How many countries have won golf majors? With his victory at Royal Troon, Henrik Stenson becomes the first Swede to win a major championship, and Sweden becomes the 19th nation to be represented on the list of majors winners.
Since the first Open Championship at Prestwick in 1860, a total of 438 majors have been played (80 Masters, 116 U.S. Opens, 145 Open Championships, and 97 PGA Championships), won by 214 players. The great majority of them—263 titles—belong to 125 Americans. Next come the Scots with 55 victories by 31 players (although none in this century and most of them in the 19th century). Then it’s the English—44 majors by 21 players—followed by South Africa (22 by 7 players) and Australia (17 by 11).
Jack Nicklaus has thus won more majors than all but four countries. Along with Stenson, the other one-and-done nations are Canada (Mike Weir), France (Arnaud Massy), South Korea (Y.E. Yang), and Wales (Ian Woosnam) while three nations can claim one player who has taken three titles: Fiji (Vijay Singh), Ireland (Padraig Harrington), and Zimbabwe (Nick Price.)