Best player without a major win: Colin Montgomerie

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Colin Montgomerie's last-minute loss at the 2006 U.S. Open was overshadowed by the double bogey Phil Mickelson made on the 72nd hole.

Who is the best active golfer who has yet to break through with a major victory? We asked eight PGATOUR.COM writers to each pick a different player and make the argument why that player deserves (or perhaps is stuck with) the label as best player without a major. Read the argument below and click here to see the arguments for seven other players.
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Let everyone else try to hang the mantle of Best Player Not To Have Won A Major on Sergio Garcia or one of the other young stars on the PGA TOUR. I look at the other end of the age scale -- 46-year-old Colin Montgomerie.

No active player without a major title has had more playoff losses -- two, which is matched by Chris DiMarco -- and runner-up finishes (five) in the majors the last two decades than Monty, who gets another chance at this week's PGA Championship at Hazeltine. And I believe what Monty did in the 18th fairway at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot wasn't far behind Jean Van de Velde's collapse at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie.

Nobody expected Van de Velde to win at Carnoustie. But a lot of people expected Montgomerie to win a major in his 68 tries as a professional, especially during those years when he was in the midst of capturing seven consecutive Order of Merits on the European Tour while serving as the linchpin for the European Ryder Cup teams.

Certainly nobody expected Montgomerie to implode at the end of the 2006 U.S. Open. He had just rolled in a 60-foot birdie putt at the 17th hole to tie Phil Mickelson for the lead. That long putt seemed to indicate he had momentum -- and the golfing gods -- on his side.

Montgomerie split the fairway at the 18th and had just 172 yards to the hole. But one of the game's purest ball-strikers almost shanked his 7-iron, the ball squirting into the deep rough right and short of the green. His chip rolled way past the hole and he three-putted for an ugly double bogey that left him a shot behind champion Geoff Ogilvy.

Monty also narrowly lost the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont in a three-way playoff to winner Ernie Els and Loren Roberts and the 1995 PGA Championship in sudden death to Steve Elkington. But none hurt more than his failure at Winged Foot. He was so close -- just needing a par from the fairway on the final hole -- to losing the mantle no star golfer wants.