OT - Top 10 of non majors winners 1935 - 2010?

[Jeff Schley]

When r u going to rank them? Then the thread can really take off.

[Peter Pallotta]

Really good work here, VK -- thanks much.

Is it ungrateful of me to say that Corey Pavin is better than at least a half-dozen of those on your Top 25 list?

 

[Thomas Dai]

1 time winners add -

Fred Daly
Tommy Bolt
Charl Schwartzel

atb

[V. Kmetz]

When r u going to rank them? Then the thread can really take off.

Couple of other details to work out...before we do it, more this evening

[V. Kmetz]

Really good work here, VK -- thanks much.

Is it ungrateful of me to say that Corey Pavin is better than at least a half-dozen of those on your Top 25 list?

 

I don't know Peter, first we've got to sort out the "best" of the non winners... the "least" 50 of the one time winners... then onto other areas...hone shape refine... there will be more steps before Pavin (of whom I tend to agree with what you're saying) is truly sorted out

[Mike Wagner]

3 pages and no Jay Haas?

[David_Tepper]

Jay Haas' career is impressive, but he only won 9 times on the PGA Tour.

[Mike Wagner]

Jay Haas' career is impressive, but he only won 9 times on the PGA Tour.

Just sayin he should be in that top 25 IMO.  Holding the all time cut record is indeed impressive.

[Thomas Dai]

Shouldn't both genders be considered in such listings? Today is International Women's Day.
atb

[Niall C]

I'm undoubtedly Eurocentric but Woosnam not making the top 25 one-time winners list seems a bit harsh considering he won over 40 times worldwide, was in the top-ten in majors 10 times including the one he won, and was World No. 1 for nearly a year. There can't be too many one time winners with a better record I'd have thought.


Niall

[Niall C]

Shouldn't both genders be considered in such listings? Today is International Women's Day.
atb

As a separate list, why not but in the same list, no.


Niall 

[Mike Wagner]

Shouldn't both genders be considered in such listings? Today is International Women's Day.
atb

No one would stop you from starting that thread.

[V. Kmetz]

Shouldn't both genders be considered in such listings? Today is International Women's Day.
atb

I intend to, but the men's side has many more names to sort out. But I will solicit that down the line, perhaps in another thread and then much later joining the two.

Jay Haas' career is impressive, but he only won 9 times on the PGA Tour.

Just sayin he should be in that top 25 IMO.  Holding the all time cut record is indeed impressive.

I want to be as liberally full as the board directs and Haas has makes a basic reputational case, if for nothing else than his name was as ubiquitous in my memory of things throughout the 1980s. Most of us would get a Jay Haas question on Jeopardy, whereas our non-golfing competitors would be clueless.

[V. Kmetz]

**Note to self... no one mentioned Fr. Molinari for the 1-xers...started in 2005.

[V. Kmetz]

Any additional names that ought to go/were forgotten in these prelim lists?
UPDATED as of 3-8 Noon

So far, the compendium is (going roughly backwards in time)

First, 26 best NON- majors (not ranked, just going backwards in chronology)

• Westwood
• Poulter
• Stricker
• Monty
• Jimenez
• Perry
• Hoch
• Cook
• Haas
• Torrance
• Morgan
• Levi
• Peete
• Lietzke
• Elder
• Crampton
• Oosterhuis
• Sanders
• Dave Hill
• Souchak
• O'Connor Sr.
• Rees
• Coles
• Huggett
• Allis
• Hunt

NEXT, the unranked (but numbered) list of best 26 1-time winners, my own say-so modified by your input

These are not ranked yet, just numbered for my own clarity;

• Couples
• Calcavechhia
• Wadkins
• Love III
• January
• Geiberger
• Charles
• Lehman
• Furyk
• Leonard
• Weiskopf
• Nagle
• Garcia
• Stadler
• Mangrum
• Littler
• Toms
• Rose
• Brewer
• Kite
• DeVicenzo
• A. Scott
• Duval
• Oousthuizen
• Azinger
• Pavin

Not "yet" making my list of 26 best one-time winners...the other 51 (49) guys who won one major (Willet and Dechambeau don't qualify under the 2010 rule) Again, not ranked yet, just trying to get everyone in the door who "qualifies" in the main.

• Nichols.
• Aaron;
• Mahaffey
• Woosnam;
• Todd Hamilton
• Curtis;
• Lema;
• Lawrie;
• Lowry 
• Pate
• Baker-Finch;
• Rogers; 
• Bradley,
• Micheel,
• Beem
• Grady
• Sluman
• Marr.
• J Barber.
• Rosburg
• Hebert
• Immelman,
• Weir;
• Archer
• Wall;
• Keiser;
• Steve Jones;
• Goalby
• Harmon;
• Coody;
• McDowell;
• S. Simpson;
• Mayer
• Furgol;
• Fleck;
• Worsham.
• Dufner
• Cink
• B. Hamilton,
• Ferrier,
• Finsterwald
• Venturi;
• L. Graham;
• Tway;
• Elkington;
• Sutton
• Campbell
• Fr. Molinari
• Schwartzl

[Peter Pallotta]

It really is fascinating. I'm reading the lists over and over, focusing on those golfers who I've watched play for many years. And the question keeps coming up: 'What makes for a good golfer?' And the related questions: 'How do we judge one good golfer better than another?' Which is another way of asking 'What defines good golf?' And that last question does seem to lead to gca.com-related questions: 'Which golf courses most consistently require and reward good golf?' And more fundamentally: 'Isn't the first and primary function of golf course architecture to highlight and celebrate the game itself?'

[Pete_Pittock]

Not an addition, but Tony Lema is a personal favorite. If his life hadn't been cut short he likely would have been had been ineligible for this list because je would have won more than one.

[V. Kmetz]

Not an addition, but Tony Lema is a personal favorite. If his life hadn't been cut short he likely would have been had been ineligible for this list because je would have won more than one.

Yes, when the hour comes, this list will wish input like this... I have very little idea of how good or what it was like to observe Tony Lema, what he was or wasn't and who he "roughly equates to" in the game that has come after him.


We're not on the 2x winners yet (and it's different guys altogether) but how do you explain Jim Furyk to someone who never really saw him play, but heard his name...


Too other never-wons for the board's consideration:


Chip Beck
Peter Jacobsen

[Thomas Dai]

Shouldn't both genders be considered in such listings? Today is International Women's Day.
atb

I intend to, but the men's side has many more names to sort out. But I will solicit that down the line, perhaps in another thread and then much later joining the two.

+1 and thanks VK. A separate exercise seems appropriate. Also I’m sure there will be things learnt in the compilation of these men’s listings that will be useful when compiling the women’s versions.
Atb

[David_Tepper]

Chip Beck won 4 times and Peter Jacobson won 7 times on the PGA Tour. Their records are clearly a notch or two below guys like Hoch, Cook, Lietzke, Levi, etc.

A better case can be made for Mark McCumber: 10 PGA Tour wins including a Tour Championship and a Players Championship.   

[Kalen Braley]

Don't know if Kuchar was mentioned here, but he stacks up well to someone like Hoch. 9 PGA Tour wins and 5 other wins on other tours, and these seem all the better when you consider he got all of those wins in the Tiger era when they were more difficult to come by...

[Phil Burr]

His name regularly comes up in an unflattering light is other discussions on this site, but I don’t think I’ve seen Brad Faxon come up here.  Eight regular tour wins and top 10s in three of the four majors.  The importance of Lee Elder’s place in the game is unquestionable, but four regular tour wins and nary a top 10 in a major is a playing record slightly stronger than Lon Hinkle.


Have I missed seeing the names of Andy Bean, J.C. Snead and Chi Chi Rodriguez mentioned in this thread?

[JohnVDB]

Dutch Harrison turned pro in 1930 so technically he doesn’t fit the rules, but he didn’t win until 1939 and won a total of 18 PGA Tour events between then and 1958 making the player with the second highest win total in that period who didn’t win a major.  Only Doug Sanders won more. 

[V. Kmetz]

I think Dutch H. has to stay in his lane (pre 1935)...but that is a fine (if anonymous) record...


but all these other names... Bean, Kuchar, McCumber, JC and ChiChi (both of whom I personally have affection for)


Is there any reason not to include them with the 26 non-winners we've got?  As I said, I would want liberality in the first compilation...


I'll update accordingly, this evening.

[Thomas Dai]

Some more names for the mix -


Non-Major -
KJ Choi
George Knudson
Manuel Pinero
Brian Barnes


One Major -
Max Faulkner


atb