No longer a best player without a Major title

For the first time in many seasons, golf has no crown prince of futility, no duke of dashed hopes.

That's right, the title of Best Player Never To Have Won A Major is vacant.

Since Phil Mickelson abdicated the crown by winning the Masters in April, there is no player who is sorely lacking a major championship on his resume to prove his worth.

Mickelson held the title for a painfully long period until at the age of 33 he slipped his arms into a green jacket.

Prior to Mickelson's ascension to the title, Scotland's Colin Montgomerie was the king of unrealized expectations. As Montgomerie's game began to wane and Mickelson's wax, the American took over the title.

From 1994 to 1997, Monty placed second in two U.S. Opens and one PGA Championship, losing one Open and the PGA in playoffs to Ernie Els and Steve Elkington, respectively. Montgomerie also was runner-up to Els in the '97 Open.

At age 40, Montgomerie certainly is not too old to win a major, and judging by his play at the Ryder Cup in 2003 and his recent victory on the European Tour, his game is not too gimpy either.

But Montgomerie has slipped off the radar for most golf fans and the media. He is not expected to win now, which could turn out to be a blessing for the man who won seven Orders of Merit and dominated European golf for much of the 1990s.

He could now join America's Macdonald Smith as one of those supremely gifted players who for whatever reason, be it fate, poor luck, faulty judgment or bad juju, could not win a major championship.

It won't come this week, as Montgomerie did not qualify for the U.S. Open at Shinnecock.

If not Montgomerie, then who?

Certainly there are players on the PGA Tour and in Europe that many feel have not lived up to expectations, but there is no one player who has repeatedly come close and failed as Mickelson and Montgomerie had done.

Of the top 10 players in the most recent world rankings, only Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Spain's Sergio Garcia have yet to win a major.

Much is expected of each, but neither is in position to claim the vacant title.

Harrington is 32 years old, however, he has not been a player on the world stage for very long. Remember, Mickelson flashed into prominence 13 years ago when he won his first PGA Tour title as an amateur at Arizona State University.

Harrington spends most of his time in Europe and still is a bit of an unknown for many American fans. He has played in just 24 majors and has six top-10 finishes. His best showings have come in the U.S. Open, where he has three top-10s, including two straight, in six tries.

After losing in a playoff for the Buick Classic on Sunday, Harrington was busy bemoaning the state of his game, which looked awfully good. But for a putt on the first playoff hole that unbelievably failed to tumble into the hole, Harrington would have won his first PGA Tour title.

"I played terrible all week," Harrington said. "I really struggled. I haven't got the ball under any control, didn't know where it was going to go next. The last thing you want to do before a U.S. Open is try to find a golf swing, and I seem to have lost mine."

Garcia, who sometimes seems to have been around the game for a decade, is still only 24 years old. In 22 majors, he has eight top-10s, with a second to Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship his best showing. Garcia's record is best in the British Open, where he has three top-10s in seven tournaments. Those three top-10s have come over the last three seasons.

Just on age alone, the crown does not fit Garcia. Besides, with two victories this season in playoffs, two very different victories, at that, Garcia could be closing in on a major.

Unofficially, though, Garcia probably is the best player out there who has not won one of the game's jewels. He just doesn't have the years and the near-misses under his belt to be crowned yet.

Speaking after his Buick Classic victory on Sunday, Garcia did not seem too concerned expectations from fans or the media.

"I'm not worried about it," he said. "I think that I've been working hard, and of course my goal is to win a major any time as soon as possible. But the thrill of putting yourself in contention and having a chance at winning tournaments, that's a great feeling, too.

"I've just got to keep doing the things I've been doing and hopefully I will win one soon, but I think that it's just a matter of time. As I said before, I've got to wait for it and let it happen."

The key is not to wait too long.

Looking at the second group of 10 in the world rankings, the numbers are reversed, with eight players never having won a major. But there's really not a contender for the crown there either.

Stuart Appleby is probably the closest, but the Australian really has not separated himself enough from a lot of other talented players for us to wonder why he has no major.

In 29 majors, Appleby has only three top-10s, with his best showing a playoff loss to Ernie Els two years ago in the British Open. He also has missed the cut a whopping 13 times in his major career, including five times in eight Masters and four times in seven U.S. Opens.

By comparison, Garcia has missed but five cuts, none in the U.S. Open, and Harrington also has missed only five cuts.

Of the rest, Adam Scott and Chad Campbell are just getting their careers under way, as is K.J. Choi, at least in the States.

Kenny Perry, Darren Clarke or Scott Verplank could pop up and win a major, but they are like Appleby, simply not in the category of great players.

Jay Haas also falls in that group, but Haas is 50 years old and running out of chances. It could happen, and it is difficult to imagine a more popular winner, but it probably will not.

In fact, we may be several seasons away from naming a successor to Mickelson. None of the contenders for the title has experienced the heartaches of Montgomerie or Mickelson.

Remember, Mickelson complied 17 top-10s in majors before winning his first, including final-hole losses to David Toms in the 2001 PGA and the late Payne Stewart in the 1999 U.S. Open.

There is, after all, an element of gut-wrenching misery, of mighty failure that goes with the title. And none of the contenders have yet failed long enough or often enough to wear this onerous crown.