

[dennyjones]

Wow, we are reviving an old thread.

I'd say Kuchar and Fowler

[Nail]

Good call Iacas on Harrington, ended up winning three in the next 4 years after your prediction 

[David L Yskes]

yes this is a old thread revival lol..................................  

 

Now i think there are a bunch of guys who are really good that haven't won a major yet.....

Kuchar

Fowler

Schauffele 

Jonas Blixt

Jon Rahm

Finau

Bryson

Fleetwood

Ian Poulter

Hideki Matsuyama 

lee westwood

and a bunch of others in the top 50 / 125