It seems as if the cream rises to the top at the Masters, with a top golfer usually bestowing the green jacket upon another top golfer year after year. Sure, there have been some unexpected champions, but it got us thinking: Does the Masters produce better champions than other Slams? Let's take a look.
1. Since 1960, 45 of the 56 Masters champions can be regarded as "top" golfers.
Jack Nicklaus six times. Arnold Palmer four times. Tiger Woods four times. Gary Player three times. Nick Faldo three times. Phil Mickelson three times. Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Ben Crenshaw, Jose Maria Olazabal and Bubba Watson twice. That's 37 of 56 champs right there just from multiple winners, not to mention the other golf stars who have a Green Jacket hanging in Augusta: Vijay Singh, Ian Woosnam and Bill Casper among them.
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In all, we have that 45/56 number based off multiple criteria. We consider you a "top" golfer if you've a) won multiple majors, b) won 15 times on the PGA Tour, c) are in the top 10 on the Euro Tour wins list. (Seve only won nine times on the PGA but 50 times in Europe, for instance.)
2. Since 2000, the only golfers to win the Masters without reaching our qualifications are Mike Weir, Zach Johnson, Trevor Immelman and Charl Schwartzel.
Johnson might one day come off this list. You could debate that perhaps Angel Cabrera belongs on it if you're of the belief that lightning can strike twice. I'm not. You can win a major on skill and a fluke. Winning two? Two trophies makes you an all-timer. We're also tweaking the rules for our more recent winners, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott. The Aussie should probably make the cut given his international wins, but we'll project him as a "great" anyway. As for Spieth, if he bursts like a supernova, then you can add him to the Weir List of random winners. But I'll take the bet he doesn't and I'm sure you will too.
3. The last four winners are currently ranked No. 2, No. 4, and No. 7 on the Official World Golf Ranking.
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Two of those are Bubba Watson (No. 4) but the Spieth (No. 2) and Adam Scott (No. 7).
4. The top major winners who haven't won a career Slam almost always have a Masters win on their resumes.
(Note: Since the Masters began in 1934, players from before then aren't considered here.) Of the men with the most majors in history but not the career Slam, here are the tournaments where they fell short.
Tom Watson: 8 majors, no PGA championship (2 Masters, 1 U.S., 5 British)
Arnold Palmer: 7 majors, no PGA championship (4 Masters, 1 U.S., 2 British)
Sam Snead: 7 majors, no U.S. Open (3 Masters, 1 British, 3 PGA)
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Lee Trevino: 6 majors, no Masters (two of each of the rest)
Nick Faldo: 6 majors, no U.S. Open or PGA Championship (3 Masters, 3 British)
Phil Mickelson: 5 majors, no U.S. Open (3 Masters, 1 British, 1 PGA)
Seve Ballesteros: 5 majors, no U.S. Open or PGA Championship (2 Masters, 3 British)
Byron Nelson: 5 majors, no British (2 Masters, 1 U.S., 2 PGA)
Of the 17 men who've won 5+ majors in the Masters era, but haven't won the career Slam, only one, Lee Trevino, came up short at The Masters. The greatest win at Augusta. The numbers don't lie.
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5. The 18 best winning scores in Masters history belong to some of the best players in golf history.
Tiger Woods (-18), Jordan Spieth (-18), Jack Nicklaus (-17), Raymond Floyd (-17), Tiger (-16), Phil Mickelson (-16), Ben Hogan (-14), Ben Crenshaw (-14), Charl Schwartzel (-14), Seve Ballesteros (-13), Fred Couples (-13), Arnold Palmer (-12), Jack (-12), Tom Watson (-12), Nick Faldo (-12), Tiger (-12), Tiger (-12), Angel Cabrera (-12).
You know that's a hell of a list when Fred Couples is one of the two of the "worst." (Again, this is projecting for Spieth.)
All of these stats are impressive and would support my hypothesis but mean nothing without context. If everybody winning a U.S. Open or a British was equally good, then there is no "cream rises" effect at Augusta. So let's look.
6. These are the world rankings of the past four champions in each of the other Slams.
U.S. Open: No. 2 (Spieth), No. 50 (Kaymer), No. 9 (Rose), No. 83 (Simpson)
British Open: No. 16 (Johnson), No. 3 (McIlroy), No. 18 (Mickelson), No. 218 (Els)
PGA Championship: No. 1 (Day), No. 3 (McIlroy), No. 61 (Dufner), No. 3 (McIlroy)
This is a decent gauge but not for four-time major champion Ernie Els bringing down the British Open average with his low ranking. What it shows though is that, as most people probably suspect, the U.S. Open has the most random winners. But does it?
7. Yeah, the U.S. Open has some random heads winning.
A partial list since 1980: David Graham, Larry Nelson, Scott Simpson, Steve Jones, Michael Campbell, Lucas Glover and Webb Simpson. Even odder is the fact that more golfers with multiple championships have only won the U.S. Open. Hale Irwin won it three times. Retief Goosen, Lee Janzen, Andy North and Curtis Strange all won it twice. None won another major. The Masters has a less, but similar number, as putting masters such as Crenshaw, Olazabal and Langer are on the list. So is Bubba, but he gets an asterisk.
(TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
Also, the stat about who's scored best at a Slam partially indicts the quality of Open winners. Sure, Rory, Tiger and Kaymer lead (hmm, maybe time to bring back the rough, USGA), but you also have Lee Janzen, Hale Irwin, Tony Manero, Tony Jacklin and David Graham on the list. But given that golfers are at the whims of the oft-sadistic USGA course planners, we'll throw this stat out as an outlier.
8. The British Open gets a lot of repeat winners.
Since 1960, only Tom Watson has won the British Open 4+ times. Gary, Jack, Seve, Nick and Tiger won three times though. Arnold, Greg Norman and Els won twice. But you'll still get the Darren Clarkes and Stewart Cinks (the nicest guy who will forever go down as a sports villain) and Ben Curtises of the world. Advantage: Augusta.
9. The PGA has perhaps the biggest set of one-hit wonders since 1990:
The Masters (3): Mike Weir (2003), Trevor Immelman (2008), Charl Schwartzel (2011)
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U.S. Open (7): Lee Janzen (1993 and 1998 - two-hit wonder), Retief Goosen (2001 and 2004), Michael Campbell (2005), Lucas Glover (2009), Webb Simpson (2012).
British Open (6): Ian Baker-Finch (1991), Paul Lawrie (1999), Ben Curtis (2003), Todd Hamilton (2004), Stewart Cink (2009), Darren Clarke (2011).
PGA Championship (9): Wayne Grady (1990), John Daly (1991), Mark Brooks (1996), David Toms (2001), Rich Beem (2002), Shaun Micheel (2003), YE Yang (2009), Keegan Bradley (2011), Jason Dufner (2013).
This list is entirely subjective. John Daly makes it in 1991 but not for winning the British in 1995 because he came in to Crooked Stick as the last alternate. Bradley, Schwartzel and Dufner can easily play themselves off this list but haven't done much since winning.
In terms of the greatest one-hit wonders, the Ben Curtis/Todd Hamilton/Shaun Micheel triumvirate in the early 2000s at the British and PGA is hard to beat. But who's the most unlikely winner? It's gotta be Hamilton, right?
10. So, does the Masters have better winners?
The greatest thing you can say about Augusta is that the top of its winners list reads: Jack Nicklaus (6), Arnold Palmer (4), Tiger Woods (4). The three biggest golfers in history have the best hauls at Augusta. Done. Period. Exclamation point.
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