5 best to never win a US Open
All of them are major champions. All of them are in the Hall of Fame. None is on the roll call of champions for the U.S. Open.
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2. Phil Mickelson
Phil Mickelson has been playing the U.S. Open for 20 years, and all he has to show for it is a silver medal. But only because the U.S. Open doesn't award the purple heart.
Mickelson might have won at Shinnecock Hills in 1995 if not for playing the par-5 16th in 6 over for the week. He nearly got into a playoff at Pinehurst No. 2 in 1999 until Payne Stewart made a 15-footer for par on the last hole. Five shots behind going into the last day at Bethpage Black, he made Tiger Woods sweat until Woods delivered a key birdie. Mickelson also was runner-up at Bethpage Black in 2009, missing a 3-foot putt on the 15th hole to kill his momentum.
Nothing was more memorable than Winged Foot in 2006, when he had a one-shot lead playing the 18th. After a tee shot into the merchandise tents left him a decent lie, he tried to carve a 3-iron around the tree, didn't pull it off and made double bogey to finish one shot behind. "What an idiot I am," he famously said when it was over.
He is the modern day version of the "People's Champion." But he is not a U.S. Open champion.
Credit: AP Photo/Charles Krupa
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