32 Surprising Major Winners

The Majors seem to have taken on an even bigger importance in the past couple of decades with all the talk from the leading players being of focusing their campaigns around the big ones. For much of that time we've focused on the possibility of Tiger Woods overhauling Jack Nicklaus' total of 18 and some of the below are the men who have enjoyed the week of their lives and upset the modern-day GOAT.

When looking back at any player's CV our first port of call is generally their Major record. Nicklaus (18) has more Major wins than any player, male or female, and in total he featured in 164 of them. As well as the wins one incredible stat is that he finished inside the top five in over a third of them. 

Orville Moody

Moody is famous for his US Open victory in 1969, his only success on the PGA Tour. His nickname was 'Sarge' after starting out in the military and the 35-year-old came to the Champions Golf Club in Texas having come through both local and sectional qualifying. Moody triumphed by one over a trio of players including future commissioner Deane Beman while overnight leader Miller Barber fell apart on the Sunday.

Scott Simpson

Simpson continued a trend of quiet, and often devout, men to land a Major as he picked up the '87 US Open at Olympic. Coming on the back of Bob Tway and Larry Mize there were no wonder shots but he did sink a superstar of the game as a red-hot putter saw off Tom Watson by a single shot. Seve finished third, his best US Open effort.

Hilary Lunke

Lunke made it through to the 2003 US Women's Open after coming through the sectional qualifier despite opening with an 80. At Pumpkin Ridge she had to play an additional 18 holes before a 15-foot putt at the 90th hole got the better of Angela Stanford. Lunke, whose next best Major finish was a tie for 42nd, only took 23 putts in the play-off. 

Danny Willett

Willett was actually ranked 12th in the world and was already a winner in Dubai in 2016 but not many would have truly fancied him to slip himself into a Green Jacket, particularly as his wife had just had their first child. Jordan Spieth was famously five clear but his tournament was derailed by a seven at the 12th. Willett, who became just the second Englishman to win The Masters, played the last six holes in three under and triumphed by three. 

Karen Stupples

Stupples' start to her final round at Sunningdale in the '04 Women's British Open was ridiculous; the Kent star opened with an eagle and then knocked her second shot in at the next for an albatross. "It was one of those fantastic feelings that I could enjoy the rest of the day no matter how things turned out.'' The rest of the day proved to be a 64 and five-shot success.

Herman Keiser

Keiser led from the third hole to the 72nd when Ben Hogan missed a short one to force a play-off at the '46 Masters. Reportedly the American was eating lunch an hour before his scheduled third-round tee time when the 1938 winner Henry Picard told him that he had just been called on the tee. His tee time had been moved without anyone telling him. 

Jerilyn Britz

Britz's background isn't your traditional one – the American spent five years working as a high-school teacher and three years a college tutor before turning her hand to golf after being spotted on a range hitting balls. A teaching pro, Joanne Winter, said that she would help Britz with her game and find a sponsor. Five years later in 1979 she won the US Women's Open at Brooklawn in Connecticut.

Gary Woodland

Woodland would always be considered a strong PGA Tour player but winning the US Open at Pebble Beach in 2019 was a considerable leap. The American came up against Brooks Koepka, who had won four of the previous nine Majors, but Woodland was rock solid coming down the stretch and a brilliant chip and a putt, from the putting surface on the 17th, was a thing of beauty.

Nanci Bowen

Bowen's sole win on the LPGA Tour came at the then-titled Nabisco Dinah Shore in 1995 and among a leaderboard that featured Nancy Lopez and Dame Laura Davies. She had never played Mission Hills before but a birdie on the 71st hole put her in control. A closing bogey was good enough and the victory was worth $127,500, about the same amount that she had made in three full LPGA seasons.

John Mahaffey

Mahaffey trailed Tom Watson by seven shots with 14 holes to play at the '78 PGA before a 66 got him into a play-off with Watson and Jerry Pate. The latter lipped a four-foot putt to win at the 72nd hole and Mahaffey holed from 12 feet at the second extra hole to win the title and $50,000 prize money. Watson would end up never winning the PGA.

Andy North

North's resume is fairly unique in that he won three times on the PGA Tour and two of them came at the US Open, the second of which earned him a Ryder Cup spot at The Belfry in 1985. The '85 victory was famous for TC Chen's double-hit from the rough when leading by four shots. North's other win came at the Westchester Classic.

Trevor Immelman

Immelman, at just 28 years of age, looked set for great things when he captured the 2008 Masters but he never registered another Major top 10, nor prevailed again on the PGA Tour. His win was hugely impressive given he led or tied for the lead and a closing 75, with a double on 16, was good enough for a three-shot win over Tiger. 

Hal Sutton

Much was expected of Hal Evan Sutton but his Major breakthrough at the PGA came at the age of 25 – the American was still ineligible for the 1983 Ryder Cup as it was just his third year on Tour. This was just the second Major at Riviera and many thought that we were crowning the 'next Nicklaus'. Sutton would never win another big one.

Jeff Sluman

The '88 PGA Championship was Sluman's first win on Tour and it came at the age of 30 – he would have to wait nearly nine years for his next win. Paul Azinger, his former college team-mate, led him by three but then Sluman signed off with a 65. "I guess this proves I can play this game a little bit myself," said the new champ.

Birdie Kim

The 72nd hole at Cherry Hills, home to the 2005 US Women's Open, was full of surprises. Lorena Ochoa led but then made a quadruple, US amateur duo Brittany Lang and Morgan Pressel both bogeyed and Birdie Kim, who had changed her first name the previous year, holed out from a greenside bunker to claim her only victory on the LPGA Tour.

Rich Beem

Beem had won The International two weeks before the PGA in 2002 but not many would have predicted that the likeable American would soon snap up one of the big four. Better still he held off a fast-finishing Tiger Woods at Hazeltine. Woods had won the year's first two Majors and closed with four birdies but Beem was up to it with a final-round 68.

Steve Jones

Jones was a one-time Major winner and, while he totted up a handful of PGA Tour wins, the '96 US Open was his first Major start for five years and he had to come through sectional qualifying to tee it up at Oakland Hills. The American would miss almost three years with a finger injury before beating big guns Tom Lehman and Davis Love III by one stroke. 

Mo Martin

Martin's finish at Royal Birkdale in the 2014 Women's British Open – a 3-wood from just under 240 yards that struck the pin and set up a closing eagle – was the stuff of dreams. The American, one of the shortest but straightest hitters, beat the more-fancied Shanshan Feng and Suzann Pettersen by a shot. "I could hear it hit the pin, that was a pretty fun feeling."

Bob Goalby

Goalby had nothing to do with Roberto De Vicenzo's scorecard error at the '68 Masters but will always have his name linked to the almighty mistake. Tommy Aaron put the Argentinian down for a 4 instead of a birdie 3 at the 71st hole and De Vicenzo would miss out on a play-off. Bizarrely Goalby actually spotted a scorecard error of his own when he marked Ray Floyd down for the wrong score on his 16th.

Sophia Popov

Popov was the World No. 304 – the lowest-ranked player to win a women's Major – when she produced a brilliant display to win the 2020 Women's Open at Troon. The US-born German player had nearly quit the game the previous year and she only secured qualification with a top-10 finish at the Marathon Classic a fortnight before. The week before she was playing on second-tier Symetra Tour.

Michael Campbell

Campbell remains hugely underrated but he still had to come through qualifying at Walton Heath to make it to Pinehurst for the 2005 US Open. There he played a brilliant final round, a one-under 69 as the three leaders failed to break 80, as he eventually edged out Tiger by two shots. He finished the 2005 season with top 10s at The Open and PGA but never had another.

Charl Schwartzel

At the time it didn't look like Schwartzel would be a one-hit Major wonder, particularly given his finish of four straight birdies at Augusta. But in recent times his biggest claim to fame is winning the inaugural LIV event. The Masters victory in 2011 was famous for Rory's collapse as much as the South African's grand finish to see off Adam Scott and Jason Day.

John Daly

Daly was by no means a Major 'fluke' but his arrival at the '91 PGA was something out of a fairytale. The 'Wild Thing' had actually already played in two US Opens but, as the ninth reserve – he would finally get in when Nick Price withdrew – and after a drive through the night to Crooked Stick, he won by three with his iconic 'grip it and rip it' style.  

Paul Lawrie

What we should hear more about the '99 Open is how Lawrie birdied Carnoustie's 17th and 18th holes in a play-off. We all know what Jean van de Velde did in real time but he and Justin Leonard would then play the four added holes in three over. Also, the Scot, who closed with a 67, began the final round 10 shots in arrears of the Frenchman. 

Tiger Woods

Woods missed the 2016 and 2017 Masters and would only turn up for the Champions Dinner when he struggled to sit through the meal. In 2019 Woods, with a new fused back, won a fifth Green Jacket – the triumph came 10 years, nine months and 29 days after his last Major title at the 2008 US Open and it moved him to within three of Jack Nicklaus.

Larry Mize

Mize might not be the shock winner that some imagine – he was the World No. 36 when he chipped in to send Greg Norman packing at the '87 Masters – but the nature of the win (he also beat Seve in the play-off) will always make him stand out. The Augusta native was actually playing in his fourth Masters and had already recorded two top 20s. 

Shaun Micheel

Micheel had two Major top 10s, the win at the 2003 PGA and then a second place three years later. The American was ranked as the 169th best player in the world at time but, playing in his first PGA, he would play an all-time approach at the 72nd hole as his 7-iron to a matter of inches finally got the better of Chad Campbell at Oak Hill. 

Francis Ouimet

Books and films have been made about Ouimet's US Open win at Brookline in 1913. The Championship was put back to allow British stars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray to play and the 20-year-old Ouimet, who would never turn professional, thrashed them both in an 18-hole play-off. Better still Ouimet had a 10-year-old caddie on his bag and he lived across the street from Brookline – you couldn't make it up. 

YE Yang

Yang had won the Honda Classic a few months previously but his victory at the 2009 PGA Championship was still mind-blowing given that it was the first time that Tiger Woods had failed to win after at least sharing the 54-hole lead in a Major. The Korean trailed Woods by two and won by three. It was also the first Major victory by an Asian-born male.  

Todd Hamilton

Whatever you want to say about Todd Hamilton, at the age of 38, he beat Ernie Els to win the 2004 Open in a four-hole play-off. Under all that pressure the American made four straight pars and went on to reach No. 16 in the world. In his final 31 Majors he would fail to record another top 10.

Ben Curtis

To put Curtis' Open victory at Sandwich in 2003 into some sort of perspective he became the first player since Francis Ouimet to win on his Major debut. Starting out as a 300-1 outsider the American would play his first 11 holes in six under on Sunday and his last seven in four over as Thomas Bjorn came to grief beside the 16th green. These days he teaches his game.