Augusta National produces legendary winners. Add a green coat to your wardrobe and you have either defined your career or added greatly to your legacy. Think Jack Nicklaus (six Masters titles) and Tiger Woods (five Masters titles), or guys like Danny Willett, whose 2016 Masters victory was far and away his biggest title and his only PGA Tour victory.
But for every winner, there are dozens of legitimate contenders in the field who had high hopes that were dashed. A few of them had those hopes battered again and again, sometimes in a most notable fashion.
With that in mind, who are the five best male professional golfers who never won the Masters? There is a long list of talented players who haven’t won at Augusta National, but these five listed below were or are elite players with a long string of PGA Tour victories and multiple majors to their names.
This list includes just one current player with a good chance to win. Others modern players, such as five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, aren’t included below because they haven’t played enough Masters to really qualify for this kind of unsavory list – also, there’s a good chance the two-time runner-up Koepka will climb onto the leaderboard this year. But the one current player who does make this list has suffered a fair bit of heartache already among the Georgia pines as he has built a long CV packed with top-10s but no titles.
Lee Trevino at the Masters
The Merry Mex was a force to be reckoned with on the PGA Tour for two decades starting in the late 1960s, and he won 29 times on Tour. He also won the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship two times each. But he never finished better than tied for 10th at Augusta National.
Earlier in his career, many people chalked up Trevino’s lack of success in the Masters to the nature of his game, his favored low cuts not stacking up well at Augusta National. He even skipped the tournament in 1970, ’71 and ’74. He later credited his absences and a general dislike of Augusta National to a poor relationship with then-chairman Clifford Roberts.
On the list of players with the most major titles, Trevino with six such wins stands out for his lack of a Masters title. Walter Hagen won 11 majors from 1914 to 1929, but he was done before the Masters was born. Harry Vardon won seven majors, also all before the Masters kicked off, as did Bobby Jones, who retired from his competitive amateur career before founding Augusta National in 1932 alongside Roberts.
Johnny Miller at the Masters
Long before becoming one of golf’s most recognizable broadcasters, Miller was a pure talent in the 1970s on the PGA Tour. His 25 PGA Tour victories included two major titles, one each in the U.S. Open and British Open. But at Augusta National, he finished second three times.
In the 1971 Masters, a 23-year-old Miller led by as many as two shots over Charles Coody and Jack Nicklaus on the back nine of the final round. But Miller made costly bogeys on two of the last three holes while Coody went on to make two late birdies and two closing pars to lock up the two-shot victory.
In the ’75 Masters, Miller closed with a 6-under 66 as he and Tom Weiskopf (another contender for this list of top 5 never to have won the Masters) tried to catch Nicklaus. But the Golden Bear held steady with a closing 68, and when Miller and Weiskopf each missed birdie putts on the closing hole, they finished one shot back and tied for second place.
In 1981, Miller started the final round tied for 10th place, five shots behind leader Tom Watson with Nicklaus lurking in second place. Miller charged again, this time with a closing 68, but Watson held on with one birdie on the back nine for a closing 71 and a two-shot victory over Miller and Nicklaus.
Greg Norman at the Masters
Long before LIV Golf was ever a thing, the Great White Shark seemed purpose-built to win the Masters. He was the best driver of the golf ball of his wooden-clubhead era, and his high irons shots could stop quickly on Augusta National’s greens. But it wasn’t to be. The two-time winner of the British Open spent 331 weeks as No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking, but the deepest he could sink his teeth into Augusta National was three second-place finishes (1986, 1987, 1996).
In the 1986 Masters, Norman charged with birdies on Nos. 14-17 in the final round and needed a par on No. 18 to tie an aging Jack Nicklaus. Norman blew his final approach shot to the right into the gallery and made bogey to finish one shot back, tied with Tom Kite.
The following year, Norman closed the Masters in even-par 72 to reach a playoff with Seve Ballesteros and Augusta native Larry Mize. Ballesteros fell out of the playoff with a bogey on the first extra hole, No. 10. On No. 11, Norman looked to be in charge, hitting the right fringe in regulation while Mize missed wide right with his approach. But Mize then chipped in from 140 feet away and leapt across the turf in celebration before Norman missed his tying 50-foot putt.
Chalk Norman’s 1987 disappointment up to Mize’s great shot, but 1996 was a different story. In the last Masters before the Tiger Woods era began, Norman held a six-shot lead over longtime nemesis Nick Faldo entering the final round. This time the loss was all Norman, as he staggered to six bogeys in the first 12 holes. Norman would close in 78, while three-time Masters winner Faldo finished with a six-birdie 67 to win by five shots.
Ernie Els at the Masters
The Big Easy won 19 Tour events and four majors, twice at the British Open and twice at the U.S. Open. But the South African Hall-of-Famer never broke through at Augusta National despite two second-place finishes in 2000 and again in 2004.
In the 2000 Masters, Els finished well with a 68 but was clipped by three shots by Vijay Singh. The 2004 Masters was a tighter race, with Phil Mickelson canning an 18-foot putt on the final hole and famously jumping into the air as it dropped, leaving Els one shot behind despite a closing 67.
Els spent nine weeks in 1997 as No. 1 on Official World Golf Ranking and spent 788 weeks among the top 10 players in the world. But the Masters was one event that got away.
Rory McIlroy at the Masters
The only current player on this list, the 35-year-old McIlroy has had great opportunities to close out a Masters title but hasn’t managed to grab a green coat – yet. His fans are convinced 2025 could finally be his year to add to his four major titles (one U.S. Open, one British Open and two PGA Championships), and he enters this year’s event among the betting favorites.
McIlroy’s Augusta missteps began in 2011, when the 21-year-old led after each of the first three rounds and by four shots entering Sunday. McIlroy was less steady on the front nine of the final round, shooting 1-over 37, before he blew up with a wild tee ball way left on No. 10 that led to a triple bogey then made a four-putt double bogey on No. 11. He closed in 80 and finished 10 shots behind winner Charl Schwartzel.
McIlroy – a former World No. 1 and currently ranked No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking – has racked up seven top-10s at Augusta, including in 2022 when he closed in 64 but finished in second place, three shots behind runaway winner Scottie Scheffler.
Nobody should be surprised to see McIlroy break free of this list in 2025 at Augusta National, but at the same time, nobody would be surprised to see him come close and not win. Such is the nature of extreme talent and great expectations.
