We take a look at some of the best golfers to come from the island of Australia.
14 Of The Best Australian Golfers Of All Time
Australia has produced some incredible golfers many of which have gone on to win Major Championships and become the number one golfer in the world. Below, we have taken a look at the greatest Australian golfers of all time.
In no particular order, we start with Peter Thomson.
Peter Thomson
Born: 1929 Died: 2018 Tour Wins: 85 Majors: 5
Arguably the greatest Open Championship golfer ever, Thomson won that particular major five times and had 13 other top-10s in it. He won all over the world and played a key role in the early beginnings of the Presidents Cup too and his overall contribution to Australian golf is difficult to measure.
Greg Norman
Born: 1955 Tour Wins: 88 Majors: 2
The Great White Shark was the worlds number one golfer for 331 total weeks which is a number only surpassed by Tiger Woods. In total he won 88 times as a professional and two Major championships but it could have been so many more. He lost in a playoff in every Major title throughout his career and was frequently on the receiving end of incredible chip ins or impossible shots.
Born: 1987 Tour Wins: 16 Majors: 1
Day is another Australian golfer to get to world number one thanks to one particular stretch in 2015 that yielded five wins, four of which came in a six tournament stretch. One of those wins was his sole Major Championship victory at the 2015 PGA Championship and he has won some of the biggest tournaments around the world.
Born: 1980 Tour Wins: 29 Majors: 1
Similar to Day, Scott has also got to world number one and has won a sole Major Championship which came at the 2013 Masters in a playoff against Angel Cabrera. Incredibly this came just months after he had bogeyed the last four holes at the 2012 Open Championship to lose to Ernie Els.
Norman Von Nida
Born: 1914 Died: 2007 Tour Wins: 46 Majors: 0
World War Two may have curtailed the peak of his career, but Von Nida still won 46 times as a professional with many of those victories coming in Australia.
Geoff Ogilvy
Born: 1977 Tour Wins: 12 Majors: 1
To date, Ogilvy's career has seen him win the 2006 US Open and three World Golf Championship tournaments.
Steve Elkington
Born: 1962 Tour Wins: 17 Majors: 1
Elkington won 10 times on the PGA Tour during his career but his finest year came in 1995 where he came tied 5th at The Masters, tied 6th at The Open and then beat Colin Montgomerie in a playoff at the PGA Championship. He is also one of very few golfers to win The Players Championship twice.
David Graham
Born: 1946 Tour Wins: 38 Majors: 2
Graham is part of a very exclusive club in that he is one of five golfers to have won a event on six different continents. (The others are Gary Player, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer and Justin Rose). Additionally Graham won two different Majors, the 1979 PGA Championship and 1981 US Open.
Kel Nagle
Born: 1920 Tour Wins: 86 Majors: 1
From 1960-1969, Nagle was incredible at The Open Championship in particular. He had six top-10s and a win during that stretch and would go on to win 86 times as a professional.
Bruce Crampton
Born: 1935 Tour Wins: 44 Majors: 0
Crampton won 14 times on the PGA Tour but his career really hit its stride on the Champions Tour where he won 20 times, including a two-year stretch that included 11 of those wins. Sadly he never won a Major at either level but had numerous runners-up finishes.
Graham Marsh
Born: 1944 Tour Wins: 70 Majors: 0
Marsh turned professional in 1969 and became truly a global golfer. He had wins on the European Tour, Australasian Tour, PGA Tour, Japan Golf Tour, Champions Tour and won national Opens in countries like India, Thailand, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany and Holland.
Karrie Webb
Born: 1974 Tour Wins: 57 Majors: 7
One of the finest female golfers ever, Webb collected 7 Major titles and 41 other LPGA Tour wins. She has also acted as a mentor to young golfers like fellow Australian Hannah Green who won her first Major title in 2019.
Jan Stephenson
Born: 1951 Tour Wins: 26 Majors: 3
Just elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Stephenson won 3 Major titles in 3 years at a time when the LPGA Tour was extremely competitive.
Stuart Appleby
Born: 1971 Tour Wins: 17 Majors: 0
In 2010 Appleby became one of very few players to shoot 59 on the PGA Tour which came during the final round of the Greenbrier Classic. He played on five Presidents Cups and won 9 times on the PGA Tour.
Other worthy mentions: Marc Leishman, Wayne Grady, Ian Baker-Finch, Peter Senior, Craig Parry
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