PGA Championship victory at Valhalla Xander Schauffele’s came with a big check and a bigger trophy that he quickly put to use to enjoy some celebratory bubbly. But the win also meant he’s forever a major champion—and will never have to answer any questions about not being one again.
If you took a poll of golf fans and media before the start of the PGA that asked who is the best player without a major, Schauffele would have been the overwhelming answer. So, who slides to the top of that list now? Well, that’s a little trickier.
Is it a veteran player who has a lot of close calls? Is it a young gun who has quickly flashed major potential? Or is it some combination of both?
More than a decade ago, we first came up with a mathematical formula to determine such a ranking following Adam Scott’s breakthrough at the 2013 Masters. And by that we mean the type of formula that a fifth-grader could figure out. But it added at least a bit of objectivity to this exercise—Henrik Stenson, who would win the 2016 Open Championship, was No. 1 by the way. Now, we’ve decided to bring it back. With a couple tweaks.
When we first did it, we used a combination of recent wins, close calls in majors and a golfer’s Official World Golf Ranking. But with the OWGR not doling out points for LIV events, we’ve taken that part of the equation out.
We’ve also adjusted the time frame, extending it from two years to five. That gives players a better chance to build up a résumé, but not too long to compile a lot of wins that might not be indicative of their current playing level. We also used an average point total from those years so younger players weren’t penalized just because they haven’t played that long.
We kept a win bonus for bigger victories (a half-point extra for PGA Tour signature events, FedEx Playoff events and now-defunct World Golf Championships) while also adding a full point bonus for winning a FedEx Cup (Hey, playing for $18 million has to be right there with major championship pressure) or a Players Championship. Although that didn’t apply to this list when going back to only 2019. Sorry, Rickie. We also are giving only a half point for LIV victories given the limited fields competing in these events. Sorry, LIV.
Some might argue with our criteria, but it’s hard to argue with the list it produced. Without further ado, here are the current best golfers without a major.
From the moment Xander Schauffele, Sunday’s winner of the PGA Championship, picked up a golf club he was a chaser. Compared to some of his athletic peers, he got a late start to the game, first choosing soccer until he got disgusted with not being able to fully control the results. Unfortunately, he couldn’t play forward, defender and goalie all at the same time.
As a fledgling golfer, Schauffele did not set the highly competitive junior scene in San Diego on fire. He wasn’t a factor on the national tours because his father, Stefan, considered the big-time junior circuits a “money grab” and “they make these kids feel entitled by blowing smoke up their a–.” In the same high school class as Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, Schauffele was lightly recruited for college, first going to Long Beach State before transferring back home to San Diego State, where he won three times.
All along the way, Stefan Schauffele was there to provide constant reality checks with touches of sly motivation. “He bred an underdog mentality into me from a younger age—’You need to go get it, because nothing is going to be handed to you,'” Xander has said.
That attitude has served Schauffele incredibly well in his pro career, considering that, at 30, he had seven PGA Tour victories before this week and wore U.S. colors three times in international cups. But even as he rose to be a top-five player in the world, Schauffele had to shed being the grinder and learn to lead. Too many times, and particularly in majors, he had been on the cusp of a defining breakthrough, only to see others seize the moment. Two runners-up, a pair of thirds and 12 top-10s among 27 major starts were the proof.
Leave a Reply