By Jamie Kennedy, europeantour.com
What do the four Major champions of 2016 all have in common?
Answer: All four are first-time Major winners.
Danny Willett, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Jimmy Walker all broke their Major ducks with victories at the Masters, US Open, Open Championship and US PGA Championship respectively. It's just the fifth time in history that the year's four Majors have been won by first timers.
It first happened nearly 60 years ago in 1959, when Bob Rosburg won the US PGA Championship by a single shot at Minneapolis Golf Club. The American had come close to his first Major title just weeks earlier at the US Open, finishing runner up to Billy Casper at Winged Foot. Rosburg and Casper were joined that year by fellow first-timers Art Wall Jnr, who prevailed at the Masters, and Gary Player, who won his first of nine Major Championships at The Open.
Ten years later in 1969, four more first-time Major winners joined the record books.
That year George Arthur won his only Major championship at Augusta, holding off Billy Casper, Tom Weiskopf and George Knudson by a shot. Two months later Orville Moody captured his only PGA Tour title, winning the US Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston. Four weeks later at Royal Lytham and St Annes, Tony Jacklin became the first Brit to win the Claret Jug in 18 years. Finally, American Raymond Floyd won his first of four Major titles at the US PGA Championship, beating Gary Player by a shot at NCR Country Club.
Amazingly it was another 34 years before history would repeat itself.
In 2003, Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel picked up their first Majors. Curtis and Micheel were the two surprises of that class of champions, ranked 169th and 396th in the world respectively when they took home the Claret Jug and Wanamaker Trophy that year.
Finally in 2011, Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Keegan Bradley won the year’s four Majors.
McIlroy had famously come close to winning at Augusta, losing a four shot lead on Sunday to allow Schwartzel to slip on the Green Jacket. However, the Northern Irishman bounced back in emphatic style at Congressional Country Club two months later, winning by eight shots.
Willett, Johnson, Stenson and Walker are the latest first timers to join the list of Major champions. In fact, going back to last year's PGA Championship, we have witnessed the maiden Major victory of five straight players, with Jason Day picking up the Wanamaker Trophy at Whistling Straits.
That is the longest stretch of first timer Majors winners since 2012 when Webb Simpson's win at the US Open was the ninth straight win by a first time Major champion.
