Caddie Steve Williams (L), the regular caddie for Tiger Woods, caddies for Australia's Adam Scott during a practice round for the 2011 US Open in Bethesda, Maryland, Monday. (Reuters) BETHESDA, Maryland: For only the second time in modern golf history, no American owns any of the four major titles. And if no US player captures the 111th US Open that begins Thursday at Congressional Country Club, the drought will be America's longest ever. The only other time that the Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA Championship crowns all belonged to non-US players came in 1994 when Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal won the Masters, South African Ernie Els won the US Open and Zimbabwe's Nick Price won the British and PGA titles. That skid started after American Paul Azinger had won the 1993 PGA Championship and US veteran Ben Crenshaw won the 1995 Masters to end it. So a fifth consecutive Major this week without a US victory would stretch the futility streak to unprecedented proportions. “It just shows us Americans got to get going,” said Gary Woodland, who only qualified thanks to a jump into this week's world rankings top 50 at 40th. Not since Phil Mickelson's victory at last year's Masters for his third green jacket and fourth major triumph has an American lifted a major trophy. Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell became only the second European since 1925 to win the US Open when he took last year's title at Pebble Beach. South African Louis Oosthuizen followed by winning the British Open and will join McDowell and US Amateur champion Peter Uihlein in a traditional US Open pairing on the first tee Thursday morning. Germany's Martin Kaymer won last year's PGA Championship on his way to becoming World No. 1 and South African Charl Schwartzel won a nine-man duel on the back nine at Augusta National two months ago to win the Masters. All four reigning Major champions had not won a prior Major, part of a run that has seen first-time major winners in seven of the past eight events, the lone exception being Mickelson's Masters triumph. In fact, the past 10 majors have been won by 10 different players, and another wide open fight is expected over the lightning-fast greens, thick rough and narrow fairways at Congressional this week. “Maybe 30, 40 players (have a chance to win),” Kaymer said. “It's so open. It can be a young guy. It can be (Japan's Ryo) Ishikawa. It can be Rory McIlroy or it can be David Toms. It's very open. It's tough to say but definitely it's very open at the moment.”
