15 Best Players To Have Never Won The PGA Championship (And 7 That Still Could)

Many of the game’s legends have lifted the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the PGA Championship through the years.

The list includes five-time winners Walter Hagen, who did it during the event’s match play era, and Jack Nicklaus. In more recent times, Tiger Woods has won the title four times, while Brooks Koepka is just one more win away from matching that number following his third PGA Championship title at Oak Hill in 2023.

However, for many of the game’s legendary figures, the title remained out of reach, while for some of the world’s current best players, it is still missing from their resumes.

Here are 15 of the best players to have never won the PGA Championship, seven current stars who have yet to get their hands on the trophy and some others players who rarely, if ever, made an appearance in the Major.

Craig Wood

In the early decades of the PGA Championship, it had a match play format, and that was the case when Wood finished runner-up in the 1934 edition when he lost to Paul Runyan on the 38^th hole. That was as close as he came to winning the PGA Championship, but Major titles followed with The Masters and the US Open in 1941. He also came close in The Open, placing runner-up the year before his PGA Championship near miss.

Arnold Palmer

Palmer is one of the glaring omissions from the small list of men to complete the career Grand Slam. He won The Masters three times, The Open twice and the US Open in 1960, but the best he could manage in the PGA Championship was three runner-up finishes. They came in 1964, 1968 and 1970. The closest was in 1968, when he missed out to Julius Boros by just one shot.

Billy Casper

Like Palmer, Casper placed runner-up three times, in 1958, 1965 and 1971, but he finished his career without adding a PGA Championship win to his three other Major titles.

Casper, who also had three other top-five results in the PGA Championship, missed out by two shots in each of his runner-up finishes, with Don Finsterwald, Dave Marr and Jack Nicklaus the three to get the better of him.

Hale Irwin

Three-time US Open winner Irwin only had three top-10 finishes in the PGA Championship, the best of which came in 1973, when he placed T5, seven behind victor Jack Nicklaus. The next nearest came in 1993 with a T6 as he placed five behind Paul Azinger and Greg Norman, who went to a playoff.

Tom Watson

Watson, like Palmer, was a PGA Championship title away from completing his career Grand Slam. He certainly came close, with T2 at the 1978 PGA Championship the best among 10 top-10 finishes in the tournament.

Watson, who won The Open five times, The Masters twice and the 1982 US Open, reached a three-way playoff in 1978, before John Mahaffey won it on the first extra hole.

Ben Crenshaw

Crenshaw is best known for his two Masters titles, but he came close in the other three Majors, including the PGA Championship. The nearest he came to victory was in 1979, when he reached a playoff with David Graham. Crenshaw made a birdie on the second extra hole before Graham holed a 10-footer to continue the battle. The Australian won it on the third playoff hole, and Crenshaw never got a better chance.

Fuzzy Zoeller

Zoeller’s first appearance in a Major brought a win at the 1979 Masters, and two years later, he had the chance to add the PGA Championship title, although he couldn’t close a four-shot gap on Larry Nelson in the final round and finished second. That was as close as he came in the tournament, with a T6 in 1983 his only other top-10 result.

Zoeller won the US Open three years later, in 1984, while he also came close to winning The Open, finishing third in 1994.

Bernhard Langer

Langer won The Masters twice, had two top-10 results in the US Open and placed runner-up twice at The Open, but never really got to grips with the PGA Championship. In his 20 appearances, the best he had to show for them was T21 in 1987.

Seve Ballesteros

Ballesteros was one of the greatest players of his era, but he regularly struggled in the US, the big exceptions being two Masters titles, in 1980 and 1983.

The Spaniard, who also won The Open three times, never got that close to claiming the PGA Championship title, with just two top-10 results in his 13 appearances, the best of which was fifth in 1984.

Greg Norman

Norman’s Major haul may have got no further than two Open titles, but he finished runner-up in each of the other three, including the PGA Championship twice.

The first came in 1986 when, in a precursor to his 1996 Masters capitulation, he missed out by two to Bob Tway despite holding a four-shot lead going into the final round. Seven years later, he had another golden opportunity, reaching a playoff with Paul Azinger before losing on the second additional hole.

Fred Couples

While Fred Couples only claimed one Major title, the 1992 Masters, he came close in the other three, with the nearest of the lot being runner-up at the 1990 PGA Championship.

On that occasion, he was two behind Wayne Grady heading into the fourth round, but he ended up three behind the Australian and never placed in the top 10 of the tournament again.

Nick Faldo

Faldo won The Masters and The Open three times, but he couldn’t quite get over the line in the other two Majors, placing runner-up in each.

In the PGA Championship, that came in 1992 when he rallied superbly in the final round with a 67, but still finished three away from winner Nick Price. He came closer still a year later, when, even though he placed third, he was only one behind the playoff-bound Paul Azinger and Greg Norman.

Colin Montgomerie

Colin Montgomerie is undoubtedly one of the best players never to win a Major, and the closest he came in the PGA Championship was in 1995 where, beginning the final round five off the lead, he forced a playoff with Steve Elkington, only for his opponent to birdie the first extra hole and thwart his chances. Eight-time European Tour Order of Merit Montgomerie only got relatively close one more time, with a T6 in 1999.

Ernie Els

The edition where Elkington and Montgomerie went toe-to-toe in a playoff was also one of two times Ernie Els placed third.

Els had a three-shot lead going into the final round that year, but he saved his worst round until last, with a 72 that saw him miss out on the additional holes by two. In 2007, he placed third again, that time finishing three behind winner Tiger Woods at Southern Hills.

Lee Westwood

Even though Westwood is an active player, the former World No.1 has only played in one Major since joining LIV Golf in 2022, and his subsequent slide down the rankings makes it hard to see how he will notch up any more appearances in the big events.

The Englishman came close to winning all four Majors without getting over the line in any, including the PGA Championship, where his best finish was T3 in 2009.

Best Golfers Yet To Win The PGA Championship

Some world-class players still have a realistic chance of adding the PGA Championship to their list of achievements. Here are seven who could yet lift the Wanamaker Trophy.

Bryson DeChambeau

Bryson DeChambeau has two US Open titles, but despite coming close in the other three Majors, he is yet to get halfway to his career Grand Slam. He almost achieved that in the 2024 PGA Championship, though, running Xander Schauffele desperately close before missing out by just one shot at Valhalla.

Sergio Garcia

Garcia has a string of top-10 results in each of the four Majors, but he still only has one title, which he won at the 2017 Masters.

The Spaniard came close to winning the PGA Championship twice, finishing runner-up in 1999 and 2008. On the first occasion, he finished one shot behind Tiger Woods, before Padraig Harrington beat him by two nine years later.

Dustin Johnson

Two-time Major winner Johnson has placed runner-up at the PGA Championship twice, first in 2019, when he missed out to Brooks Koepka by two. The following year, he lost by two again, on that occasion to Collin Morikawa. In recent years, his performances in Majors have generally been underwhelming, but it would probably be unwise to write off a player who was World No.1 in 2017 and has 31 professional wins.

Scottie Scheffler

There is a school of thought that Scheffler would have won the PGA Championship in 2024 during a dominant season, had it not been for his arrest ahead of the second round. By Saturday, his game had clearly been affected by the events of the day before, as he drifted out of contention.

A year earlier, he came within two of Brooks Koepka at Oak Hill, but the Wanamaker Trophy remains out of reach for the two-time Masters champion.

Jordan Spieth

Rather like Rory McIlroy before the 2025 Masters, Spieth’s quest to complete the career Grand Slam is becoming a bit of a saga.

The third of his Major collection came at the 2017 Open, but subsequent attempts to complete the set with the PGA Championship have fallen short.

Spieth has placed runner-up in the tournament twice, first in 2015 and again in 2021, but for now, the wait to lift the Wanamaker Trophy continues.

Jon Rahm

Rahm is halfway to a career Grand Slam after wins in the 2021 US Open and 2023 Masters, but the closest he has come to claiming the PGA Championship title came in 2018, when he placed T4, three behind winner Brooks Koepka.

Justin Rose

The 2013 US Open champion has come close to winning each of the other three Majors without having done so.

His closest call in the PGA Championship came in 2012 when he finished T3, although that edition was a one-sided affair, with Rory McIlroy, who beat Rose in a playoff at the 2025 Masters, winning it to place nine ahead of the Englishman.

Other Notable Big Names Who Never Won The PGA Championship

While each of the players above had numerous opportunities to win the title, some of the game’s legends either didn’t compete in the event or only rarely made appearances.

Bobby Jones claimed consecutive victories in the US Amateur, British Amateur, US Open and The Open in 1930, an achievement that means he remains the only player to complete a Grand Slam. However, because he spent his career as an amateur, he never competed in the PGA Championship despite the event having been in its 13^th edition the year Jones made history.

Meanwhile, four-time Open winner Bobby Locke only made one start in the PGA Championship, placing T33 in 1947.

Sandy Lyle, who won The Open in 1985 and The Masters three years later, also appeared in the tournament infrequently, with just six starts and a best finish of T16 in 1991.