18 greatest Aussie golfers of all time

18. Peter Senior

Professional wins: 34
Majors: 0
Highest world ranking: 23 (November 1993)

Twenty-three of Senior’s professional victories have come on home soil, including most recently at the 2015 Australian Masters where, at 56, he saw off top amateur Bryson DeChambeau to clinch his first win for three years. Senior notched four European Tour wins in a six-year period from 1986-1992, but failed to make an impression in majors, with his best finish T4 at the 1993 Open.

17. Marc Leishman

Professional wins: 9
Majors: 0
Highest world ranking: 25 (January 2016)

Came oh so close to winning his first major at last year’s Open Championship at St Andrews when he got himself into the play-off alongside eventual winner Zach Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen. Finished fourth at the Masters back in 2013 too and his recent European Tour win amid a great field at the Nedbank Golf Challenge hint that his best years are still ahead of him.

16. Stuart Appleby

Professional wins: 17
Majors: 0
Highest world ranking: 8 (March 2004)

Appleby has been a regular winner on the PGA Tour over the years, recording nine wins with the first one at the 1997 Honda Classic and his most recent success at the  2010 Greenbrier Classic, where he became only the fifth player in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59 in an official event.

15. Wayne Grady

Professional wins: 11
Majors: 1 (1990 US PGA Championship)
Highest world ranking: N/A

Grady only managed 11 wins throughout his professional career but has something the three names before him do not, his name etched one of golf’s four major trophies. He finished three shots clear of Fred Couples at Shoal Creek and a year earlier, he almost won the Open too but was edged out in a play-off alongside compatriot Greg Norman to Mark Calcavecchia.

14. Robert Allenby

Professional wins: 22
Majors: 0
Highest world ranking: 12 (May 2010)

With four victories apiece on both the European Tour and the PGA Tour, Allenby also has 13 titles to his name Down Under, highlighted when he won the Aussie ‘triple crown’ in 2005 after capturing the Australian Masters, Australian PGA and Australian Open. He’s also been a stalwart of six Presidents Cup campaigns, five of which have ended in defeat.

13. Geoff Ogilvy

Professional wins: 13
Majors: 1 (2006 US Open)
Highest world ranking: 3 (July 2008)

Ogilvy only has 13 professional wins but between 2006 and 2009, made a habit of turning it on on the big stage. His WGC-Accenture Match Play title in 2006 preceded has one and only major win at the US Open four months later, while he also added a further two WGC wins to his name at the 2008 WGC-CA Championship – where he reached a career-high No.3 in the world rankings – and then the Match Play title again in 2009.

12. Steve Elkington

Professional wins: 17
Majors: 1 (1995 US PGA Championship)
Highest world ranking: 3 (May 1997)

Most famous for seeing off Colin Montgomerie in a play-off at the 1995 US PGA Championship, Elkington averaged a PGA Tour win per season in the 90s and reached a career-high ranking of No.3 in May 1997 after winning the Players Championship, three weeks after winning the Doral-Ryder Open.

11. Ian Baker-Finch

Professional wins: 18
Majors: 1 (1991 Open Championship)
Highest world ranking: 10 (March 1992)

Was part of an Aussie one-two at the 1991 Open Championship, finishing two shots clear of Mike Harwood on eight-under-par to lift the coveted Claret Jug. Managed a win apiece on both the European Tour and the PGA Tour but struggled with his game after winning the Open, never contending on the PGA Tour again after a runner-up finish in the 1992 Players Championship.

10. Bruce Crampton

Professional wins: 43
Majors: 0
Highest world ranking: N/A

A man who could’ve so easily had a major championship win to his name, Crampton finished runner-up on four occasions in three years – the 1972 Masters, 1972 US Open, and the 1973 and 1975 US PGA Championships. He performed well on the PGA Tour too, recording 14 wins from 1961-1975, before adding 20 more on the Champions Tour.

9. Jim Ferrier

Professional wins: 31
Majors: 1 (1947 US PGA Championship)
Highest world ranking: N/A

Born in Sydney, Ferrier grabbed ten wins on the PGA Tour of Australasia before moving to the USA where he became a citizen in 1944. He then went on to record 18 wins on the PGA Tour which included the 1947 US PGA Championship.

8. Jan Stephenson

Professional wins: 26
Majors: 3 (1981 Du Maurier Classic, 1982 Women’s PGA Championship, 1983 US Women’s Open)
Highest world ranking: N/A

Stephenson burst onto the LPGA Tour scene after turning pro in 1973 and won the 1974 LPGA Rookie of the Year Award after an excellent season. The LPGA Tour wins – 16 in total – soon followed, as did the major championships, with three in as many years to become the then most successful Australian female golfer.

7. David Graham

Professional wins: 38
Majors: 2 (1979 US PGA Championship, 1981 US Open)
Highest world ranking: N/A

A two-time major winner and in fantastic fashion both times, too. In the 1979 US PGA Championship, he surrendered a two-shot lead with a double-bogey on the last but ended up beating Ben Crenshaw on the third hole of a play-off, while the 1981 US Open saw him come from three shots back to beat George Burns and become the first Aussie to win the US Open.

6. Kel Nagle

Professional wins: 81
Majors: 1 (1960 Open Championship)
Highest world ranking: N/A

Admitted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007, Nagle is recognised as one of the finest Aussie golfers of his time and managed at least one tournament win per year from 1949 through to 1975. This also included his victory at the 1960 Open Championship, where he held his nerve to beat Arnold Palmer by one shot at St Andrews.

5. Jason Day

Professional wins: 12
Majors: 1 (2015 US PGA Championship)
Highest world ranking: 1 (September 2015)

Ended talk of being one of the world’s best players without a major last summer with a quite stunning victory at Whistling Straits, where he reached a tournament record 20-under-par. Followed that up with victories at The Barclays and BMW Championship in the FedEx Cup, which helped him become the third Aussie golfer in history to reach world No.1 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

4. Adam Scott

Professional wins: 27
Majors: 1 (2013 Masters)
Highest world ranking: 1 (July 2014)

After crumbling when well-placed at the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, Scott showed immense courage to fight back and win the 2013 Masters in a play-off against Angel Cabrera and became world No.1 Has 11 top tens in major championships over the past five years and only two missed cuts.

3. Peter Thomson

Professional wins: 88
Majors: 5 (1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1965 Open Championship)
Highest world ranking: N/A

Five Open wins in 11 years, including four in five years, tells its own story for Thomson, who was never afforded the opportunity to play in the US PGA Championship. To highlight his dominance at the Open Championship, in 21 appearances from 1951-71, the worst he finished at the Open was T24 and he finished outside the top ten  only three times.

2. Karrie Webb

Professional wins: 57
Majors: 7 (1999 Du Maurier Classic, 2000 & 2001 US Women’s Open, 2000 & 2006 ANA Inspiration, 2001 Women’s PGA Championship, 2002 Women’s British Open
Highest world ranking: N/A

The finest female Australian golfer of all-time, Webb is also recognised as one of the best players in the history of the women’s game after claiming 57 professional wins which included seven majors in the space of seven years. Her success resulted in her being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2005.

1. Greg Norman

Professional wins: 90
Majors: 2 (1986 & 1993 Open Championship)
Highest world ranking: 1

Norman has spent 331 weeks occupying top spot on the Official World Golf Ranking, second only to Tiger Woods’ incredible 683 weeks and way ahead of third-placed Nick Faldo with 97. The Shark has no fewer than 90 worldwide wins and his two major wins could’ve undoubtedly been so much more with seven runner-up finishes.