Billy Mayfair won’t hear “the question.” Neither will Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker, Phil Blackmar, Scott Verplank or John Huston.
Those golfers haven’t reached the level at which expectations come into play. They will be spared from answering “the question.”
But not so Colin Montgomerie. Or Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and David Duval.
They will hear “the question” over and over again at this week’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Redmond, Wash., just outside of Seattle. They will hear it in their sleep, or more than likely, in their nightmares.
“When are you going to win a major?”
It is a question that is at once a compliment and a biting indictment. It says the golfer is good enough to have won one of these things. In fact, he should have won a major by now.
But at the same time, by not having one in the portfolio, “the question” brings more questions, none of them flattering.
Can you win only the lesser tournaments? Is something missing at gut-check time?
And the one that cuts to the chase: Do you lack heart?
Perhaps the worst label to have in golf is this one: best player not to win a major.
The title comes with a lot of money. Usually, the player is in the top 10 on the money-winning list.
But he would gladly give up a few of those dollars–more than a few, actually–for one green jacket or a Claret Jug or a Wanamaker Trophy. If you are a player on the list, the best part of finally winning a major isn’t the money or the adulation. It’s never having to hear “the question” again.
When Mark O’Meara finally won his major at the Masters in April, he said, “I guess I won’t be asked about not winning a major anymore.”
Davis Love III felt the same way. He had had a good but majorless career until he finally broke through at last year’s PGA Championship.
Now when Love tees it up Thursday, he will be introduced as the PGA champion. Everything else is just icing.
“I’ve planned my career trying to win a major championship,” Love said. “Then to have that dream come true has been a great experience.”
When Justin Leonard won last year’s British Open, he knew he had cleared a big hurdle by winning a major at 25. He was spared from ever having to hear “the question.”
“You know, getting that out of the way, I just feel more at ease,” Leonard said.
The opposite is true the longer a big-name player goes without winning a major. Mickelson says he and Montgomerie often joke about the “major thing,” as the two reigning best players never to have won one. But the line often is accompanied by a nervous, tense laugh, because they know there’s nothing funny about it.
When Montgomerie suffered another near-miss at last year’s U.S. Open, which brought him to tears, he admitted that “this major business” was getting to him. At this year’s U.S. Open, he talked of changing his attitude and putting less pressure on himself for the majors. It didn’t work; he wasn’t in contention for the Open and didn’t even make the cut at the British Open.
Montgomerie knows his career never will be complete until he wins a major. That’s the ultimate validation for a golfer–to win against the best field on the hardest course in prime time when the pressure is at its toughest.
Tom Kite, who perhaps held the best-player-never-to-win-a-major label for the longest run, retired “the question” when he won the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Tom Lehman’s near-misses in the U.S. Open have been softened by his victory in the 1996 British Open.
Instead of hearing “the question,” O’Meara, with his two major victories this year, now is being asked if he considers himself “a great player.” Two tournaments and suddenly the perception of an entire career is altered.
That’s the power of winning a major. The PGA Championship offers one last shot in 1998 for one of the players on the list to avoid having to go into next year with “the question” hanging over him.
Ranking the best players never to have won a major:
1. Colin Montgomerie: Forget about winning a major. The best player in Europe would just like to win a tournament in the United States.
Montgomeries has come close, losing in playoffs in the 1994 U.S. Open and the 1995 PGA Championship. He was second in the 1997 U.S. Open.
This year Montgomerie finished eighth in the Masters and 18th in the Open. There were big expectations for the British Open, but he missed the cut with a 73 and 74.
Montgomerie is a great player, but he knows if he wants to be considered in the same class as fellow Europeans Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros, he has to win a major. Maybe this week, where the tight Sahalee course fits Montgomerie’s accurate driving game.
2. Phil Mickelson: The left-hander won 12 tournaments before he turned 28, which is amazing. But Mickelson has yet to be a factor in the majors. He finished third in the 1996 Masters, but that was the year of Nick Faldo and Greg Norman. This year he came into the final round of the Masters in contention but blew up with a 74 to finish 12th.
Mickelson’s lack of major success has made his stock drop this year. He is starting to get the reputation as a soft player who can win only lesser events. That view will only intensify until Mickelson does something in a major.
3. David Duval: At this time last year, Duval was “the best player never to have won a tournament.” He shed that label by winning five championships since last fall.
The expectations are much higher for the PGA Tour’s leading money winner. Duval now is one of the favorites to win every tournament he enters.
He had his chance at the Masters, owning a three-shot lead on the back nine in the final round. But he wound up losing by a stroke to O’Meara. He finished tied for seventh at the U.S. Open and tied for 11th in the British Open, but he never was in contention in those tournaments.
Duval is only 26, and this is his first year in the spotlight. But the pressure of expectations will start building soon, if it hasn’t already.
4. Jim Furyk: If his cumulative showing in majors counted, Furyk would be a hands-down winner. Since finishing fourth in last year’s British Open, he was sixth in the PGA, fourth in the Masters and fourth in this year’s British Open.
Furyk always is in the money, but he is starting to get the reputation as a player who can’t get over the top. He has two second-place finishes this year, but no championships. He has only two career titles.
Furyk had a chance on the final day of the British Open, but his putter showed why he still is searching for his first major.
5. Lee Westwood: Westwood is having a great year, and at 25, he is regarded as a player for the future. But Westwood has yet to become a major player, finishing in a disappointing tie for 64th in the British Open.
Westwood is young, but if he doesn’t win a major, he will quickly move to the top of the list as best player never to win a major.
6. Jesper Parnevik: Parnevik could have won three British Opens by now. Three times in the 1990s he was in the final group on Sunday, and three times he went home empty, including this year.
Parnevik has become to the British Open what Lehman is to the U.S. Open. A win in a major would help erase that reputation.
