There have been 12 Australian major championship winners in the history of golf.
We are currently in a golden era for Australian golf, with three active major winners. Cameron Smith won The Open Championship in 2022 to become the most recent Aussie to win a major, following in the footsteps of Jason Day and Adam Scott.
With 18 major championships, Australia is one of the most successful golfing nations in the sport. And with Min Woo Lee securing his first PGA Tour victory in 2025, the country continues to produce top talent.
And among all the all-time great players who have graced the historic Open Championship in the modern era, there is only one man, an Australian, who has won it three times on the bounce.
The only player to win three straight Open Championships in the modern era
Among all of Australia’s major winners, there is one player who was the gold standard in golf. And he made his name at The Open Championship.
Peter Thomson won The Open five times, and those were all of his major wins. Between 1954 and 1956, he became the first man to win the Claret Jug for three consecutive years since the turn of the 20th century.
Thomson owned the Open in the 50s, winning it four times in that decade. In fact, he owned almost every national open, winning them in ten different countries, including the New Zealand Open nine times.
Thomson amassed six PGA Tour wins, 47 on the Australian/New Zealand Tour, 28 in Europe, and 28 in Asia during his professional career. He was the dominant international player of the 50s.
However, his final masterpiece was not completed until 1965. At Royal Birkdale, Thomson beat Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus to The Open with a ball-striking clinic. He took 71 shots in the final 18 holes of the tournament, and nearly half of them were putts.
Thomson proved he could compete with the best players in any era with his 1965 win, and was later inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1988.
The player who Seve Ballesteros stopped from tying Peter Thomson’s record
Only one man has sniffed Thomson’s record of three straight Open Championship wins. In 1984, Tom Watson was in contention to win his third in a row, but fell two shots short of the lead on the final day.
A year prior, Watson won what would prove to be his eighth and final major championship at Royal Birkdale. It was his second Open in a row after he won at Royal Troon in ‘82.
Watson had the chance to equal Thomson’s historic feat at the Home of Golf, as St Andrews hosted the 1984 Open Championship. And going into Sunday, the American had a share of the lead.
He was 11 under, tied with Australian Ian Baker-Finch, but it was neither man who claimed victory at the famous course. Instead, it was the legendary Seve Ballesteros who claimed his second Open win.
Watson and Ballesteros were neck-and-neck down the stretch, but a bogey on the Road Hole from Watson opened the door. Ballesteros birdied the 18th to shoot a final round 69, and deny Watson his third straight Open victory.
Ballesteros’ famous fist pump after his last putt is now etched in the memory of golf fans forever.
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