10 Players Who Won Their First Major in Late Stages of Their Careers
Tiger Woods turns 40 at the end of December. The question of whether El Tigre will win another major as he's now entering his fifth decade awakens a measure of curiosity about other major winners who won (relatively) later in their careers.
Of course, the oldest major winner was Julius Boros, who captured the 1968 PGA Championship at the age of 48 years, four months, 18 days—a fact golf broadcasters love to bludgeon viewers with.
But what of those club swingers who didn't taste major glory until after hitting 30? Here are 10 players who didn't win a major until the inward nines of their careers.
Vijay Singh
1 of 10
First major win: 1998 PGA Championship
Age: 35
Vijay Singh turned pro in 1982, toiling in obscurity before winning his first PGA Tour event at the 1993 Buick Classic.
The eternal range-dweller broke through in 1998 to win his first of three major championships at the PGA Championship at Sahalee, Washington.
Mark O'Meara
2 of 10
First major win: 1998 Masters
Age: 41
Mark O'Meara turned pro in 1980 after graduating from Long Beach State University. The North Carolina native recorded his first tour victory in 1984 at the Greater Milwaukee Open.
He tallied seven top-10 finishes in majors before winning his first major championship at the 1998 Masters.
Padraig Harrington
3 of 10
First major win: 2007 Open Championship
Age: 35
Padraig Harrington outlasted Sergio Garcia in a playoff to take the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie, Scotland.
Harrington, who turned pro in 1995, had recorded eight top-10 finishes prior to the victory. The Irishman had been winning tournaments since the 1996 Spanish Open.
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Nick Price
4 of 10
First major win: 1992 PGA Championship
Age: 35
Nick Price captured the first of his three major championships at the 1992 PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club, Missouri, beating Nick Faldo (among others) by three strokes.
Price turned pro in 1977 and has won 50 times around the world in his career.
Ben Crenshaw
5 of 10
First major win: 1984 Masters
Age: 32
While Ben Crenshaw's 1995 Masters win just days after the death of his longtime coach Harvey Penick is more widely discussed, his first win at Augusta, Georgia, came in 1984 when the Texan was 32.
Gentle Ben won a total of 19 times on the PGA Tour.
Angel Cabrera
6 of 10
First major win: 2007 U.S. Open
Age: 37
Argentine Angel Cabrera didn't win his first major until his was nearly 40. Even more impressively/oddly, his 2007 U.S. Open triumph at Oakmont, Pennsylvania, was his first PGA win.
In fact, prior to 2014 when he won the Greenbrier Classic, Cabrera's only two PGA Tour wins were major championships.
Retief Goosen
7 of 10
First major win: 2001 U.S. Open
Age: 32
Retief Goosen turned pro in 1990. He recorded a pair of top-10 finishes in majors prior to the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills, Oklahoma, which he won two by strokes over Mark Brooks in a Monday playoff.
Goosen later captured the 2004 U.S. Open.
Curtis Strange
8 of 10
First major win: 1988 U.S. Open
Age: 33
One of the more interesting playing records in professional golf has to belong to Curtis Strange, who won the U.S. Open in back-to-back years (in 1988 and 1989) but never captured another major championship.
Strange, then 33, defeated Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff at the Country Club, Massachusetts.
Stewart Cink
9 of 10
First major win: 2009 Open Championship
Age: 36
Stewart Cink, a professional since graduating from Georgia Tech in 1995, tallied eight top-10 finishes in majors before breaking through at the 2009 Open Championship in Scotland.
Interestingly, the six-time PGA Tour winner hasn't recorded another major top-10 since.
Y.E. Yang
10 of 10
First major win: 2009 PGA Championship
Age: 37
The man who took down Tiger Woods. Unheralded Y.E. Yang, then 37, stood toe-to-toe with the top-ranked golfer in the world at the 2009 PGA Championship in Minnesota.
Woods failed to convert on a 54-hole lead for the first time in a major championship as the South Korean fired a final-round 70 to Woods' 75 to take the Wannamaker Trophy.
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