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

[Ira Fishman]

Doug Sanders
Lee Elder


Ira

[Mike_Trenham]

Doug Sanders


20 Wins


Best Finish in Majors
PGA 2nd
Masters 4th
US Open 2nd
Open Championship 2nd


Won Canadian Open as an amateur
First professional win was Western Open

[Bruce Katona]

Didn't John Cook win a US Am?.......is that counting s a major?

[V. Kmetz]

Scott, A.

Yes, I thought he had won two - but I forgot he lost that other one

[V. Kmetz]

Didn't John Cook win a US Am?.......is that counting s a major?

It' not rigid, but I was not including Senior or Amateur wins

[V. Kmetz]

Sanders, Scott, Elder definitely belong to their respective lists... I'll update as ensuing.

[Jeff Schley]

We all missed Donald... I didn't include Fowler because he wasn't playing as of 2010 (?) or am I wrong?

Fowler was ROY in 2010 so yes he was active.

[V. Kmetz]

OK, Fowler... I was trying to cut him some slack, but Willet may come off the 1-x list

[Niall C]

A lot of Euro nominations and when you look at how often they played in the US based majors you see why;


Neil Coles - first pro win 1956, last discounting senior tour 1982 - no. of US majors played 1


Sam Torrance - first pro win 1972, last discounting seniors tour 1998 - no. of US majors played 13


Peter Allis - first pro win 1952, last discounting seniors tour 1969 - no. of US majors played 2


Brian Huggett - first pro win 1963, last discounting seniors tour 1978 - no. of US majors played 1


Bernard Hunt - first pro win 1952, last discounting seniors tour 1973 - no. of US based majors played 2


and then you have...


Peter Oosterhuis - first pro win 1970, last discounting seniors tour 1981 - no. of US based majors played 29


Stands to reason that you might have a higher proportion of Euro's. If you don't go to the land of opportunity then .........


Niall

[Mike_DeVries]

You don't have to, but I'm starting to put this against the list of the best 19/73 ONE-time major winners in the time frame: (stopping PGA winners at 1958 Match/Stroke change)

• Couples
• Calcavechhia
• Wadkins
• Love III
• January
• Geiberger
• Charles
• Lehman
• Furyk
• Leonard
• Weiskopf
• Nagle
• Garcia
• Stadler
• Mangrum
• Littler
• Toms
• Rose
• Brewer

(Not making my list of 16 best one-time winners)
20. Venturi;
21. L. Graham; 22. Tway, 23. Elkington, 24. Sutton; 25. Campbell
26. Nichols. 27. Aaron; 28. Mahaffey 29. Azinger, 30. Woosnam;
31 Duval, 32. Todd Hamilton 33. Curtis; 34. Lema; 35. Lawrie;
36; Lowry  37. Pate 38. Baker-Finch; 39. Rogers;  40. Oosteheizen
41. Bradley, 42. Micheel, 43. Willet, 44. Beem 45. Grady
46. Sluman 47. Marr. 48. J Barber. 49. Rosburg 50. Jy. Hebert
51. DeVicenzo; 52. Immelman, 53. Weir; 54. Archer 55. Wall;
56. Keiser; 57. Steve Jones; 58. Goalby 59. Harmon; 60. Coody; 
61. ; 62; McDowell; 63. Pavin; 64. S. Simpson; 65. Mayer
66. Furgol; 67; Fleck; 68. Worsham. 69. Dufner 70. Cink
71..B. Hamilton, 72. Ferrier, 73. Finsterwald

I think you gotta put Roberto DeVicenzo at the top of the 1-timer list.  Won the Open at Hoylake in 67, should have had a chance (a very good one) at the 68 Masters if he hadn't made the scorecard goof, and, most of all, won 230 times AROUND the world, traveling from Argentina to Europe on a slow boat back in the late 40's and 50's.  Pretty impressive.

[V. Kmetz]

I think you gotta put Roberto DeVicenzo at the top of the 1-timer list.  Won the Open at Hoylake in 67, should have had a chance (a very good one) at the 68 Masters if he hadn't made the scorecard goof, and, most of all, won 230 times AROUND the world, traveling from Argentina to Europe on a slow boat back in the late 40's and 50's.  Pretty impressive.

I'm willing to, who is the best candidate for replacement


(and the lists need raw update from earlier today)...Sanders, Elder, A Scott

[Adrian_Stiff]

1947- Frank Stranahan he came 2nd in two majors that year

[Thomas Dai]

Louis Oosthuizen has 1 victory in a Major but has been Runner-Up in all 4 of them, losing 2 in play-offs. Oh what could have been. So near and yet so far. Come on Louis, win at least another.
atb

[AJ_Foote]

Louis Oosthuizen has 1 victory in a Major but has been Runner-Up in all 4 of them, losing 2 in play-offs. Oh what could have been. So near and yet so far. Come on Louis, win at least another.
atb

And, the most beautiful golf swing in the world.

[Mike_Clayton]

Jumbo Ozaki and Isao Aoki?


114 and 80 professional wins respectively.


Of course they didn't play much outside Japan, but would love to get an opinion from those who saw them up close - maybe Clayts or Pat Burke (or others).


Jumbo - amazing in Japan with his only win outside of his home at the NZ PGA in the early 1970s Aoki travelled much better. They were mega-stars at home but no one paid much attention to them outside of Japan - relatively.
If you want to know why Japanese players have not played as well outside of Japan look to the Korean women for the answer.
They are tough, travel anywhere to play and feel like they have to play well outside of their home to prove they are worthy.

Andrew

[Mike_Clayton]

Lots of names I’d nominate mentioned already.
Here are two more -
Graham Marsh
Eduardo Romero
Atb

Amazing it took this long for someone to mention Graham Marsh. Bruce Devlin was a hell of a player too.

[Jeff Schley]

The Gene Machine, Gene Littler. 1 US Open and 29 pga tour wins. Think he should be alittle higher.

[David Ober]

We always forget Scott Hoch. We talk strength/depth of field when arguing about Nicklaus vs Woods, i.e. 'who'd they beat to win their majors'. Well, Scott Hoch won 11 times on the PGA Tour at a time when it featured a much deeper/stronger field than the Euro Tour did -- and when a very significant majority of the world's best golfers played in America week after week.

Bruce Lietzke is a good choice too; I saw Ben Crenshaw in an interview marveling and being envious of his sheer/natural talent.

Scott Hoch was a crazy good short and mid-iron player. Used to hear stories about him where he'd just knock down flags multiple times in rounds when he was on from 80 to 150. Asked a couple Tour pros who the best full wedge player was in their day, and Hoch always came up. He had a very upright and steep swing, which can be deadly with lofted clubs, but can lead to issues with driver. If I remember correctly, he was never an elite driver of the ball, but was streaky enough with it to win 11 times.

[Peter Pallotta]

David - thanks, I didn't know that but it rings true. I have always remembered (though more dimly nowadays) a duel that Hoch had with Furyk, coming down the stretch and then in a playoff at a Florida stop -- I think it was Doral. He just kept hitting iron after iron right at the pins. What a terrific iron player -- hurt in some circles by his seemingly grumpy demeanour and in other circles by his comment about The Old Course and identified too closely by all with that short missed putt at the Masters.

[Greg Clark]

Bruce Crampton won 14 times on the PGA Tour, had 4 second place finishes in majors (all to Jack Nicklaus wins), and won the Vardon Trophy in 1973 and 1975.  Also won 20 times on the Champions Tour, and had a total of 45 professional victories across all tours.


Easy choice.

[V. Kmetz]

Bruce Crampton won 14 times on the PGA Tour, had 4 second place finishes in majors (all to Jack Nicklaus wins), and won the Vardon Trophy in 1973 and 1975.  Also won 20 times on the Champions Tour, and had a total of 45 professional victories across all tours.

Easy choice.

Yes, an omission, I thought of him originally, but forgot as more came piling in

[Michael Moore]

To qualify, you must have started after 1935 and have been playing as of 2010.

Can you clarify this? Nobody who started in 1936 was playing in 2010. Thanks.

[V. Kmetz]

Meaning came on line after there were 4 pro majors (1934)... and 2010 is to ensure that no one "currently" without one is conclusively given a bum rap for not having one yet... (jury's is still out)


I didn't want us to have make conclusions on non-winners right now, that haven't had the full chance, like Fowler...

[Kalen Braley]

Well,


If we're going to best player who only won 2 majors, is there any competition to The Shark?

[V. Kmetz]

UPDATED

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

First, 25 best NON- winner 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 25 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

(Not making my list of 25 best one-time winners...the other 50 (49) guys who won once, 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;
• Pavin;
• S. Simpson;
• Mayer
• Furgol;
• Fleck;
• Worsham.
• Dufner
• Cink
• B. Hamilton,
• Ferrier,
• Finsterwald
• Venturi;
• L. Graham;
• Tway;
• Elkington;
• Sutton
• Campbell
• Fr. Molinari