Ten Best Golfers Without a Masters Championship

The Masters has been won by most of golf's greatest players ... but not by all of them. Who are the best golfers in the sport's history without a victory at The Masters? We count down the Top 10.

(Note: The Masters was first played in 1934, so obviously, golfers whose careers ended before 1934 are not eligible. Only golfers with at least three Masters appearances were considered. Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones and Tommy Armour were specifically excluded from consideration because their careers were near their ends by the time The Masters was founded. Jones had retired from competition in 1930, although he played in more than 10 Masters.)

10. Julius Boros
Boros won 18 times on the PGA Tour, including three majors. His last major came at age 48 at the 1968 PGA. In 25 appearances at The Masters, his best finish was a tie for third.

9. Hale Irwin
The three-time U.S. Open champion wore some of the best plaid pants of the 1970s. But he never wore the crown as Masters champ, despite finishing in the Top 10 seven times. From 1974-77, Irwin finished no lower than 5th at Augusta National.

8. Greg Norman
Norman's heartbreaks at Augusta are legend. In 1986, Jack Nicklaus' last charge beat him. In 1987, Larry Mize's chip-in beat him. In 1996, his own mighty collapse and Nick Faldo's great round beat him.

7. Nick Price
Price won the British Open once and PGA Championship twice, but his best finish at The Masters is fifth place. He's finished sixth three other times, one of which came in 2004. But time has probably run out for Price.

6. Lloyd Mangrum
A 36-time winner on the PGA Tour, with one major championship, Mangrum had many great years at Augusta. He just never won the thing. Mangrum finished second twice, third twice and fourth twice. From 1947 to 1956, he finished no lower than 8th.

5. Ernie Els
There's a very good chance Els will remove himself from this list before his career is over. His combination of power and touch is tailormade for Augusta National. From 2000 to 2004, Els finished no lower than 6th, with two runner-up placings.

4. Johnny Miller
Miller was involved in one of the great Masters, 1975, when Jack Nicklaus' back-nine surge powered him past Miller and Tom Weiskopf. In 19 Masters appearances, Miller had surprisingly few Top 10 finishes - just four. But three of those (1971, 1975, 1981) were second-place showings.

3. Peter Thomson
The great Australian was one of the best links golfers ever, winning the British Open five times. But in eight Masters appearances, he finished in the Top 10 just once. One of the few golfers to publicly discuss his dislike of Augusta National.

2. Lee Trevino
Trevino, his contemporaries say, psyched himself out of winning the Masters. He believed his game wasn't suited to the course, and he even skipped a couple Masters in the early 1970s. He never felt comfortable at Augusta National, either, often avoiding entering the clubhouse, heading straight from his car to the driving range. The Masters is the only major Trevino didn't win. His best finish was 10th in both 1975 and 1985.

1. Bobby Locke
Locke won the British Open four times. One of the first great international players to play full-time on the PGA Tour, Locke proved his greatness in the U.S. On an exhibition tour with Sam Snead, Locke won 12 of their 14 matches. On the PGA Tour in the late 1940s, Locke played 59 events. He won 11 of them, finished second 10 times, third eight times and fourth five times (34 out of 59 tournaments in the Top 4). He still holds the PGA Tour record for largest margin of victory (16 strokes).

But the PGA Tour in 1949 banned Locke in a dispute over playing commitments, and although the ban was lifted a couple years later, Locke rarely returned to America. He played The Masters only four times, his best finish a tie for 10th.

Honorable Mention: Paul Runyan, Henry Cotton, Gene Littler, Roberto De Vicenzo.

Let's give a special nod to De Vicenzo, who lost The Masters in a way so cruel that not even Greg Norman experienced such heartbreak.

It was 1968, and De Vicenzo had just played one of the great closing rounds in Masters history. Playing on his birthday, De Vicenzo - who won more than 230 tournaments around the world - shot 31 on the front, closing with a 65 to tie Bob Goalby and force a playoff.

Alas, De Vicenzo's playing partner, Tommy Aaron, had written the wrong score for one hole on De Vicenzo's scorecard, giving De Vicenzo a 4 on No. 17 when he had in fact made a 3. De Vicenzo didn't catch the mistake, signed an incorrect scorecard and was penalized, dropping into second place.

De Vicenzo famously exclaimed after the incident: "What a stupid I am!"

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