Who Is Best Golfer With No Major?

Before Phil Mickelson broke through at the 2004 Masters, Lefty held the ultimate "kissing your sister" title. Phil was the "best player to never have won a major championship." Sure, Phil had made waves in majors, nearly taking the title at the 1999 U.S. Open and the 2001 PGA Championship, but he couldn't break through. Once the infamous birdie leap occurred at Augusta National in '04, Mickelson passed that title off to someone. The thing is, nobody has really grabbed it as feverishly as Phil did. He was the major-less face. Now, according to Forbes, it isn't Sergio Garcia.

Forbes compiled a list to see who the best player without a major title is today. Their criteria was advanced but consistent.

In compiling our list, we looked at all non-major-winners' results in the majors since 2005 (including the recently concluded Masters). We penalized players for not making the cut and for failing to qualify for a major (slightly lesser penalties were assessed for not qualifying for the Masters, which has a smaller field than the other three). The four-plus years seemed like the right amount of time to weed out some of the past-their-prime players, like 45-year-old Colin Montgomerie, who no longer really pose a threat in majors.

Who won their test? Mr. Burberry himself, Adam Scott. The 28-year-old Aussie might not have a lot of top-10 success at the majors, but he doesn't miss a lot of cuts and gets into them all. In the last 17 majors, Scott has missed just three cuts.

Second, which might surprise some, is Ian Poulter. As you may remember, the Englishman finished second last year to Padraig Harrington at the British Open, making a clutch par save on the 18th that some (including myself) thought might have been enough to get Poulter in a playoff. That was, of course, up until Harrington went all "eagle the 17th" on us, basically dashing Poulter and his pants chances at a major.

The rest of the list goes like this.

1. Scott
2. Poulter
3. Stuart Appleby
4. Garcia
5. Stewart Cink
6. Paul Casey
7. Stephen Ames
8. Tim Clark
9. KJ Choi
10. Lee Westwood

Like my buddy Jay Busbee pointed out over at Devil Ball Golf, no matter the number crunching, Sergio will always be the best player without a major. Sure, he might not have made as many cuts as Scott, but Garcia has finished second to Harrington twice when he won major championships, even going into a playoff at Carnoustie two years ago.

I like that Appleby got some high praise. I think he is one of the better players on tour, but doesn't get a ton of credit because he just goes about his business. In the '07 Masters, Appleby had a chance to win on Sunday, which is more than some of the guys on this list can say.

Also, Tiger Woods called, and asked if there was any way Stephen Ames could be moved to 9 or 8. Get it? 9 & 8!