One time major winners.

Tommy Does Golf - The Podcast

EPISODE 10
SEASON 01
28 April 2026

Tommy: Welcome to Tommy Does Golf, the podcast where three old timers give you our opinions on everything. Golf. I'm Tommy Long, joined by fellow PGA professionals, James Morgan and Paul Charman. With over a hundred years and counting in the golf industry between us, we are well into our back nines. We'll do our best to stay on topic for just like our tee shots these days.

This podcast could go anywhere. We are hoping you enjoy the banter and maybe just maybe we'll share a few pearls of wisdom along the way. Let's get into it. In this episode, we are diving into one of the most fascinating paradoxes in golf. The players who were so good, so consistent and so often in the mix that it's almost unbelievable. They have only one major championship to their name. Now, let's be clear from the start, winning a major is the absolute pinnacle of the sport.

There are legends of the game who never even got their hands on one, but that's exactly our point. We are gonna talk about the guys who were there year after year. They'd be right at the top of the leaderboard playing in the final groups on Sundays. And [00:01:00] yet for whatever reason, may be a final round blitz from someone else, a crawl, bounce of the ball, or just a moment of heartbreak.

They only managed to get over the line once. It really shows you the razor thin margin between a career defined by one win and a career defined by a handful of them. So in this episode, we focus on some of the names that perfectly fit this bill. The ultra consistent players who perhaps didn't get their just desserts in the game's, biggest events.

James, we'll start with you. Give us a player who it's hard to believe only won the one major championship.

James: So I have gone for Fred Couples who won the Masters in 1992. Now he is 66 at the moment. But going back then, you said in your intro how a cruel bounce might have robbed some of these people, but there's an iconic moment on the 12th hole, the path three at Augusta, where his bull landed on the edge of the green, then rolled down the bank.

Now everybody's bull throughout history. He's always ended up in the water and his ball actually stayed on that bank and were it not for that, he wouldn't be in this category at all. So he actually got a bit of luck up and down it. And the rest, as we say, is history. I think the thing about Freddy Couples is, you know, you look at his stats, he was world number one.

He's won 64 tournaments. He's won the players championship, which is, you know, called the Fifth Major.

Tommy: Yes.

James: By the Americans, but they wanna make their tournament sound better, but I'm sure there are other tournaments are just as good. Has he won that a couple of times round A TPC Sawgrass, another great golf course, and he's also become the oldest person to make the cut at the Masters at 63 years and six months.

That was back in 2023. So he has had an amazing career. You look at Freddy Couples, and I think you all think laid back. Carefree. Just such a beautiful flowing swing. Uh, and everything about him, you just go, yeah, he didn't really care but looking into it, he got nervous. He was actually a reasonably nervous caller, so his self-esteem wasn't quite as up there as it probably should have been.

And you look at him and think how laid back at that guy. So it's been quite an interesting look into his career. You look at the seniors tour and he's prolific on that. So, you know, you just go, why is it the only one won major? So what do you guys think?

Tommy: I don't know many people that don't like Freddy Couples. I remember Peter Alice saying that if Fred Couples was a dog, he'd be a Labrador because everybody loved him. And it was such a brilliant comment because it was just bang on and lot of use it. James watching Freddy Couples. You could watch that golf swing on a loop. I remember at the last US Masters, they've now got footage on the range and all the players who are watching Freddie, they're all.

Crowding around Freddy having a chat and just watching it. And even the cameras, they weren't on the younger guys, they were all just watching Freddy mesmerized by that rhythm and just, it's a thing of beauty A that golf swing. Yeah. I don't really have anything else on it except to say, thank God he won the masters. 'cause we get to see him every year playing in that event. Paul, move on to your play?

Paul: So the guy I'm gonna talk about is David Duval, but before I do, I'd just like to say that I think that there are some players who, chase records, they are the tiger woods of the golfing world and.

Not just necessarily in golf, but in other sports as well. You find that there are players that want to achieve greatness. Once they achieve a record, they set themselves another record, and another record and another record. And then I think that there are some players who simply just dream that one day they will win a major.

David Duval, nothing extraordinary stands out about his career. I mean PGA tour wins 13 Nike tour wins two. Japan tour wins. One. He won one major after he won the open in 2001. His game started to deteriorate to the point that in 2011, he lost his card. Lost his card completely. He never won another tournament.

He never won another tournament. After the open in 2001. And I just think sometimes, and I'm not saying with all these players, but I just do think that sometimes they get to the point where they hold that final putt and they go, hallelujah, I have done it, I've done it. I've won my major. Yeah.
End of story.

Tommy: Yeah.

paul: I've achieved what I want from when I was a kid, done and dusted. Happy days. I'm gonna go and retire and live my life.

tommy: Champion Golfer for the year 2001.

james: Yeah,

tommy: Thanks very much.

james: It's also though. He became world number one in Tiger's Reign. So he's become world number one and he's won a major, he's in Tiger Woods' Prime and he must be pegging up against Tiger Woods on a regular basis, just thinking this is hard.

And as you've said, he's won a major, been world number one. Maybe his focus wasn't there, but he can now say I'm a major champion.

tommy: And he got to world number one.

james: So maybe he reach his goals and go, you know what? I'll keep trying obviously, but then you know. 2001, I mean onwards, how dominant was Tiger around that era.

tommy: Unbelievable.

james: So hard to compete against.

tommy: Very much so. Yeah.

james: A very unique swing. Very shut. A held off and could stripe her.

tommy: Yes. Alright, well look, I'm gonna crack on my one. I'm gonna go with Jim Furyk. Obviously, we've talked about him before, but he's known for his incredibly unorthodox golf swing. double overlap grip.
If anybody's tried to swing the club like that, just to have a crack at the double overlap and see how you swing the club,
because you might look a bit more like him than you normally do. Jim Furyk was the ultimate grinder. He was an amazing competitor. Still blows my mind that he only won one major championship, which is why I picked him.

That being the 2003 US Open at Olympia Fields, when you look at his career stats, they are staggering. Between 1999 and 2016, he spent over 440 weeks in the top 10 of the world rankings.

James: Wow.

Tommy: Which is pretty amazing. I mean, think about that for consistency. He also played on a remarkable nine consecutive Ryder Cup teams from 1997 to 2014.

So to play your way onto a US team nine times in a row, you've got to be a hell of a player, also the only player in PGA tour history to shoot two rounds under 60, shot 59 in 2013 at the BMW Championship. And then in 2016, he became the first player. Ever To shoot a 58 in the final round of the Travelers Championship.

Incredible numbers, but his record is also filled with Agonizingly close calls in the majors at the US Open. He was runner up three times in 2006, 2007, 2016 at the PGA Championship. He was runner up in 2013, finishing just two shots behind Jason Duffner despite holding the 54 hole lead. And he also finished in the top four at the Open Championship in 97, 98, 2006 and 2014, which shows you what a versatile grinder he was because he was able to adapt to links conditions as well.

And at the Masters, he was in the top four, twice in 98 and 2003. I mean, we obviously know that he won the FedEx Cup in 2010, and was the PGA tour player of the year that same season? It is just amazing to look back on Jim Furyk, and I think maybe we remembered him being there so often because of that golf swing, because it did stand out when he was on the screen.

You knew that was Jim Furyk and hello he's, he's in the mix again. So, yeah. Quite amazing, really.

james: And if you saw an amateur swing like that, you'd go, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not doing that son. Let's, let's break your swing down. And then you look at that swing and you think it's gotta break down at some point.

tommy: Yeah,

james: but it didn't, he he would hold up under pressure.

tommy: Yeah. '

james: cause he, he'd learned weigh and he stuck to it like Colin Montgomery did with his fades, the reverse pivot and then going backwards, hitting the fade. He did that all the time. Furyk had his elbow stuck behind his body. But he did the same thing every single time.

He believed in the process, stuck to it, trusted it. It works.

tommy: And freeze it at impact. And like you say,

james: where's the club face?

tommy: That's it. So I'm asking, alright, James, you got anyone else?

james: I've got Tom Kite. Okay. He spent 175 weeks in the top 10 of the official golf world rankings between 89 and 94.

tommy: Okay?

james: He had 19 victories, including the 1992 US Open at Pebble Beach. He was on seven Ryder Cups.

tommy: Yes.

james: Which again, we used the Ryder Cup as a benchmark, but to get on an American team, that was pretty good. But he qualified for all of those. He was not a captain's pick in any of those. Which I think is even more impressive.

tommy: Impressive for sure

james: to, to do that. He sits third on the all time ryder cup list for the Americans for points.

tommy: See, we don't hear that very often, do we? That's an interesting

james: so quite impressive from that point of view. But again, one major, one player championship, won tour, championship and then all these other wins.

tommy: Yeah,

james: so he's the first player in tour history to reach 6 million in earnings, 7 million, 8 million and 9 million. So he was in the era when money's starting to grow and he's the first player to do this consistent winner.

Now there's a quote here from Jonny Miller. Jonny Miller referred to Tom Kite as the greatest short game player the game has ever seen.

tommy: Wow. And that comes from Jonny Miller.

james: Mm-hmm. Who was an unbelievable ball striker.

tommy: Yes.

james: And you know, Severiano Ballesteros would've been around in that era.

tommy: Yes.

james: But then you look at that and go, because he wasn't a long hitter.

tommy: No, he wasn't.

james: And so he was a short hitter and he relied on his short game. Again, it comes back to having a process, probably a real overachiever. Really, with what he had.

tommy: Yes.

james: And you look at that and you think, yeah, okay, God,

tommy: it's pretty amazing. Looking back on it now. I was never that keen when I watched him.

He wasn't somebody that would excite you because he was probably so systematic and almost boring in the sense that he would hit those fairways and greens in red. He wasn't kind of a highlight reel, was he? Because he was so consistent. But isn't it fantastic that he actually got his major because that was so deserved, eh?

Hundred percent, you know, and, but we don't hear about 'em. Do we really? Tom Kite now,

james: and he didn't really go into, have much of a senior career, you know, whereas a lot of the players of that era, they'd go on the seniors tour and they then did really well after that. I think he just said, you know what, I've, I, I've bit of a dabble And then I'll leave it.

tommy: I do remember him working. I remember when I was at St. Andrews in 1995, the first open, the only open I went to, and I was on the practice area and I went out to watch Tom Watson play. So my boss said to me, Hey, Tom Watson's out there, I think he’s on the 13th. Go in that direction and you'll find him.

And as I'm walking out there on the left hand side of the practice area, there was a pot bunker. And of course I see Tom Kite very recognizable in those glasses and he's in this pop bunker and he's just playing shots. And anyway, I came back two hours later who's in the same pot bunker Tom Kite, and it's the first time that it dawned on me that these guys put the work in.

I mean, he hadn't buggered off as soon as I walked out onto the golf course and gone and had a cup of tea and it just amazed me. So yeah, I just. I just can't fathom having that work ethic. Obviously I didn't, that's why I'm sitting here talking to you boys. But anyway, Paul, give me somebody else.

paul: Ian Woosnam woozy. In his early years, he traveled around Europe in a camper van eating baked beans.

Mm-hmm. To save money. Okay?

tommy: Yep.

paul: He won the Masters, as we all know, in 1991, tied second in 1989 in the US Open tied third in 1986 and 2001 at the open. Strong as. Not the tallest person in the world, but what a striker probably meter he would've been strike me Top three in all of the players. Yeah. All of life.

And he was a amazing Five foot. Four tall. Five foot four.

james: But a incredibly powerful, and there's a famous story at Augusta, at the practice fairway, where they used to have a net at the end of the practice fairway because the guys were hitting the ball too far. And Mark Calcavecchia is hitting drives and they bounce, bounce into the net and JI'S going, bounce, bounce into the net and Vicki turns around to m woo and just said, I thought you were supposed to be long.

So Ian Woosnam pegs it up, flies it clean over the nets, and turns around and goes, I am. And he just carried on he shots again. He was just like, brilliant. Shut up, move on. And because on the, was it the 18th Augusta when he won, he flew the bunker on the left.

tommy: Yeah, he did. Because I remember watching that Masters with my dad.

My dad said. What's he gonna do on 18 'cause he ain't comfortable moving it left or right. And I went, he's just gonna hit it straight over the trap Dad. I knew he was gonna do it and he did it and then obviously second shot went left of the green up and downed it down on that knee and, and the rest is history.

But yeah, the Welsh wizard, bit of a legend. Brilliant. Alright, I'm gonna talk about Louis Oosthuizen Alright. One of the most amazing golf swings. I think we all agree. We all loved it. If you didn't admire that golf swing, well you know, there's something wrong with you, I think. But anyway, one. The Open Championship 2010.

Actually, he loves St. Andrews because he came close five years later and he lost in a playoff to Zach Johnson. He was supported by Ernie Els when he was up and coming, when he couldn't really afford to do things. He's known for his incredibly calm and composed temperament on the course, which served him well throughout his career.

And Paul, you'll be pleased that I'm mentioning him because obviously he is South African and we know you have a distinct love for South Africans and South Africa. But he's one of the only players to finish runner up in all four majors. The unwanted second place Grand Slam. He's got an incredible six runner up finishes in majors on top of his one win the 2012 Masters.

Well, I actually backed him to win and that cost me two and a half grand when Bubba Watson hit that beautiful, amazing recovery shot. I was getting up to watch it and I turned the TV on and I've missed him teeing off. And all of a sudden he's on the third hole and he's in the lead because he albatrossed the second hole in that final round to take the lead.

That albatross was only the fourth albatross in US Master's history, and it was the first one on that hole. So Louis Ooosthuizen, amazing player, lovely guy. One of the things that I remembered about him when he won that 2010 open. Somebody said to him, you're gonna go out and buy Lamborghini or a Ferrari. And he said, no, I'm gonna get a nice John Deere tractor for the farm.

And I just thought that summed him up. It's just amazing to me that he had that many second place finishes and yeah, he could have had five or six, couldn't he? Quite easily.

james: And then that's that whole got a pure golf swing. But what's that difference? Was it the caddy? You know, there could be seven things,

tommy: or was it his laid back attitude?

Because there was footage of him on a private jet after one of these losses, and he's there and he's smiling away and he's singing away. A lot of people have been devastated. They'd just shut themselves in a hotel room for days. People would've been phoning them and checking in on them, and he just, he almost took it too.

Well, maybe that was it. I don't know. But

paul: yeah. Isn't there something about nice, nice people don't. Win or something like that. Isn't that the same? That people

james: always finish second?

paul: Something like

james: that. I must be really nice 'cause I always finish fourth or first, but he was race.

tommy: Yeah. I don't know when the open is next at St. Andrew's. And I'm not saying put your money on hin to win it, but he wouldn't be a bad shout for a top 10, would he? I dunno how old Louis he is now. What is he? Early forties gotta be.


james: dunno. Oh, I don't know.

tommy: Anybody got anything else they wanna add before we wrap this one up ?

james: St. Andrews is 2027.

tommy: 2027 really. Okay. There you go. So we are not far away. It's been a good pod. I’ve enjoyed that. Alright, well look, thanks for listening. That's done. Well done boys. Thanks a lot.

paul: Awesome. Good job.

Tommy: If you've made it this far, we hope it's because you've enjoyed listening to Tommy Does Golf. To make sure you never miss our podcast, please hit follow. For more of our content or to get in touch, head to Tommy does golf.com. So until next time, no matter how you are playing, smile, laugh, and most important of all, enjoy the walk.