The best golfers who never got to world No.1

5.

Jose Maria Olazabal

Weeks at No.2: 35 
Weeks inside top 10: 314

Talk about fine margins. Ahead of the 1991 Masters, there was little separating Ian Woosnam and Olazabal at No.2 and No.3 in the OWGR. Little separated them at Augusta National, too, with Woosie winning by a stroke to reach world No.1 for the first time, while the Spaniard climbed to No.2. But he never reached the summit. He spent the rest of the year hunting down the Welshman but, despite a victory on the European Tour in September, couldn’t catch him.