AUGUSTA, Georgia – One thing separates the Masters from every other major championship and I’m not talking about Amen Corner, pimento cheese sandwiches or Rev. Jim Nantz.
It is the champions. Nearly all of the game’s all-time greatest golfers won a Masters. Only two exceptions come to mind, see below.
The U.S. Open can’t make the same claim. Sam Snead, Phil Mickelson, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo didn’t win it. Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Ernie Els, Seve and Sir Nick never snagged a PGA Championship. The logistics and cost kept many top American players from competing in the Open Championship, which didn’t change until Palmer showed up in 1960. Big American names to never win an Open include Byron Nelson, Raymond Floyd, Jimmy Demaret, Cary Middlecoff and Billy Casper.
And, of course, Colin Mongomerie and Lee Westwood never won any of the four majors.
Was Rory McIlroy one of the game’s all-time greats even before he won last year’s Masters? Interesting question. We don’t have to debate it, though, because now he’s got a green jacket. That win completed the modern career Grand Slam for him, a feat achieved only by Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Bobby Jones, of course, knocked off the original Grand Slam—the U.S. Amateur and Open and the British Amateur and Open. That makes McIlroy the greatest European player of all-time, with apologies to Ballesteros and Faldo, who won six majors each, one more than McIlroy. But McIlroy’s career slam sets him apart .
Nicklaus once talked about the slate of nominees for the World Golf Hall of Fame. He was on the panel of experts involved the voting. He looked at the list of candidates and noted, “This is the Hall of Fame and this looks like the Hall of Pretty Good.” There was no offense intended, he was right on the money. The Hall has quite a few very good players but there’s a fine line, a debatable line, between very good and great. Plenty of very good players never got their majors.
Here’s a list of players who were among the best to never win a Masters…
Lee Trevino is easily the greatest champion who didn’t win a Masters. The course didn’t suit his strengths, a low-ball flight and a fade, but he also felt slighted in the ‘60s by the undercurrent of racial tension at the all-white Augusta National. It all got in his head, he’s admitted it. The man won seven other majors and Nicklaus called him the best ball-striker he’d ever seen. Trevino is the exception to the rule about needing a Masters to be truly great.
Peter Thompson, an Australian, is the other exception. He won five Open Championships, four of them in a five-year span. Travel from Australia was difficult in the 1950s. Thomson played in only a handful of Masters and U.S. Opens and thus never expanded his major championship resume. After Thompson’s passing in 2018 at the age of 88, Gary Player said, “Peter Thompson probably has the best record–five major championships, five Open Championships. He won tournaments all over the world and was as straight a hitter as I ever saw. What a golfer, unbelievable.”
Brooks Koepka didn’t tarnish his reputation when he jumped to the rival LIV Golf league. He added another PGA Championship—his fifth major—while he played on that tour. Only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson won more majors this century than Koepka. Yet is he one of the all-time greats? A Masters as his sixth major might get him into that stratosphere. He finished second in Augusta in 2019 and 2023. It could still happen.
Ernie Els won four majors and is probably underappreciated because his elegant swing made it appear that golf was easy for him and then he ran into Tiger Woods in the prime of his career. He won a pair of U.S. Opens in the ‘90s and a pair of Open Championships but had a pair of heartbreaking runnerup finishes at Augusta among his 13 total second- and third-place results in majors.
Greg Norman. The Shark’s story is well-known. He had eight runnerup finishes in majors but his three Masters near-misses are almost remembered more than his two Open Championship titles. He nearly derailed the Jack Nicklaus 1986 miracle at Augusta but botched his approach to the 18th hole. He lost the 1987 Masters in a playoff when Larry Mize chipped in and he fumbled the 1996 Masters when he blew a big lead in the final round and was edged by Nick Faldo. Tough luck. Had Norman been a better closer, he easily could have won eight or ten major championships. But he didn’t and he never got a Masters, the one course that seemingly suited his game better than all the rest.
Justin Rose has 12 top-5 finishes in majors, including three runnerup finishes at the Masters. He lost that stunner last year to McIlroy in a playoff. Sergio Garcia edged him in a playoff at the 2017 Masters. He won the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, a memorable event, for his only major but with a little better luck he could have won five majors.
Johnny Miller was one of the game’s greatest iron players, which made a Masters title seem almost inevitable. We never knew that when he was blistering low scores in the mid-‘70s, he wasn’t always comfortable with his putting. He liked to refer to the Masters as the National Spring Putting Championship because he never made quite enough putts to get a green jacket. He won a U.S. Open at Oakmont and an Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Two majors? Pretty good. Three majors with a green jacket? Probably great.
Lloyd Mangrum was a star in the early years of American golf, a legit Hall of Famer with 36 wins. He shot 64 at Augusta in 1940, a course record. It must’ve been a pretty good round because that record stood for 46 years until Nick Price posted 63. In the Masters, Mangrum was second twice; third twice; and fourth twice. Pretty good for a patriot who was wounded in Europe during World War II.
Bryson DeChambeau has a long way to go to be considered among the game’s greatest. Two U.S. Open titles are on his resume and it helps that his win at Pinehurst showcased one of the Open’s most memorable shots, a long bunker shot to two feet on the last hole. So far, Augusta National has had his number but he may be figuring it out. He placed sixth in ’24 and fifth last year. Progress but PGA Tour victories are an important measuring stick and DeChambeau has won nine. He’s 32, the clock is ticking.
Payne Stewart won 11 times, three of them majors, including a pair of U.S. Open triumphs, a notably memorable one at Pinehurst with a walk-off putt. He never seriously contended in Augusta but his sweet-tempo swing was widely admired. His career was tragically cut short by a plane crash.
Gene Littler was a consummate pro known as “Gene the Machine” for his consistent ball-striking. He won a U.S. Amateur and won a PGA Tour event as an amateur, too, among his 29 PGA Tour wins. The 1961 U.S. Open was his only major victory but he came close in Augusta in 1970 when he lost a playoff to Billy Casper. In fact, Littler finished as runnerup in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship as well.
Nick Price shot the 63 in Augusta that has been matched but still not beaten in 40 years. The quick-swinging Price had a great run in the ‘90s when he won a pair of PGA Championship and a memorable Open Championship at Turnberry. That 63 in Augusta, by the way, featured a lip-out birdie putt on the final hole that Price liked to joke that Augusta National founder Bobby Jones reached up and kept it out. Price placed fifth that year.
Larry Nelson won a pair of PGA Championships and a duel with Tom Watson at Oakmont in the U.S. Open during his Hall of Fame career. He was known for his ball-striking prowess and his match-play prowess—his record in three Ryder Cups was 9-3-1. He was not known for his putting, however, and that was a key to his relative lack of Masters success. His best finish was fifth in 1984.
