Peter Thomson once named the Australian golfer who he thought would be better than Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy

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The last 15 years have been a golden age of Australian golf.

We currently have three active Australian major winners playing in the sport. Cameron Smith won The Open Championship to bring his country’s total count to 18, joining Jason Day and Adam Scott as active players to win a major . 

Meanwhile, Min Woo Lee took his first PGA Tour victory by winning the Houston Open in 2025, and he’s one of the most popular players in the sport. 

Australia has a rich golfing history. Peter Thomson remains the only player to win three consecutive Open Championships, which he achieved in the 1950s. The country has three former world number ones, with Greg Norman being the first Australian to hold that title, followed by Scott and Day. 

Thomson once named an Australian player that he thought could surpass both Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy as the world’s best player. And if the world golf rankings are to be believed, he was proven right. 

Peter Thomson predicted Adam Scott to become the best player in the world 

In 2013, Scott became the first Australian to win the Masters. There were three Australian players in the top four, as Day and Marc Leishman closely followed Scott, who beat Angel Cabrera in a playoff. 

Scott had been knocking on the door for several years. He’d finished second at the 2011 Masters, won multiple PGA Tour events, and came close to winning the 2012 Open Championship, throwing away his lead in the final few holes. 

Eventually, Scott won his major in 2013, leading Thomson to say he would go on to become better than Woods and McIlroy after winning the Green Jacket. 

He told the Sydney Morning Herald, “I should think he will be seen as the best player in the world eventually. He will surpass Woods and McIlroy. But it might even happen sooner than that.”

Thomson would be partially vindicated when Scott rose to number one in the Official World Golf Ranking a year later, but he only held that title for a week before McIlroy overtook him.

And Thomson made another prediction about the future of Australian golf, which was also proven partially correct. 

“We’ve got the quality, not the quantity,” he continued. “And there is no reason why guys like Day and Leishman can’t go on to win majors. I think both of these players will become prominent from now on.”

Day won the 2015 PGA Championship to prove Thomson right, and Leishman came close with a second-place finish at The Open Championship the same year. 

While his predictions weren’t exactly right, Thomson’s notion about the upcoming successes of Australian golf was. 

The countries with the most major championship victories

As you would expect, America has the most total major championship wins in the sport’s history, but the numbers are staggering.

The USA has 235 more major championship wins than the next most successful country, which is Scotland, which won the bulk of its majors during the 1800s at The Open Championship. 

England is third, again having had most of their success at The Open Championship before the turn of the 20th century, and South Africa is in fourth, led by Gary Player’s nine major victories. 

Australia ranks fifth with 18 total, and Spain follows with 10, led by five from Seve Ballesteros.