Nick Faldo at the 1990 British Open (Phil Sheldon/Popperfoto/Getty Images)

1. Nick Faldo

PGA Tour victories in 1990s: six (of nine total)

Major titles in 1990s: four (of six total)

The Englishman never won as many regular PGA Tour events or even European Tour events as some of his contemporaries, but he was a force in the most important tournaments in the 1990s. His consistently excellent ballstriking led to the impression that he could make no mistake, and he often played patiently as other players faltered. He was never the most popular among most other players or many media members, but he didn’t seem to mind, going about his practice and performance in a silent and often intimidating manner.

After winning two majors in the 1980s, he added four more in the ’90s. He won two of them in 1990, the Masters by beating Raymond Floyd in a playoff and the British Open at St. Andrews by five shots over Mark McNulty and Payne Stewart. He added another British Open title in 1992 at Muirfield, beating John Cook by a shot. At the 1996 Masters, Faldo entered the final round six shots behind Greg Norman, who crumbled to shoot 78 as a stoic Faldo fired a 67 for a five-shot victory.

Faldo also won 11 of his 30 European Tour events in the decade, and he was a leading Ryder Cup points winner with a 23-19-4 record as the European squad began beating the U.S. in that biennial event.

For the decade, Faldo was the European Tour Order of Merit winner in 1992, the European Golfer of the Year in ’90 and ’92, and the PGA Player of the year in 1990. He spent 97 weeks atop the Official World Golf Ranking. He has gone on to a broadcasting career that has shown a funnier, lighter side of the intense competitor, and he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1997.