Which Major has the Most Surprise Winners and Why?

Every major has at one time or another awarded the trophy to someone we haven’t heard of before that week. But which one does this with the most frequency and why?

To me it usually is the PGA Championship, see Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, YE Yang, Martin Kaymer...et all.

Why? I think usually do the setup. It isn't always set up to finish above par. But let birdies happen. And it opens the field to whoever gets hot. But this year, they went to one of the toughest courses there is and look what happened, the top two players in the world finishing 1-2.

I would say it is a tie between the PGA Championship and The Open Championship, but for different reasons. I think the PGA is the least 'initimidating' major. At least where it used to fall in the calendar, I always had the feeling that it was almost forgotten about. As for The Open Championship, I think the severity of the weather can cause some randomness in the winners. You can get some weather that will completely eliminate one wave of the field. You can also get this in other majors, but it seems to happen more often at The Open.

Weather and conditions are variables to the outcome. The Open 'Ship has more of that than any other. On paper it should be the one but I agree that the PGA has in practice produced more "one-off" winners.

> @"Carolina Golfer 2" said:

> To me it usually is the PGA Championship, see Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, YE Yang, Martin Kaymer...et all.

> Why? I think usually do the setup. It isn't always set up to finish above par. But let birdies happen. And it opens the field to whoever gets hot. But this year, they went to one of the toughest courses there is and look what happened, the top two players in the world finishing 1-2.

This

That!

> @exgolfpro said:

> I would say it is a tie between the PGA Championship and The Open Championship, but for different reasons. I think the PGA is the least 'initimidating' major. At least where it used to fall in the calendar, I always had the feeling that it was almost forgotten about. As for The Open Championship, I think the severity of the weather can cause some randomness in the winners. You can get some weather that will completely eliminate one wave of the field. You can also get this in other majors, but it seems to happen more often at The Open.

I’d also add that the Open especially with the weather is much more alien to US pros which knocks many of them out of contention

> @"Carolina Golfer 2" said:

> To me it usually is the PGA Championship, see Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, YE Yang, Martin Kaymer...et all.

> Why? I think usually do the setup. It isn't always set up to finish above par. But let birdies happen. And it opens the field to whoever gets hot. But this year, they went to one of the toughest courses there is and look what happened, the top two players in the world finishing 1-2.

Martin Kaymer who also destroyed the field at the US Open and was World Number 1 is not a surprising winner.

I'm> @"Carolina Golfer 2" said:

> To me it usually is the PGA Championship, see Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, YE Yang, Martin Kaymer...et all.

> Why? I think usually do the setup. It isn't always set up to finish above par. But let birdies happen. And it opens the field to whoever gets hot. But this year, they went to one of the toughest courses there is and look what happened, the top two players in the world finishing 1-2.

It's probably the PGA championship that has more surprising winners, but I think it's mostly due to the field. Masters & Open championship take top 50 from the world rankings; US open takes top 60. The PGA championship takes the top 100. The lesser known players aren't playing in the other majors.

> @MattyO1984 said:

> > @"Carolina Golfer 2" said:

> > To me it usually is the PGA Championship, see Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, YE Yang, Martin Kaymer...et all.

> > Why? I think usually do the setup. It isn't always set up to finish above par. But let birdies happen. And it opens the field to whoever gets hot. But this year, they went to one of the toughest courses there is and look what happened, the top two players in the world finishing 1-2.

>

> Martin Kaymer who also destroyed the field at the US Open and was World Number 1 is not a surprising winner.

Ok and i suppose you want to throw in his Players Championship as well ?

So he was a whiff. But I stand by the others!