Major quest
Heading to the 98th PGA Championship, who are the best players without a win in a major?
SPRINGFIELD, N. J. Dustin Johnson left the conversation in June. Henrik Stenson politely excused himself from the discussion this month.
But the 19th hole isn’t silent on the topic at hand, for there remain a handful of candidates for the label of best player who hasn’t won a major.
Johnson emphatically rid himself of the tag with a commanding performance at Oakmont Country Club to win the U.S. Open, ending his streak at 11 top-10s in majors without a win. Stenson was a record-breaking machine at Royal Troon when he made his sweet exit from the dialogue by winning the British Open, ending at nine his run of top-10s in a major championship without a victory.
So step right up, Sergio Garcia, for you are front and center among the banter. Bring Rickie Fowler with you and have Lee Westwood tag along. The talk could extend to Matt Kuchar, Patrick Reed and Brandt Snedeker, too.
Heading into Thursday’s start at Baltusrol Golf Club of the 98th PGA Championship, recent history bodes well for those in the conversation, as the last four majors have been won by first-time major winners — Jason Day in last year’s PGA Championship, Danny Willett in this year’s Masters, Johnson and Stenson.
Garcia, 36, has been touted to win not one but multiple majors ever since he ran up the 16th fairway at Medinah Country Club when he nearly ran down Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship. That was the first of 22 top-10s in majors, the last two ties for fifth in the U.S. Open and British Open. Since then there has been a lot of scar tissue, including another three runner-up finishes.
Garcia, who at the 2012 Masters said he wasn’t good enough to win a major, doesn’t put much stock in the conversation, often saying he’ll try his best and see what the clubs will do. Winning a major or not won’t define him, said Garcia, who has 29 other wins worldwide, including one this year in the AT&T Byron Nelson.
Westwood, 43, has 18 top-10s in majors, including a tie for second in the Masters in April. He hasn’t paid much heed to the conversation.
World No. 7 Fowler, 27, and No. 10 Garcia are the only players in the top 10 who haven’t won a major. Fowler joined the conversation in 2014 when he became one of four players — the others being Jack Nicklaus, Woods and Jordan Spieth — to finish in the top five in every major in one season. The other three won majors those years. Fowler didn’t.
“I think it’s a compliment (to be in the conversation),” Fowler said Monday during a practice round on the Lower Course. “Obviously you’re not part of the elite who have won majors. I’ve been close, had chances. And it has been fun watching guys who have been close before win majors. “Now we have to step up.” Fowler has struggled lately and has missed the cut in three of his last seven majors.
“I love the feeling of majors,” he said. “But it’s tough. There are only four a year. And if your game is not on, it’s hard to put yourself in position for a good finish.
“The majors pick your game apart a little bit more, a little bit more demanding, so you can’t fake it.”
Koepka back:
World No. 18 Brooks Koepka is back after a month of rehab on his troublesome right ankle, joking that it is still attached.
He hopes he can finish 72 holes this week; the trouble is, he hasn’t walked 18 in one day in five weeks.
Koepka was No. 3 in the Ryder Cup standings for the USA the first day of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational last month when he aggravated his right ankle to the point he had to withdraw. He also couldn’t play in his favorite tournament, the British Open, and has fallen to ninth in the Ryder Cup standings.
Shortly after leaving Firestone Country Club, he rehabbed his ankle from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. He started hitting balls Saturday.
“It wasn’t fun not playing the Open. But if I had played over there, I wouldn’t be here,” Koepka said. “If it was the left ankle I would have been fine, but I couldn’t put weight on the right ankle and push off on it.”
Besides hoping his ankle holds up on the long walks across Baltusrol, he’s just as concerned about uneven and awkward lies and stances in bunkers.
“We’ll see how it goes,” he said.