10 golfers who you forgot were great

Scottie Scheffler has just celebrated his third year as the world’s top ranked golfer. It is a remarkable achievement when you consider that he only joined the PGA Tour in 2020.

He still has some way to go to catch Greg Norman, who was top of the pile for 331 weeks and Tiger Woods, ranked number one for an incredible 683 weeks. Rory McIlroy managed it for 122 weeks, Dustin Johnson for 135 and Nick Faldo for 97 weeks. 

These are golfers who all produced sustained periods of brilliance and are all household names. But there are many others who looked like joining them, only for their stars to shine all too briefly.

Here are 10 golfers who, for various reasons, could not keep it going over a sustained period.

Francesco Molinari

The Italian enjoyed success on the DP World Tour but, in truth, never really looked like a world-class golfer. He won the Italian Open in 2006 and again in 2016 and enjoyed a further two wins. But then it all suddenly clicked into place. From nowhere, he won the BMW PGA Championship in May 2018 and then added the Quicken Loans in July and three weeks later he held off a charging Tiger Woods to win The Open at Carnoustie. By September he had climbed to fifth in the world rankings. And he wasn’t finished - in March 2019 he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The following month he led The Masters until he came to the 12th hole in the final round. It cost him a double-bogey and another followed two holes later. He then suffered some injury woes and has never been the same player since.

Martin Kaymer

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

If ever there was a player who looked like he could dominate the sport of golf it was Germany's Martin Kaymer, who actually spent eight weeks as world number one in 2011. Ahead of the 2010 US PGA, he had won five times on the DP World Tour and he beat Bubba Watson in a playoff to land his first career major. In 2014 he won The Players Championship and the following month romped to an eight-shot victory in the US Open. He also holed the retaining putt for Europe in the 2012 Ryder Cup clash at Medinah. In 2015 he led the Abu Dhabi Championship by six shots after 54 holes and then stretched his lead to 10 after five holes before a dramatic collapse saw him lose out to Gary Stal of France. He admitted he was in shock afterwards and was never the same player again.

Tony Jacklin

Jacklin was like a breath of fresh air. He recorded the first televised hole-in-one at the Dunlop Masters and then decided to try his luck in America, winning the Jacksonville Open in 1968. But it was his victory in the 1969 Open at Royal Lytham that saw him make the big breakthrough. That same year he was the talisman for GB&I as they famously tied with the USA in the Ryder Cup at Birkdale. In 1970 he left the field trailing in his wake as he stormed to victory in the US Open. The following month he played the front nine in 29 shots at The Open at St Andrews before torrential rain forced him from the course. He contended in the 1971 Open and had his heart broken by an inspired Lee Trevino during the 1972 Open. He would win the odd tournament afterwards but he was finished as a world-class golfer.

Sandy Lyle

It is all too easy to forget that Lyle won both The Masters and The Open before Nick Faldo. He spent 167 weeks in the top 10 in the world rankings from 1986 until 1989. He won the 1986 Greater Greensboro Open, 1987 Players and 1988 Greater Greensboro Open the week before his famous Green Jacket triumph. After 1988 he would win just three more times on the DP World Tour. Inexplicably, after achieving his greatest successes, Lyle opted to change his golf swing - and that was that.

David Duval

Duval had the misfortune to turn pro at around the same time as Tiger Woods burst upon the scene. Between 1997 and 2001, he won 13 times, including The Open at Royal Lytham in 2001. Between1997 and 2000, he finished all four seasons in the top five on the PGA Tour's money list, including being the leading money winner and scoring leader in 1998. He also won the 1997 Tour Championship and the 1999 Players Championship. He spent 15 weeks as world number one but after his victory at The Open he would never win again. He suffered a series of injuries and admitted that he fell out of love with the game, losing his tour card in 2011.

Bill Rogers

The American played on the PGA Tour for 13 years but in 1981 he suddenly found something, winning four times, including a famous victory in The Open at Royal St George’s, where he finished four shots ahead of runner-up Bernhard Langer. He was named PGA Player of the Year in 1981 and reached second in McCormack’s World Golf Rankings. He also made the 1981 Ryder Cup team. The following year he won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf and led the US Open during the final round before coming up short. He won once more, in 1983, but then admitted that he was burnt out and his career was effectively over.

Ian Baker-Finch

Golf can be a cruel game. When he won the 1991 Open at Royal Birkdale, closing with a 64-66, many considered him to be a surprise winner. But he had three other runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour that year and climbed into the top 10 in the world rankings. Baker-Finch had a 10-year exemption from the PGA Tour for his Open Championship win, leaving him exempt until 2001. He achieved a runner-up finish at The Players Championship in 1992, but otherwise never came close to contending on the PGA Tour again. He won in Australia in 1992 and 1993 but his form then went into a steep decline and he developed the yips with the driver, famously hitting his opening drive out of bounds at the 1995 Open at St Andrews - one of the widest fairways in golf. The final straw was a round of 92 at the 1997 Open at Troon, after which he walked away from the game. 

Tom Lehman

Lehman holds a unique claim to fame. He is the only man to top the world rankings for just one week. He was no overnight success. He played on the PGA Tour from 1983 to 1985 with no success and was then obliged to play elsewhere for the following six seasons. This included time in Asia and South Africa and on the second tier Ben Hogan Tour. He regained his PGA Tour card by topping the Ben Hogan Tour's 1991 money list. He won The Memorial in 1994, the Colonial in 1995, and The Open and The Tour Championship in 1996. His only other victory came at the 2000 Phoenix Open.

Jordan Spieth

This may seem like an odd inclusion but the truth is that Spieth’s seemingly stellar career has definitely gone into reverse. He was only 19 when he won the 2013 John Deere Classic and by July 2017 he had won 11 times. This included The Masters and US Open in 2015 and The Open in dramatic fashion in 2017. He then had to wait four years for his next success and has added just one more title since. He spent 26 weeks as world number one from August 2017 but is now outside the top 50.

Bob Stanton

The Australian was a prodigy who looked certain to have a big future in the game. In August 1965 he won the Sydney Open and in October he won the Adelaide Advertiser Tournament as a 19-year-old. In July 1966 he won the German Open by five shots and later in the year he gained his PGA Tour card. He then returned to Australia where, aged 20, he won the Dunlop International, beating Arnold Palmer in a playoff. In January 1967 he won the Tasmanian Open. In October of that year he won the Adelaide Advertiser Tournament again, this time by nine shots and the following month he won the Dunlop International for the second successive year. He had only moderate success on the PGA Tour and by 1976 he had walked away from tournament play, still only aged 30.