The list of great Australian golfers not to have won a major is both extensive and heartbreaking yet few came as close as often as Bruce Crampton.

One of many successful Aussie professionals to have done time under Billy McWilliam at Beverly Park Golf Club in Sydney, Crampton announced himself by winning the 1956 Australian Open at Royal Sydney as a 23-year-old.

A year later he headed to America and soon began mixing it with the elite of world golf.

Tied for 13th at the 1956 Open Championship – won by countryman Peter Thomson – Crampton accrued numerous top-20 finishes in majors before making his presence known near the top of the leaderboard in 1963.

Tied for fifth at the US Open and tied for third at the US PGA Championship, Crampton was regularly in contention, his nearest misses coming almost a decade later, both at the hands of Jack Nicklaus.

At the 1972 Masters Crampton began the final round four shots back of Nicklaus and although the Golden Bear shot 2-over 74 Crampton was unable to bridge the gap, finishing three shots back and level with Bobby Mitchell and Tom Weiskopf.

Crampton would finish second to Nicklaus again at the next major, the 1972 US Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Tied with Nicklaus at the top through 36 holes, Crampton shot 76 in a fourth round played in strong winds to once again finish three shots shy of a breakthrough major.

It was the start of an extraordinary run of form for Crampton who won four times on the PGA TOUR in 1973 to finish second on the moneylist, in so doing becoming just the fifth player in PGA TOUR history to earn more than $US1 million in prizemoney, joining Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper and Lee Trevino.

In addition to his 14 wins on the PGA TOUR, Crampton was a dominant force on the Champions Tour, winning 20 times and falling short in the playoff at the 1993 PGA Seniors Championship.

Twenty-one years of age and an eight-time winner during her college career at Pepperdine University, Katherine Kirk (nee Hull) was named the 2003 NCAA College Player of the Year and rocketed into the professional ranks by winning the first two events that she played on the Duramed Futures Tour.

Later that year she finished 42nd at LPGA Tour qualifying school to earn non-exempt status for 2004 and has maintained that status ever since, boasting more than $5 million in career prize money.

Touted as the successor to Karrie Webb as Australia’s top-ranked female player, Kirk secured her first LPGA Tour title in 2008 at the Canadian Women’s Open and rose to a world ranking high of 19 after finishing runner-up at the 2010 Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Her biggest win in Australia was at the 2009 ANZ Ladies Masters at Royal Pines Resort where she won by five strokes and then went head-to-head with Webb in the final round of the 2010 tournament, Webb reaching a tournament-record 26-under par as she won by six.

Kirk’s most recent LPGA Tour win came at the 2017 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic and when she finished tied for third at the Evian Championship later that year returned to the top 50 in the world for the first time in more than five years.

Along with Lindsey Wright and Vicky Uwland, Kirk was also a member of the successful Australian team that claimed the 2002 Espirito Santo Trophy in Malaysia.

Bruce Crampton
Career wins: 45
PGA TOUR wins: 14
Champions Tour wins: 20
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian Open: Won (1956)

Katherine Kirk
Career wins: 11
LPGA Tour wins: 3
ALPG Tour wins: 6
Women’s Australian Open: T4 (2010)
ANZ Ladies Masters: Won (2009)