The PGA Tour's Top 10 One-Win Wonders

 

The NFL is considered by many to be the most popular sport in the country.  This is largely due to a level of parity in the league that allows any team to beat any other team on any given Sunday.

 

In recent years the PGA Tour has also experienced a marked increase in their level of parity; so much so that at any given PGA Tour event, including the majors, there are now upwards of 150 players that have a legitimate chance to win if they are able to get hot for four days.

 

This extreme level of parity has brought another level of excitement to the tour in that virtually anyone in the field can win, but it has also produced many ‘one-win wonders’ over the past few years—here’s a list of the top 10 who are still actively playing on the PGA Tour today.

 

 

10) Brett Wetterich

 

Brett Wetterich has had several solid seasons on the PGA Tour; however, his only win came at the 2006 EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

 

In 2007, Wetterich had four top-10 finishes and earned over $2.2 million, which ranked 27th on the tour’s money list.

 

In 2008, Wetterich made seven out of 11 cuts before suffering a season-ending wrist injury.

 

Although Wetterich can be considered a solid tour professional, he has not contended much other than his one win more than two years ago.

 

Wetterich is probably the one player on this list that has the best opportunity to add to his number of PGA Tour wins in years to come.

 

However, as of now, Wetterich can be considered a one-win wonder. 

 

 

9) Brian Bateman

 

Brian Bateman had done very little on the PGA Tour prior to his win at the 2007 Buick Open and has done very little since.

 

In 2006, Bateman made the cut in just 10 out of the 26 events he entered.

 

In 2007, aside from his win at the Buick Open, Bateman had a fairly poor season, making the cut in just 50 percent of the tournaments he entered.

 

2008 was even more of struggle for Bateman; he made the cut in just six out of the 18 events. 

 

Heading into the 2009 season, the final year of a two-year exemption he earned for winning the Buick Open, Bateman will have to turn things around if he wants to remain a member of the PGA Tour.

 

 

8) Richard S. Johnson

 

In 2008, Richard S. Johnson had missed six out of seven cuts prior to the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee, which Johnson won and then proceeded to miss the cut in his next two events.

 

Although the US Bank Championship is not a very strong-fielded tournament, it is still a PGA Tour event and as we all know, winning any PGA Tour event is a difficult task.

 

Aside from Johnson’s win, his best finish in 2008 was a tie for 21st and he made the cut in just 42 percent of the tournaments he entered.   

 

Johnson’s win was indeed a surprise and one that is unlikely to be repeated any time soon.

 

 

7) Lucas Glover

 

Lucas Glover is probably best known for contending at the 2006 US Open, which is now remembered more for Phil Mickelson’s improbable meltdown on the 18th hole than for Geoff Ogilvy’s win.

 

Glover won the 2005 Walt Disney Resort event, which at the time was called the FUNAI Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort.

 

Since his win at Disney, Glover has been a factor in very few tournaments over the past three years.

 

In 2007, Glover earned more than $1.6 million, which earned him a spot on that year’s American Presidents Cup team, and in 2008 he earned $998,491 but has had just five top-10 finishes over that two year period.

 

Glover is without question a quality PGA Tour professional, but he has given us little reason to believe that he can rise to the top and win another event.

 

 

 

6) Kevin Sutherland

 

Kevin Sutherland won the 2002 Accenture Match Play Championship, which is one of the four World Golf Championship events.

 

After winning a World Golf Championship event, it is somewhat surprising that Sutherland has not won again over the past six years.

 

Sutherland has not been without success on the PGA Tour though.  In 2008, Sutherland finished 11^th on the tour’s money list with earnings of more than $2.58 million.

 

However, he has just not been able to get over that hump and win another PGA Tour event.

 

 

5) Matt Kuchar

 

Similar to Sutherland, Matt Kuchar has not won a PGA Tour event since his win at the 2002 Honda Classic.

 

Kuchar has been a fixture on the PGA Tour for years now although he always seems to be flirting with the 125^th spot on the tour’s money list which a player needs to finish inside of to automatically earn their playing privileges for the following year.

 

Kuchar had five top-10 finishes in 2008, but like Sutherland, he has not been able to get back to his winning ways over the past six years.

 

 

4) J.J. Henry

 

In 2006, J.J. Henry had five top-10 finishes, including a win at the Buick Championship, and earned over $2.3 million, all of which were good enough to earn him a spot on Tom Leehman’s 2006 American Ryder Cup team.

 

Henry earned a total of one point at the 2006 Ryder Cup, where the Europeans trounced the Americans 18.5-9.5 at the K-Club in Ireland.

 

Many people, including Henry, believed that 2006 was his breakout year. 

 

However, since 2006, Henry has severely struggled on the PGA Tour.

 

In 2007, Henry had just two top-10 finishes.

 

In 2008, Henry made the cut in just 55 percent of the tournaments he entered and finished 92nd on the PGA Tour’s money list. 

 

At the still-young age of 33, Henry has plenty of time to turn things around and have a successful career on the PGA Tour if he is able to make some adjustments and return to his 2006 form.

 

 

As we all know, in golf, the major championships are what it is really all about.  They are attended by virtually every top player in the world. They are played on the toughest courses and are the most pressure-packed events in all the game, thus making them significantly more difficult to win than the average PGA Tour event.

 

For this reason, the following three one-win wonders top off the list. 

 

 

3) Angel Cabrera

 

Angel Cabrera held off none other than Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk to win the 2007 US Open at Oakmont Country Club.

 

Prior to the 2007 US Open, Cabrera was known more for his incredible length off the tee and for smoking an average of at least 18 cigarettes per round.

 

In fairness to Cabrera, he does spend a lot of time on the European Tour, where he has won four times and he also plays a number of events in South America.

 

However, other than his shocking win at the 2007 US Open, Cabrera has done little else on the PGA Tour.

 

In the 14 PGA Tour events Cabrera played in during the 2007 season, he finished in the top-10 only once—his US Open victory.

 

In 2008, Cabrera played in 17 PGA Tour events, again finishing in the top-10 just once.

 

Basically in the past two years Cabrera has finished in the top-10 in just 6 percent of the PGA Tour events he entered, which is what makes Cabrera’s win at the 2007 US Open that much more improbable.

 

2) Michael Campbell

 

Early in Campbell’s career he was considered to be one of the better up-and-coming players on the PGA Tour. 

 

That being said, no one expected him to break out so quickly and win a major championship as he did at the 2005 US Open.

 

At the picturesque Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, Campbell carded a final round 69 which was good enough to move him into the lead and hold off a charging Tiger Woods who came up two strokes short of Campbell.

 

Since the New Zealander won the 2005 US Open, his game has suffered a dramatic decline.

 

Campbell has won several times on the European and Australasia Tours; however, other than his shocking win at the 2005 US Open, Campbell has not even come close to winning another PGA Tour event.

 

In 2008, Campbell’s best finish on the PGA Tour was a tie for 42nd at the PGA Championship. 

 

Campbell missed the cut in four out of the six PGA Tour events he attended and managed to break par just once during the 2008 season.

 

Throughout history, there have been many players to have lost their game after winning a major championship. However, few have seen their game collapse as quickly and dramatically as Campbell’s did after his 2005 US Open victory.

 

 

1) Shaun Micheel

 

Shaun Micheel literally came out of nowhere to win the 2003 PGA Championship, and than disappeared as quickly as he had burst onto golf’s main stage.

 

At Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY, Micheel carded a 72-hole score of four-under-par to win his first and only PGA Tour event, which happened to be a major championship.  

 

Since that point, Micheel has struggled with his game so much so that if it weren’t for the 10-year exemption he obtained through his win at the PGA Championship, Micheel would not even have a PGA tour card today. 

 

Following Micheel’s improbable win at the 2003 PGA Championship, he has made the cut in just 56 percent of tournaments he has entered and has finished in the top 10 only eight times in the past five years.

 

In 2008, Micheel made the cut in six out of 16 events and finished the year with earnings of just $157,828 which ranked 209th on the tour’s money list.

 

There have been few players in the history of the game who have won a major and then promptly disappeared as quickly as Shaun Micheel.

 

 

Now, although being labeled as a ‘one-win wonder’ is surely something no PGA Tour professional wants to be associated with, it is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

Every player whose name appears on this list has accomplished something that very few players who ever pick up a golf club are able to achieve—win a PGA Tour event.

 

Each and every player on this list has shown at one time or another that they have what it takes to win at the game’s highest level, so what's to say that they can’t do it again?