Closets that are missing a green jacket
Now that Rory McIlroy has slipped on his coveted piece of Masters apparel, Gary Van Sickle reranks the list of Best Players to Never Win a Masters, including some who still have a chance.
Everybody can relax now. Rory McIlroy has landed his white whale, the Masters Tournament.
That win completed his career Grand Slam, a feat accomplished by only five other golfing immortals — Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Almost as important, McIlroy erased his name from the list of Best Players to Never Win a Masters. So with McIlroy out, who’s left among the Masters men who have nearly won?
My updated rankings are based on career achievements and performances in majors. Also, a nominee must have won at least one major title. (Sorry about that, Colin Montgomerie.)
The list …
1. Lee Trevino
The elitist feel of Augusta National always rubbed Trevino the wrong way. Also, he believed Augusta National was a course for a high-ball hitter who played a draw and he was a low-ball hitter who played a fade. He could have overcome that, and he’ll tell you he should have, but he let it affect his attitude. Trevino racked up 29 PGA Tour wins, including six majors — two each of the other three. Trevino is also the best player who didn’t win the Career Slam. Imagine a match between Trevino in his prime and McIlroy? Nothing personal, Rory, but it’s SuperMex all day.
2. Greg Norman
Yeah, yeah, we know. But give the man some respect. He was No. 1 in the world for 331 weeks. He was long off the tee, relatively straight, and he could chip and putt. The Shark won the Saturday Slam in 1986 — he led all four majors after 54 holes. But he won only one, the British Open. He was victimized by Nicklaus at the 1986 Masters when Nicklaus blistered the back nine with a 6-under 30 (and Norman didn’t help himself by blocking his approach on the 18th hole in the final round way right). There was also 1996, the disaster when he lost the big lead and was beaten by Nick Faldo. Norman was the game’s star attraction for a full decade until Tiger Woods arrived in 1996. Shark would also rank high on the Never Won a PGA list, too.
3. Ernie Els
It’s easy to forget how good The Big Easy was. He won four majors — two each of the U.S. and British Opens, but unfortunately had to compete in the Tiger Woods Era. Els was twice a Masters runner-up — to Vijay Singh in 2000 and Phil Mickelson in 2004 — and his effortless-looking swing and putting prowess had him in contention in a lot of majors. He had six seconds in majors; five third and 23 top-five finishes. Els had a Hall of Fame career, just no lifetime pass to Augusta.
4. Brooks Koepka
It seemed like a stunning achievement when Koepka became the first since Curtis Strange in 1989 to win back-to-back U.S. Opens, then Koepka went back-to-back in the PGA Championship, too, holding off Woods at Bellerive with stellar iron play. Koepka was runner-up twice at the Masters — the year Woods scored his encore win in 2019 and in 2023, when Jon Rahm steamrolled the field and Koepka and Mickelson shared second place, four shots back. Koepka is considered a big-game hunter because his record in majors is so strong — he’s won five majors and finished in the top five 14 times. If he regains his edge, he’s 34, he still has time to make a run at the career Grand Slam. Now he’s got Rory, Scottie Scheffler and a few others to beat.
5. Johnny Miller
He was a gifted iron player and prone to sensational low scoring. Miller, who later became more famous as NBC’s golf analyst, won 25 times on the PGA Tour. His closing 63 at Oakmont to win the 1973 U.S. Open ranks among golf’s greatest rounds. He also won a British Open. Miller’s three runner-up finishes at the Masters included 1975, when Nicklaus made the long putt across the green at the par-3 16th hole in the final round. He never got a Masters and, unfortunately for us, never got to call a Masters as a color analyst because he worked for NBC. The latter would have been entertaining, at least until his unfiltered comments got him the Gary McCord bikini-wax/body-bag hook from the Masters chairman.
6. Justin Rose
Come on, this guy has held the lead in 10 Masters rounds, twice as many as the next player, and his second playoff loss in a Masters is still fresh in our minds. With a little luck, he could have won four or five majors. He hangs around near the lead a lot —three Masters runner-ups; two British Open runner-ups and 12 top-five finishes. Well, he won a U.S. Open at Merion and an Olympic gold medal. Hall of Famer.
7. Gene Littler
“Gene the Machine” was a star amateur player, winning a U.S. Amateur and also winning a PGA Tour player event as an amateur. He piled up 29 PGA Tour wins in a long career. His closest call in Augusta came when he lost a playoff to Billy Casper in 1970. His only major win was the 1961 U.S. Open and he unluckily played during the prime years of golf’s Big Three — Arnold Palmer, Nicklaus and Player. Littler was a runner-up in all three American majors. Due to the difficulty of overseas travel, he competed only four times in the Open Championship.
8. Lloyd Mangrum
Known as “The Mustache,” Mangrum was quite a figure in golf. He served in World War II and was wounded in the European theater of operations. He had been offered a cushy war-time job as a golf pro at a base in Maryland but he declined. He went on to win 36 times and won Vardon Trophies for low scoring average in 1951 and 1953. He was among the top players in the 1940s and early 1950s. His only major title was the 1946 U.S. Open. Mangrum had two seconds, two thirds and two fourths in the Masters, and may be best remembered for shooting the Masters course record of 64 in 1940, a mark that stood 46 years until Nick Price posted 63 in 1986.
9. Lanny Wadkins
The quick-swinging Texan won 20 times on Tour and was a regular contender in majors. He won one PGA Championship, but was oh-so-close to scoring half a dozen more. Wadkins was third in three Masters; seventh or better, including a runner-up finish in five U.S. Opens; and second in three PGA Championships and third in another. Overall, he had 11 top-five finishes in majors. He was also the guy nobody on the European side wanted to play in the Ryder Cup. A little more patience might have helped. Wadkins once hastily back-handed a tap-in at the Masters and missed, when he was in contention at the time. As a golf coach I know used to say, “You can’t do that.”
10. Payne Stewart
He won only 11 times in a career cut short by a tragic plane crash. Stewart was a superb feel player with a rhythmic swing and a true character who liked to show off, especially on golf’s biggest stages. He was runner-up in two British Opens, but never really made a run at a Masters. In 14 Masters, his only top-finishes were eighth and ninth. We all wish he’d gotten another dozen chances at Augusta.
Honorable Mention
> Davis Love: Twenty-one wins, runner-up twice at Augusta National to Ben Crenshaw in 1995 and Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999.
> Nick Price: Three major titles, including two PGA Championships, plus the Masters course record of 63 (now shared with Norman in the 1986 Masters) when his final birdie lipped in and out of the cup to lift him to a fifth-place finish. He didn’t get close enough to let a green jacket slip away. FYI, Tiger Woods’ best Masters round is 65.
> Country of Sweden (field entry): Henrik Stenson, Open champion and Players Championship winner; Ludvig Aberg, second and fifth in his first two Masters; Jesper Parnevik, two Open Championship runner-ups; Jonas Blixt, a 2014 Masters runner-up that you’ve forgotten; Robert Karlsson, who had a top-5 finish in every major except the Masters, where his best was eighth; and Annika Sorenstam. Annika? Hey, the Masters chairman has the power to do whatever he wants. He could have invited her. The perfect twist: Annika is the only Swedish player with a Green Jacket. She’s an Augusta National member now.
> Brandel Chamblee: Hah, give yourself five bonus points for reading this far. Chamblee qualified for only one Masters and tied for 18th. His claim to fame from that outing (beside having me chronicle his week in diary form for Sports Illustrated) was being paired the first two rounds with Jose Maria Olazabal, who went on to win his second Masters.
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Lloyd Mangrum. Silver Star (our 3rd highest award) Purple Heart at Battle of the bulge, and then wins our Open about a year later. No wonder they were called the greatest generation.
Nice idea. Some miltary golfers never made it off the military base golf course, as Mangrum declined to do. def a story to be done. i wrote a lengthy piece on Nelson for The Memorial Tournament Magazine a few years ago, discussed his service at length. don't think you can
find it online anywhere, however, it was only in print.