10 Best Golfers Who Never Won the PGA Championship
Note that we did not consider all the golf greats without a PGA Championship win for this list. Those who played entirely or mostly prior to the founding of the PGA Championship — Harry Vardon, for example — were not considered.
The PGA Championship is open only to professionals, so Bobby Jones never played it. And PGA of America rules, plus travel difficulties, kept many of the best non-Americans from the 1930s into the 1960s — Peter Thomson and Bobby Locke, for example — from playing the PGA.
Therefore, only golfers who played the PGA Championship multiple times without winning were examined in the making of this ranking. With that out of the way, let's now count down to the best golfer of all-time who was never able (or not yet able, in the case of the one active golfer on the list) to win the PGA Championship:
10. Hale Irwin
A 20-time winner on the PGA Tour, Irwin was known as a tough competitor on tough courses. He earned that reputation by winning three U.S. Opens. But in 26 appearances in the PGA Championship, Irwin finished in the Top 10 just three times.
9. Johnny Miller
Miller's legendary ball-striking was on full display in the early to mid-1970s. He won 25 times total, including two majors. But he never managed so much as a Top 10 in the PGA.
8. Nick Faldo
Faldo won three Masters and three British Opens, and he at least got into a playoff at the U.S. Open. At the PGA Championship, Faldo had five Top 10 finishes but never won. He did have an impressive stretch from 1992-1994, when he finished second, third and fourth, respectively.
7. Ernie Els
Els won 28 times on the European Tour and 19 times on the U.S. PGA Tour. Those victories included four wins in majors, two each in the U.S. Open and Open Championship. His best PGA Championship finish was third place, which he accomplished in 1995 and 2007. Four other times he finished seventh place or better.
6. Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler is the one golfer on this list who is still active, and we doubt there is anyone reading this who doesn't think Scheffler will eventually win a PGA Championship. But through 2025 (his first tour wins happened in 2022), the PGA Championship was still the one major trophy Scheffler needed to complete the career grand slam. He had crossed the 20-win plateau on the PGA Tour and had victories in each of the other three majors.
5. Cary Middlecoff
Middlecoff, a dentist by training, won 39 times (including three majors) on the PGA Tour. He was infamous for being one of the slowest players of his time, or any time. Before the PGA Championship switched to stroke play in 1958, Middlecoff reached the match play finals in 1955 but lost to Doug Ford (Ford had his son carry a folding chair so that Dad could take a seat and rest during the championship match as Middlecoff dawdled over shots). In the stroke-play era, Middlecoff's best finish was eighth in five appearances.
4. Seve Ballesteros
Ballesteros missed the cut in five out of his 13 appearances in the PGA Championship. He finished in the Top 20 only three times, although one of those was a fifth-place showing. The European Tour's all-time wins leader had five victories in other majors.
3. Billy Casper
For a guy with 51 career PGA Tour wins, Billy Casper sure seems to be underrated when discussions turn to golf's all-time greats. Perhaps that's because he won "only" three majors. The PGA was not one of those three. Casper posted eight Top 10 finishes (six of which were Top 5s), however, including three runner-up showings (1958, 1965, 1971), which gets him on the list of golfers with the most seconds in the PGA Championship.
2. Tom Watson
The only tournament standing between Tom Watson and the career grand slam was the PGA Championship. While he won eight majors and 39 PGA Tour titles total in his career, he never bagged the PGA.Watson played the PGA Championship very well throughout his career, posting 10 Top 10 finishes, including one as late as 2000, when he was 51. He ranks among the tournament's all-time leaders in both Top 10 finishes and Top 25 finishes. However, only two of those finishes were in the Top 5.
Watson's toughest defeat at the PGA was in 1978, when he blew a five-stroke lead after 54 holes, then lost in a playoff.
1. Arnold Palmer
Sixty-two wins in his career, including seven majors, but The King never managed to win the PGA Championship. That's the one thing missing on Palmer's resume, and it's the one tournament that also prevented him from completing the career grand slam.Palmer finished second in the PGA three times: 1964 at Columbus Country Club in Columbus, Ohio; 1968 at Pecan Valley Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas; and 1970 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
In 1964, Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were tied, three shots behind winner Bobby Nichols. In 1968, Palmer tied with Bob Charles in second, one shot behind winner Julius Boros. In 1970, Palmer and Bob Murphy shared second, two strokes behind winner Dave Stockton.
Palmer had three other Top 10 finishes over the years.
Related articles:
