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I think that 50 out of 60 have been held in USA .

Since the decline of Faldo,Lyle Ballesteros and Woosnam , Europe have few players capable of winning Majors, but the cycle is changing and they will start again.

With so many events held in USA ,the home players have a significant advantage over players who are nt based 100% in USA.

Well y'know, we do have the Ryder Cup actually! Also, in those 60 playings, some guy Woods has won 20 of them!

One should remeber that the US members are ever keen to remind of the victories of US players when the topic is Ryder cup... what goes around comes around so best avoid the lobbing of stones!

The lack of European success in Majors is baffling . Since the decline of the big names of the 80's and 90's (Lyle,Ballesteros,Langer,Woosnam and Faldo) , plenty of players capable have come through ,but none have deliverd. The Atlantic travle to play in 85% of the big tournaments does not help, and the qualification criteria have hindered young Europeans from getting regular opportunities. But HArrington,Garcia ,Montgomerie ,Westwood and Clarke can not use that excuse as they have had more than enough chances. Donald CAsey Howell are new breed and should compete on even ground. If the 'lost ' generation of European players that hit a Major drought over the last decade do not step up soon , they will have a major omission from their resume.

What makes it more confusing is the number of Australians,Kiwis and South Africans who have taken chances to win with more dissadvantages than Europeans.

I don't think travel is the problem. Westwood, Donald and Garcia play most of the time in the States. Furthermore Donald and Casey have gone through the American College system like most Americans.
Some of the new breed that you mentioned are close to or past their 30s. If they don't start delivering, soon they will be past it.
At the end of the day what separates the people at the top is mental attitude and drive to succeed. I have a feeling that many of today's top golfers have grown to comfortable with the huge amounts of money that they earn and are not prepare to work any harder for that little bit extra.

Westwood plays most of his golf on the European Tour. Garcia does play mostly US events with just enough European appearances to keep his card. Donald divides his time fairly evenly, as do Harrington, Clarke and others.

I have to admit I find it hard to even remember when the Euros have given themselves chances to win Majors- obviously Monty at Winged Foot comes to mind, and Garcia in 99. You have to get yourself in the mix and the top Europeans haven't been doing that enough.

Westwood in the last couple of years plays most of his golf on the pga tour. Perhaps Rotney can enlighten us as to how many tournaments he played in Europe this year.
As regards European players contesting majors there were quite a few, Garcia in this years Open comes to mind as well as Westwood at last years USPGA, dont forget Olie at this years Masters and Kenneth Ferie in this years US Open together with Monty.

The way I see it Phil won the Masters with ease - Ollie made some birdies but realistically was never in it. Garcia certainly did not contest the Open, not on Sunday. Kenneth Ferrie was never in the running on Sunday at Winged Foot, although Monty definitely was. But how many really close calls have Euro players had?

Re Lee Westwood: in 2005 he played 16 events that counted towards the European Tour, and 15 that counted toward the US Tour. So it seems he's pretty much a 50% guy!

OK - Thomas Bjorn was one shot out of the lead at the 2005 PGA, that's one.
Monty at Winged Foot 2006 makes two.

The last close one for a European at the Masters was 1999 when Ollie won it.

Bjorn was one shot behind Ben Curtis at the 2003 Open, that's 3.
Thomas Levet was in the playoff at Muirfield in 2002, that's 4.

As far as Majors go that is about it.

Paul LAwrie would disagree.

In the Players, Paddy had two runners up in 2003-04 and Luke Donald was runner up to Fred funk in 2005.

But overall , tthe return has been lousy for the talent.No one can argue with that.

Lawrie had a close call at the Open, not the Masters.

Haven't checked the WGC events, but I think from the original post, the 4 Euro wins were Ollie and Lawrie in 1999, and Darren Clarke's two WGC wins. That's pretty poor.

On the other hand, Europe did win the last two Ryder Cups!!

Don't mention that, it only counts if Ewe esse hay win

I guess we'll have to mark both Phil and Tiger's report cards with: "Does not play well with others." Really though, the lack of success of some really good American Ryder Cup teams is an enigma. I hope Tom has some answers he is saving for September.

How do you explain the US dominance at the Open Championship then?