This paper investigates the effects of the non-uniform air gap saturation of a salient pole synchronous generator during a single phase to ground short circuit at its terminal. The accurate representation of magnetic saturation effects in synchronous machines is important when studying their behavior closely. Non-uniform air gap of a synchronous machine can have a strong influence on magnetic saturation during unbalanced faults. Since the direct phase-coordinate solution can easily and accurately represent magnetic saturation, the study was conducted with the salient pole synchronous machine being modeled in the phase-domain.