Mickelson Best in the Majors in 2010

Who had the best year in the majors in 2010? Well, it wasn't Louis Oosthuizen, who missed the cut in the three majors he didn't win:

• Phil Mickelson: 1, t4, t48, t12
• Graeme McDowell: mc, 1, t23, cut
• Louis Oosthuizen: mc, mc, 1, mc
• Martin Kaymer: mc, 8, 7, 1

The numbers are the players' finishes in the four majors, (in order) The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship ("mc" means missed cut).

Phil Mickelson is the only player to win a major and make the cut in all four in 2010, so he's the best player in the majors in 2010.

And Phil was No. 1 by another measure, too: He's the winner of the "Majors Aggregate Championship." That's the combined, aggregate stroke total of players who made the cut in all four majors, and it's a stat that Colin MacGillivray tracks on his Web site, golf-majors-champion.com.

As Ian Baker-Finch noted several times during the PGA Championship broadcast, the list of golfers who make the cut all in four majors is very small every year. A dozen or so is typical. MacGillivray has compiled that data going back to 1960.

And not surprisingly, in 2010 Mickelson is the "Majors Aggregate Champion." But the runner-up might surprise you: Tiger Woods.

Wait, didn't Woods have a terrible year? Yes, by his standards it was an awful 2010 for Tiger. But entering the PGA Championship, Woods was actually leading the aggregate majors races over Mickelson.

Is that any solace to Woods? We can be pretty confident that the answer is "none whatsoever." Woods would trade in an instant his own four cuts made with two Top 5s for Oosthuizen's three missed cuts and one major title (that's a swap we'd all make). But it's an indication that even at his worst, Woods has still been better than a lot of other PGA Tour players. (As an aside, MacGillivray was once able to present a trophy to Woods for being Majors Aggregate Champion.)

In 2010, only 11 golfers made the cut in all four majors. Their aggregate stroke totals, as compiled by MacGillivray:

Phil Mickelson, 1130
Tiger Woods, 1135
Matt Kuchar, 1143
Dustin Johnson, 1146
Charl Schwartzel, 1151
Nick Watney, 1151
Robert Karlsson, 1157
Retief Goosen, 1164
Steve Stricker, 1164
Camilo Villegas, 1164
Zach Johnson, 1175