Shock Major Winners

[Region3]

Which major championship do you think has had the most shock winners, and are there any conclusions to be drawn based on the "best courses/competitions throw up the best leaderboards" saying?

I'm not talking about Nicklaus winning the Masters in 86 or Willet this year, but more the likes of Shaun Micheel and Todd Hamilton. Those players that don't have the career of a true star.

 

[shewy]

I think the PGA had had its fair share one one timers, although the open has had a few as well

 

[Lord Tyrion]

The Open - Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton + Darren Clarke and Ernie Els when both were well past their prime. Those 4 in recent history stand out to me more than the other majors.

 

[OldMate]

There was some statistical analysis done by someone on this a couple of years ago in an article on the internet or in a magazine based on world rankings of major winners (at least since the OWGR has been around) and it was found that the USPGA actually has around the lowest number of 'shock' winners based on that criteria. The article (rightly) said that people assume that the PGA has more shock winners because it provided quite a few first time major winners over recent history (davis love, david toms, vijay singh etc.) and a couple of 'no-names' in consecutive years (beem, micheel). From memory, The Open had at that stage clearly had the most 'shock winners' based on world rankings.

 

[One Planer]

Michael Campbell's 2005 U.S Open win?