Everyone loves an underdog or, as Bill Murray put it in Caddyshack, a Cinderella story. We’ve yet to see a groundskeeper take to the links and win the Masters, but the sport has definitely enjoyed its fair share of underdog victories over the years. Here are some of our favourites.
Hideki Matsuyama wins the Masters
We start with some recent history. When last year’s Masters got underway, Hideki Matsuyama was a 40-1 long shot in the golf betting reckoning. Ranked 25th in the world at the time, Matsuyama became the first player from Japan to win a major, and his home nation literally ground to a halt as TV and radio broadcasts were interrupted to share the news of his victory – a Cinderella story indeed!
Matsuyama’s win was, of course, of his own making. He had an absolutely blinding week. But it was also helped by the fact that the pre-tournament favourites like Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy didn’t even make the cut, and so were not there to apply the pressure when Matsuyama had the inevitable wobble in the final round.
Darren Clarke’s maiden major win – at 42
One of the best-known names on the circuit over the past 30 years, Darren Clarke (pictured) has been a constant presence at the sharp end of the leaderboard since he turned pro in 1990. Going into the 2011 Open, Clarke would not exactly have been called an underdog – after all, he had several European titles to his name and had been instrumental in four victorious Ryder Cup campaigns.
Yet he had never won a major – in fact, he’d not even finished in the top 10 of one in more than a decade. It was his 20th attempt at the Claret Jug and proved that sometimes perseverance can pay dividends.
Todd Hamilton blows in out of nowhere
If you’d tuned into coverage of the 2004 Open at the end of the third round and said “Todd who?” you wouldn’t have been alone. The man from Galesburgh, Illinois turned pro in 1987, but was unable to make the PGA tour and laboured away on the Japan Golf Tour throughout the 1990s. He finally earned his tour card in 2003, having just turned 38.
At Royal Troon, an opening day 71 was enough to make the cut, but it gave no warning of what was to come. With back-to-back 67s, he found himself at the top of the leaderboard going into the final round. After 18 holes, he and Ernie Els were level, so it went to a tiebreaker, which Hamilton won after four nervy holes.
It was Hamilton’s first major win and also his last – he never achieved those heights again and in 2010, he slipped off the PGA tour. We think that makes his the ultimate Cinderella story. Incidentally, since turning 50 in 2015, Hamilton has played on the senior tour, most recently competing in last year’s Senior PGA Championship, where he failed to make the cut.