While each men’s golf Major has its unique challenges, the US Open is regarded by many as the hardest to win, as the courses are generally set up to punish almost any mistake.
Despite that, many of the world’s best have lifted the US Open at least once over the years, while greats such as Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan achieved it multiple times.
However, for some other players who are rightly regarded among the best to pick up a club, a US Open title remained elusive. Here are nine of the best players who never won the US Open – and one who still could.
Harry Cooper
Harry Cooper didn’t just find winning the US Open beyond him – he didn’t claim a single Major title, despite enjoying an otherwise glorious career.
The English-American turned pro in 1923 and amassed 30 PGA Tour wins over the next 16 years, but finished runner-up in Majors four times, and that was as good as it got. Even more agonizing was the fact Cooper led twice heading into the final round of the US Open, in 1927 and 1936, only to fall short when winning seemed the more plausible outcome.
Sam Snead
Snead won the Masters and PGA Championship three times apiece and claimed victory at the 1946 Open, leaving him one US Open title shy of a career Grand Slam.
He finished second on four occasions, too. However, it is the 1939 tournament that most likely gave him nightmares. He only needed to par the 72nd hole to win but conspired to make a triple bogey to finish fifth.
Nick Faldo
After six Major titles, 43 professional wins, and a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame, the Englishman is undoubtedly one of the best players the world has seen, but he never lifted the US Open trophy.
Faldo’s Major wins were shared equally between The Masters and The Open, but he wasn’t far away from adding a US Open title to that list.
He had five top-10 finishes at the tournament, but the first of those was as good as it got when, in 1988, he missed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th that would have handed him the title. The next day, he and Curtis Strange competed in an 18-hole playoff, only for Faldo to have an off day as Strange won by four.
Seve Ballesteros
Like Faldo, Ballesteros’ Major wins came between The Masters and The Open, with two at the former and three at the latter, but any player with 90 professional wins would surely expect one of those to come at the US Open.
It wasn’t to be, and the closest he came was third in 1987. He was two off the lead heading into the final round at the Olympic Club, but, needing something a bit special, his 71 on Sunday wasn’t enough, and he finished five behind winner Scott Simpson.
Colin Montgomerie
Like Cooper, the Scot never won a Major in an otherwise fantastic career that saw him rack up an incredible 54 professional wins.
While the majority of those came on the European Tour, any thoughts that he might not have been as comfortable on Stateside courses can be dispelled by his US Open record.
Monty achieved five top-10 finishes at the tournament, including runner-up three times and third once, in 1992. On that occasion, Jack Nicklaus even congratulated him on his “first US Open victory” after he completed his final round in the lead before Tom Kite and Jeff Sluman finished ahead of him.
Two years later, he lost in a playoff as Ernie Els took the title, and in 1997, he was again thwarted by Els, who this time won by one. A final T2 came in 2006 when he had – famously - Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk for company as Geoff Ogilvy won.
Montgomerie partially exorcised his demons in 2014 when he won the US Senior Open to finally claim a USGA championship at the age of 50.
Greg Norman
You don’t spend a total of 331 weeks as World No.1 without being considered one of the best players the game has seen, and even though the Australian “only” won two Majors, in 1986 and 1993 and both at The Open, he came mightily close in the other three.
Norman finished runner-up once at The Open, but he also did that seven times in the other Majors, most famously when his game fell apart in the final round of The Masters in 1996.
He also came desperately close twice at the US Open. The most notable time came in 1984 at Winged Foot, when a 40-foot par putt saw him into an 18-hole playoff with Fuzzy Zoeller, only for the American to ease home by eight.
In 1995, Norman again finished second, this time as Corey Pavin beat him by two.
Norman also led heading into the final round in 1986, but, in a precursor to what would happen at Augusta National 10 years later, he couldn’t sustain his challenge, and finished way off in T12.
Nick Price
The Zimbabwean was one of the most dominant players of the 1990s, and during that decade spent 44 weeks at the top of the world rankings while picking up three Major titles. The US Open was not among them, though.
He came reasonably close twice. In 1992, he finished six off winner Tom Kite in a T4 with Nick Faldo, and six years later, he began the final round five off the lead, but couldn’t reduce the gap as he again had to settle for fourth.
Three more top-10 finishes followed at the Major in the 2000s, but he never got a better chance to lift the trophy.
Vijay Singh
The Fijian racked up 66 professional wins as he jostled for greatness with Tiger Woods in the late 1990s and first decade of the 21st century. Among them were three Major titles, but the US Open proved elusive.
The closest he came was in 1999 at Pinehurst No.2, when he finished T3. Singh was in contention throughout and would have likely gone into the final round confident with just three shots separating him and overnight leader Payne Stewart.
Both Singh and Woods faltered towards the end of their rounds with bogeys, though, which left Stewart and Phil Mickelson the most likely to win. Stewart eventually holed a famous 15-foot putt on the 72nd hole to thwart Mickelson, while Singh finished tied with Woods and two shots adrift.
Phil Mickelson
As an active player, Mickelson is the only name on the list who can still rectify his unwanted inclusion, but it’s incredible he’s on it at all.
The six-time Major winner has finished runner-up the same number of times to become the ultimate US Open nearly man, at least for the time being.
While on another day, a player of Mickelson’s ability could have produced the necessary to get over the line in each of the six close calls, the one that he really should have won came in 2006 at Winged Foot. There, he needed just a par to win or a bogey to reach a playoff with Geoff Ogilvy, and did neither.
After finding the hospitality tent with his tee shot, he then hit a tree taking the risky option of going for the green through a gap that didn’t appear to exist. Next, he landed in a bunker before failing to find the green from it, before eventually making a double-bogey and missing out by a shot.
