Best player without a major win: Sergio Garcia

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Who is the best active golfer who has yet to break through with a major victory? We asked eight PGATOUR.COM writers to each pick a different player and make the argument why that player deserves (or perhaps is stuck with) the label as best player without a major. Read the argument below and click here to see the arguments for seven other players.
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It's been a decade since Sergio Garcia leapt into the role of rival to you-know-who. Garcia was just a kid when he wowed us at the 1999 PGA Championship with that sprint up the fairway at Medinah Country Club. It was sure to be one in a long line of major moments for El Niño with he and Tiger Woods trading one win after another for years to come.

Well, it hasn't exactly worked out that way. While Woods has lived up to and exceeded expectation, Garcia, simply put, has not. When it comes down to it, though, he has certainly had his chances and still has seven career PGA TOUR wins, 11 other victories around the world and a terrific Ryder Cup record to his credit.

Garcia also has 14 career top-10s in major championships. Nine of those were finishes in the top five. Three were runner-up finishes. You can throw out all the Kenny Perrys, Lee Westwoods or Steve Strickers you want, but none of them has a major championship résumé that comes close to sniffing what Garcia has done throughout his career. The numbers don't lie.

Maybe Anthony Kim or Camilo Villegas will eventually bear this dubious honor, but they're still too inexperienced even to be part of the conversation. Inexperienced, as opposed to too young, because Kim and Villegas are both twentysomethings, just like Garcia, who turned 29 earlier this year. We sometimes forget that about Garcia because he's been a major part of the golf landscape for so long, nearly as long as Woods, even though he is four years Woods' junior.

It's very well possible that Perry or Stricker or someone else could win a major before Garcia, especially considering the year Garcia is having -- he tied for 10th at the U.S. Open but was never a threat and didn't finish in the top 35 at the British Open or the Masters. But I'd still put my money on Garcia to finish with more major championships than any of them. He's younger -- by some accounts more talented -- and has proven that his game can net him multiple British Opens -- if he could just get that first one out of the way.