Who is the best golfer to have never won a major?

Simple question - who do you think is the most talented player, past or present, who never (or has of yet to) win a Major?

I have put up a few names in the poll but I am sure that I will have missed some!

Let us hear your thoughts and why.

(apologies if they have won one and I missed it!)

Me

baboo800 wrote:Me

are you KJ Choi by any chance?

baboo800

Hibbz wrote:baboo800

Why did you just post my name

because as you said, and I agree, you are the best golfer never to have won a major.

Hobo wrote:

baboo800 wrote:Me

are you KJ Choi by any chance?

Unfortunately not

I've chosen the best, the one that's achieved most, rather than the "most talented". Not sure that we're the best judge of the talent.

kwinigolfer wrote:I've chosen the best, the one that's achieved most, rather than the "most talented". Not sure that we're the best judge of the talent.

can I ask who?

There's one player in the list that has outstandingly the best record over the last 20+ years, not really anyone close, so I picked him!

Went for Sergio. If he could putt.........

It has to be Monty - runner up 5 times.... and he won 8 European tour no 1's

Kenny Perry for me from that list...

Just to say that this list reminds me of some small piece I've seen on the GolfChannel site on the same subject a few weeks ago. For some reason, there they also discussed about 10 players (more or less same as here), but in both cases there was no mention of the current #1 Luke Donald, but they both took into consideration guys like Villegas for example. Sounds a bit odd to me...

Pretty shaky list - Mahan, Casey, Poulter, Stenson and Villegas have no right to be on it, their record pales in comparison with the remaining seven.

It does seem rather odd that the poll doesn't include the current OGWR #1

Dracula,Donald has been consistent in regular tournaments but his best major finish is third and while he has acheived that twice does that really mean he is one of the best to never win a biggie?

What about some older players.

David Frost for example with 21 win World Wide including 10 PGA Tour Wins

Stats from wikipedia so sorry if they are wrong

Donald is #1 for crying out loud. How high did Villegas get, or Mahan or Stenson?

I went for Monty. Keep thinking back to Winged Foot, on the 18th. I really felt for him that day. Perfect in the fairway, and his approach hits the worst of the rough possible.

princedracula wrote:Kenny Perry for me from that list...

Really? I'd have Westwood, Monty and Garcia miles ahead of him.

Thomond, my point was not that Luke is the best who didn't get a major, but that he was not on the list, while guys like Villegas, etc. are there...

Montys 8 OOM's are like winning 8 div 2 titles to use an old money football term. But he did have a fair few near misses on majors but failure to win in the States marks him down for me, PGA tour was far stronger than the European Tour in. Montys day.
So probably Sergio for me but Perry well up there as well for me.

Me

Still not following the clamour for Perry, two good runs at majors 15 years apart and not a huge amount else, apart from a couple of purple patches. He won plenty of tournaments, but not the really big ones - no Players, no WGCs, no Tour Championship or even other playoff events. Good player yes, but I'd say he was more of a steady guy who had a few good years, than someone who was consistently at the top of the game. Montgomerie, Garcia, Westwood, Scott and KJ, for a start, all come far closer to that.

Monty. So many near misses and such a great player.

Ned, what big events did Monty win? I'd hazard a guess the events Perry won by and large had far stronger fields than anything Monty won.
Monty was at the top of the European game not the world game.

legendkillar wrote:I went for Monty. Keep thinking back to Winged Foot, on the 18th. I really felt for him that day. Perfect in the fairway, and his approach hits the worst of the rough possible.

I actually though Monty was going to do it that day. Remember getting quite giddy with the excitement he might finally bag one (but it was late in the evening, so possibly I was just tired). For all the stick Monty gets it was the only one he truly threw away (as did Phil), but funny how no-one talks about Ogilvy's "lucky" major win.......

Back on topic, Monty is the standout name on that list for me.... and that's from a Sergio fan!

Tiler76 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:I went for Monty. Keep thinking back to Winged Foot, on the 18th. I really felt for him that day. Perfect in the fairway, and his approach hits the worst of the rough possible.

I actually though Monty was going to do it that day. Remember getting quite giddy with the excitement he might finally bag one (but it was late in the evening, so possibly I was just tired). For all the stick Monty gets it was the only one he truly threw away (as did Phil), but funny how no-one talks about Ogilvy's "lucky" major win.......

Back on topic, Monty is the standout name on that list for me.... and that's from a Sergio fan!

I remember Big Phil shanking his drive into the trees and when Monty came to the tee I was heart in my mouth and thought he was going to do it, and it is just that approach. It never gets mentioned that much, but for me was the closest.

But yes on topic Monty for sure.

How about worst player (or least accomplished) to win major? Cabrera, only PGA wins have been majors, Wayne grady, Twice PGA winner and won once in europe
Larry mize, fairly mediocre career and was so lucky to chip in against Norman to win the masters. Paul lawrie, only won four events on the European tour never in the us.

Diggers wrote:Ned, what big events did Monty win? I'd hazard a guess the events Perry won by and large had far stronger fields than anything Monty won.
Monty was at the top of the European game not the world game.

He won multiple PGAs and Volvo Masterses, which were flagship European events and had fields that were at least the equal of anything Perry won. (For the record the strength of the PGA tour is overhyped, this is a tour where Marco Dawson, Kent Jones and Omar Uresti can rack up over 1000 events between them, it has its fair share of journeymen just like Europe). And even if Monty and Perry both only won fairly small tournaments, then Monty still won over twice as many, and had a far better record in majors.

Interesting to note that of Monty's 31 Euro tour wins, 9 had major champions as one of the runners-up: Harrington and Langer twice, and Seve, Goosen, Els, Vijay and Cabrera once each. Just the 20 majors between those guys.

Not to mention Montgomerie's Ryder Cup record.

Diggers wrote:Ned, what big events did Monty win? I'd hazard a guess the events Perry won by and large had far stronger fields than anything Monty won.
Monty was at the top of the European game not the world game.

Kenny Perry better than Monty? Are you joking, he's 50 and has only won 14 events on the PGA in his life. Turned pro in '82 and didn't win a tournament until 1991.

Monty has won 31 events on the European Tour in a career 6 years shorter plus has won the OOM 8 times and been one of the best Ryder Cup players in the history of the event and was World number 2.

For me there is no comparison. Much as I dislike Monty at times, he's been a far better professional than Perry could dream of, not to mention how close he's been in several majors to Perry's two.

Perry might have won his events at a time when the PGA was considered stronger by some, but it wasn't more than twice as strong (Monty has more than twice the events Perry has), would Perry have won 31 times on the European Tour?, I doubt it. Most players stuck to one tour at the time and Monty could only beat what was in front of him, he dominated the tour for almost a decade and got to World Number 2, that's pretty impressive if all the points awarded were skewed in favour of those on the PGA with their supposedly "much" stronger fields.
Perry was an excellent player who like Monty had his troubles when it came to majors, but Monty had a far far better career, even if his wins weren't against fields you deem as "strong" the PGA was.
In any event I'd say that the PGA has just as many journeymen as the European tour and probably an even longer tail, except it might have been loaded a little bit more at the top with a few more of the top players, but I don't think the difference was a "chasm" as you appear to be suggesting.

I think that this question can be split into two for me. Most deserving of a major but not winning one is Monty - his record as already mentioned was deserving of one.

Most talented player not to have won one - Garcia. If he'd have won one early then I think that the past 10 years or so would have been very different for a certain Mr Woods. Has/had the talent to be a multiple major winner but sadly has not happened...

I would say that the PGA was comfortably twice as strong as the European and would take 18 PGA wins any day over Montys 31 baubles. The strength both at the top and in depth was barely comparable. How long Perry played for is irrelevant , just shows how good the fundamentals of his game are.
Simple, simple question. How come Monty could win at a canter in Eurpe and never win in the States despite scores of starts. Just bad luck I suppose, no other reason.

As you say he could only beat what was put in front of him...when a stronger field was put in front of him no wins, in fact not many top 10's even. He was pants in the states and if you think the 80's and 90's Euro tour was anywhere near as strong as the PGA you are completed duluded Super.

Twice as good Diggers?? Now who is deluded?

Hardly "baubles" either, winning the Flagship event at Wentworth three times, certainly comparable with anything Perry ever won.

Not exactly "pants" in the US either. 2nd three times in US Open, one third and a 10th, plus a second and sixth in the PGA, certainly better than Perry's lone 3rd in The Open when he played a European Tour event.

If the European Tour was so poor in the 80's and 90's, how come the European Ryder Cup team consisting largely of European based players won the same number of Ryder Cups as the supposedly stronger US?

Mickelson has never won an event on European soil, does that have a bearing on how good he is? It works both ways.

Team spirit and a golden generation of some talented players .... who all went to the States and found it a lot harder to win consistently on a much tougher tour.
I'd imagine you could pick 3 events that had stronger fields on terms of ranking than Montys tour wins. They probably had about 10 of the worlds top 50 players in the field.

I would seriously doubt that Diggers, however you are entitled to your opinion and think that you'd be in a minority of one to think that Perry is a better player not to win a major than Monty.

One question though, what about Mickelson, he's played lots of events in Europe, if the standard over here is so poor and our players ranked so lowly how come he hasn't won any of our "tinpot" tournaments against "rubbish" opposition?

Let's see how often Mickleson has played in Euripe compared to Monty in the States. Very differing numbers I'd say.

I don't think Monty played over there as much as you think, but if the Standard of tournament in Europe was so poor, you'd expect the man regarded to be the 2nd best player of the last 15 years to have found it very easy indeed in the tournaments he has played.

Some people just don't play well in different places. Some American players have never won in certain parts of the States where different types of grass are used to what they are used to, but have anhiliated fields elsewhere.
It doesn't always mean that just because they don't win that they aren't good enough or the competition is stronger.

What about Sam Torrance??

Seriously though, gotta be Sergio for me, closly followed by Monty.

Can I make a request that Ian Poulter is removed from the list please

I do think Monty played over there a lot more than you think, certainly well over a 100 times, in 97 looks like he played there 9 times alone, 8 times in 98, 12 times in 99, 8 times in 2000 and similar for teh next several years. Mickleson I doubt has played anything like that in Europe and would , bearing in mind the huge advantages being brought up playing links courses...why such a poor Open record bar his distant second to Tiger that he was overjoyed about ?
And I may well be in the minority on here.....though its not of one if you read the whole thread.. but I doubt you would get the same reaction on an American golf website.

You could say the same for scores of British golfers who are brought up on Links courses. Only one player can win at a time.

Of course you'd get a different reaction on an American website, because we all know that they have a protectionist method of reporting news. By virtue of this they won't have heard too much about Monty and will largely have been glossed over in the grand scheme of things.

Anyway, I'm not getting into a prolonged discussion. The majority of respondents believe Monty to have been a better player than Perry, and with the exception of an insular American press and your good self it appears to be borne out as popular opinion.

Yes of course, bias only works one way doesnt it. You won't ever find a Scot who is protective of Monty, thats never going to happen. You wont ever find a Scot who doesnt follow the PGA tour that closely and prefers to focus on events in Europe. Thats probably the the weakest argument Ive ever seen you post on here, very poor.
Monty is undoubtably the greatest player to have never won a major or in fact any global tournament of not, though Westy pushes him close.
Definitely Sergio for me. Both Perry and Monty have big gaps in their CV.

Just being a pedant...

But this being a golf poll on the golf section of the forum, and i know everyone knows him as Monty, but his name is spelt wrong in the poll.

Sorry, just being picky.

It isn't bias Diggers, well perhaps a little, however there's enough evidence to show Monty as having a better career than Perry, simple as that.
The US are certainly more insular in their reporting of news so of course a Yank would claim Perry to have a better career than Monty has, but we tend to get more informative news over here that looks at both the European Tour and PGA.
I agree both have big gaps in their CV's but Monty has certainly achieved more than Perry.

He's achieved differing things. Monty has certainly performed better in majors but personally I think Perrys career wins are at a much higher tariff than Montys.
And of course he has his RC record so it depends how much credance you attach to that in terms of majors....for me not a lot but others will see it differently.

Fair enough Diggers, I think in relation to the original question of who is the best player not to win a major it's hard to argue Perry over Monty when Perry has a far poorer major record than Monty so you could argue that Perry deserves it less.

I hate to do it, but again I am going to agree wit SR, Kenny Perry was not a patch on Monty, not even close

I have never heard of the following guy but it was suggested to me on twitter:

Macdonald Smith, 24 Ws in US in early 20th C, 17 top 10s in majors, 0 Ws. Even lost playoff to brother.

Anyone know of him?