Greatness in professional golf can be measured in many ways: overall wins, stats, weeks atop the Official World Golf Ranking. However, golf careers are defined by major championship wins.
Majors are the four most elevated professional golf tournaments each year. The Masters Tournament is in April; the PGA Championship is in May, followed by the U.S. Open in June. The Open Championship in July is the players’ final chance all season to claim a major title.
The greatest golfers have all four majors — Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy. Nicklaus has the most of all time with 18, followed by Woods, who claimed 15 major titles.
But there are players who hold one of the most dreaded titles in professional golf: “The Best Player Without a Major.” Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie are among the players who hold the title and won’t get another chance to get rid of it. Westwood had 12 top-five finishes at majors, while Montgomerie was runner-up five times.
There are many players who could shake the title at this week’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York. Here are the five best:
Tommy Fleetwood
Tommy Fleetwood turned professional in 2010 at the age of 19. The Englishman from Southport recorded his first European Tour win in 2013 and has claimed seven more European titles since. However, Fleetwood just has one PGA Tour win, which came at the 2025 TOUR Championship. He’s been on the last four European Ryder Cup teams.
Fleetwood has two runners-up in major championships, one at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and one at the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Scotland. In his 43 total majors played, Fleetwood has eight top-10 finishes but hasn’t been able to claim a major title.
Viktor Hovland
Since turning professional in 2019, Viktor Hovland has 11 professional wins, including seven on the PGA Tour and two on the European Tour. The Norwegian won three times from June 2023 to August 2023, but his game fell off after. He won again in March 2025, but even Hovland acknowledged that his game wasn’t at its best.
The three-time Ryder Cuper has five top-10 finishes in 26 major championship starts. His best finish in a major was tied-for-second at the 2023 PGA Championship, while his best finish at the U.S. Open came last season with a third-place finish.
Ludvig Åberg
Ludvig Åberg burst onto the professional golf scene after recording his first win in November 2023 and then in his first major championship start at the 2024 Masters Tournament with a second-place finish. The Swede has five total professional wins, two of which came on the PGA Tour in 2023 and 2025. In 2023, Åberg became the first player to be a member of a Ryder Cup team without having played in a major championship.
Åberg has three top-10 finishes in just 10 major championship starts. Aside from his second-place finish at the 2024 Masters Tournament, he finished seventh at the 2025 Masters and tied for fourth at the 2026 PGA Championship.
Cameron Young
In 2025, Cameron Young became the 1,000th winner on the PGA Tour with his first career victory at the Wyndham Championship. He’s had two more wins since that at some of the biggest tournaments of the season, the 2026 PLAYERS Championship and the 2026 Cadillac Championship. The American currently sits at No. 3 in the Official World Golf Rankings behind four-time major winner Scottie Scheffler and seven-time major champion Rory McIlroy.
In his 20 major championship starts, Young has seven top-10 finishes, including a solo-second at the 2022 Open Championship. His best finish at the U.S. Open was last season, when Young finished tied-for-fourth, four strokes behind winner J.J. Spaun.
Russell Henley
In 2013, Russell Henley won his debut on the PGA Tour and has been one of the most consistent players since. He has nine total professional wins, six of which have been on the PGA Tour. The American won the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge in a playoff over Eric Cole earlier this season.
Henley has racked up 46 major championship starts after being the low amateur at the 2010 U.S. Open, which marked his first major appearance. He finished tied for 25th at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. However, Henley didn’t record his first top-10 in a major championship until the 2023 Masters Tournament, where he finished tied for fourth. He has six total major top-10s, including last year’s U.S. Open.
