Last nine majors have been won by first-time winners
Here is the list of major winners back to 2009. Note all the first-timers.
By winning the 2012 US Open, Webb Simpson became the 12th first-time major winner out of the past 13. In fact the last nine major champions have all been won by first time winners.
I wonder if we’re seeing a levelling out of the playing field with the absence of a dominant Tiger Woods. Or perhaps it is just an aberration and we are merely seeing a changing of the guard, and any of these last nine winner’s will win again shortly.
Doing a little more digging into the statistics of major winners, I noticed these little facts:
- There have been 207 separate major winners since the first major (The British Open in 1860)
- 76 victories were won by golfers who had won a major before.
- If you’re going to win a major for the first time, your best bet is to do it at the US Open. 58% of all US Open winners have been first-time major victories.
- Not surprisingly, the toughest tournament to win your first major is the US Masters (42%).
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It’s also interesting that the majority of these winners are all aged in their 20’s. Definitely a new generation of talented players coming through the ranks.
Possibly a lot of these also are not suffering any ‘Tiger Era’ scars from the early part of the century.