istory says at least one player will win their first major championship in 2024,
and oddsmakers are giving you the chance to pinpoint who that will be –
some six months in advance of the opening shot of the 2024 Masters.
Since 1946, the year after the conclusion of World War II,
at least one of golf’s four major winners at the Masters, the PGA Championship,
the U.S. Open or The Open Championship featured a first-time major winner in all but four years.
The four outliers: 1972, when legends Jack Nicklaus (x2), Gary Player and Lee Trevino scooped the major hardware; 1980,
when it was Nicklaus (x2), Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros; 2000,
when Tiger Woods won three and Vijay Singh the other; and most recently 2014,
when Rory McIlroy claimed two majors and Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer each won their second.
In fact, in those 78 years of major championship golf, we have had exactly 156 first-time major winners –
averaging out to exactly two a year.
This was shown in 2023 with Wyndham Clark winning the U.S. Open and Brian Harman claiming The Open –
maintaining an average of two per season.