Furthest back after Friday to win a major golf tournament

The Game Room
#1

Anyone know what the largest deficit in position anyone has ever overcome on the weekend to win a major?

Has anyone been out of the top 20 going into Saturday and won? It is one thing to be behind a single player by 8 or 9 strokes, but it is another thing entirely to be within 5 strokes of 20 people and hope to win. I would think it is much, much harder to catch 20 people, even if you are closer, than to catch 1 person.

How about going into Sunday? Any clue where to how far back in the pack someone has been and won?

#2

I’m fairly sure that the biggest Sunday comebacks to win a major in terms of strokes are Paul Lawrie in the 99 British (10 behind Van de Velde) and Jack Burke in the 56 Masters (8 behind Ken Venturi). I’m not sure if there’s anywhere that’s complied similar statistics based on position rather than stroke deficit.

Also I think Greg Norman’s 1996 Masters is the largest lead after round 3 that’s ever been lost. (For example, Van de Velde’s lead after round 3 was only 4 or 5 IIRC - there were players between him and Lawrie)