With this week’s Open included, there have been 42 major championships played since Tiger Woods won his first, the Masters, in 1997. Colin Montgomerie has said that, with Woods winning two each year, that leaves only two for the rest of them. His arithmetic is not as good as his golf, although it is easy to sympathise with the sentiment.

In fact, Woods has won 12 majors in all and had multiple-winning years in 2000 (US Open, Open and US PGA Championship); 2002 (Masters, US Open); 2005 (Masters, Open) and 2006 (Open, USPGA). He failed to win a major in 2003 and 2004, when he remodelled his swing, and has only the US PGA Championship to play for this year, having missed out on the first three.

So, who wins when Woods misses out? Two years ago, all the talk was of the Big Five – Woods, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen. Taking Woods out of the equation, the other four have each won more than one major since 1997, but between them they have won two fewer than the world No 1. Mark O’Meara has also won twice.

With Padraig Harrington winning at Carnoustie after that dramatic play-off yesterday evening, it brought to 18 the number of players who have won a solitary major championship since 1997. Three, though, are worthy of footnotes. Payne Stewart already had two majors (the 1989 US PGA and 1991 US Open) to his name when he won the 1999 US Open at Pinehurst. The flamboyant American might have been expected to have added another, but he died in a plane crash shortly after winning the last of them. Lee Janzen, the winner of the US Open in 1998, had won the title previously, in 1993. José MarÍa Olazábal’s victory in the Masters in 1999 had been preceded by another, in 1994.

In all, 29 of the 43 major championships played since the beginning of 1997 have been won by players from the United States.

Roll of honour

Major championship winners since 1997

Open Championship Tiger Woods (US, three); Justin Leonard (US); Mark O’Meara (US) Paul Lawrie (Scot); David Duval (US); Ernie Els (SA); Ben Curtis (US); Todd Hamilton (US); Padraig Harrington (Ire)

Masters Woods (four); O’Meara (US); José MarÍa Olazábal (Sp); Vijay Singh (Fiji); Mike Weir (Can); Phil Mickelson (US, two); Zach Johnson (US)

US Open Woods (two); Els; Lee Janzen (US); Payne Stewart (US); Jim Furyk (US); Retief Goosen (SA, two); Michael Campbell (NZ); Geoff Ogilvy (Aus); Ángel Cabrera (Arg)

US PGA Championship Woods (three); Davis Love III (US); Singh (two); David Toms (US); Rich Beem (US); Shaun Micheel (US); Mickelson