The Most Successful Golfers of All Time

Last updated: May 9, 2024 by Leon Marshal

When you have well over 100 years of history to look back upon, it is a tough ask to pick out the greatest golfers to have ever played the sport.

That is just what we have attempted to do, analysing different eras to find the different players that have excelled over the decades and then trying to work out where they should be ranked, some of these were around even before golf betting became popular!

See if you agree with our assessment. Here are the 15 most successful golf players of all time.

15. Nick Faldo

Nick Faldo is our pick as the greatest British golfer and is one of the best ever European players. He certainly proved his worth to Team Europe at the Ryder Cup. His points total of 25 is the second highest of all-time and he would captain Europe in 2008. In total he played in eleven Ryder Cups, being part of the team that took the cup home on five occasions.

A former world number one for a spell of 97 weeks, Faldo won 30 titles on the European Tour, which is the fifth highest total ever. He also won six major championships. Faldo triumphed in the Open in 1987, 1990 and 1992, while he also won the Masters in 1989, 1990 and 1996.

14. Byron Nelson

Byron Nelson’s golfing career was a relatively short one in which he managed to cram in a lot of achievement. Turning pro in 1932, Nelson won his first tournament in 1935. In total, he would win 52 titles on the PGA Tour, which is the fifth-highest of any golfer. His first major came in 1937 at the Masters and in total he would win five. Nelson tasted glory again at Augusta in 1942, he won the US Open in 1939 and the PGA Championship in 1940 and 1945.

Had Nelson not retired in 1946 to run a ranch, at the age of just 36, he may have won more. Certainly his performances at the Masters, where he would return as a former champion after retirement, suggested that he would have remained a contender. Nelson finished in the top ten at that tournament on six occasions between 1947 and 1955.

13. Lee Trevino

Lee Trevino is one of the greatest golfers of all-time, who won major championships across three different decades. The only won that he didn’t land was the Masters, but he did win the PGA Championship (1974 and 1984), US Open (1968 and 1971) and the Open (1971 and 1972). Trevino is one of only four players to have won all of those tournaments twice.

Four of his win in Majors saw Trevino come out on top against the great Jack Nicklaus, who finished as runner-up to him. He won 29 titles on the PGA Tour and the same number on the Champions Tour, for players aged 50 or above. Born in Texas to a family with Mexican ancestry, Trevino represented the USA six times in the Ryder Cup, serving as a non-playing captain in 1985. Known for his sense of humour on and off the course, as much as his achievements, Trevino was one of the most popular figures in golf, with players and fans alike.

12. Seve Ballesteros

Our highest ranked European golfer on this list is Seve Ballesteros. Appropriately, no one has won more tournaments on the European Tour than the Spaniard’s total of 50. In the 17 years between 1976 and 1992, he won at least one European Tour title each year. Turning professional aged 16 in 1974, Ballesteros burst onto the scene with a second-place finish at the Open in 1976. In 1979, he would win that tournament, further capturing the public’s imagination having hit a tee shot into the car park, yet still going on to make a birdie.

It was the first of five majors, with Seve winning the Open again in 1984 and 1988, along with the Masters in 1980 and 1983. That first Masters win saw Ballesteros become the first European to win the tournament and the youngest winner at the age of 23. This imaginative player was a five-time winner of the Ryder Cup as a player and captain.

11. Phil Mickelson

Phil Mickelson is one of the greatest players of the modern era and his achievements are sufficient to see him rank highly on our all-time list of golfers. ‘Lefty’ has won 45 tournaments on the PGA Tour, which puts him level with Walter Hagen as the joint eighth most successful player. Mickelson would have surely won many more titles, had he not shared an era with Tiger Woods. He has never made it to world number one, despite having several spells at two, but Mickelson has nevertheless proven his greatness on several occasions.

He has won six majors. His first came at the Masters in 2004, which he also won in 2006 and 2010. Mickleson triumphed at the PGA Championship in 2005 and 2021, as well as the Open in 2013. That 2021 PGA Championship win saw Mickelson become the oldest Major winner in history, at the age of 50-years, 11-months, and seven-days. The only major to evade him has been the US Open, where he has twice finished second. Mickelson holds the record for the most Ryder Cup appearances with twelve.

10. Gene Sarazen

Credited as the inventor of the modern sand wedge, Gene Sarazen Was one of the top golfers of the 1920s and 30s. Born Eugenio Saraceni in 1902, this Sicilian immigrant was only 5ft 5” tall, but was one of the biggest hitters in the sport. Turning professional in 1921, a year later he won both the PGA Championship and the US Open.

Sarazen would go on to win seven major titles in total and is one of only five players to have ever won the Career Grand Slam of all four different majors. He claimed the PGA Championship in 1922, 1923 and 1933, and won the US Open in 1922 and 1932. Sarazen was victorious at the Open in 1932 and then completed the set with a Masters triumph in 1935. Known as ‘The Squire’, this pioneering golfer hit a hole-in-one at the Open in 1973, when aged 71 and he lived until he was 97.

9. Gary Player

Another player to land the Career Grand Slam was Gary Player. He was just 29-years-old when he completed this feat, which made him the youngest golfer to do so at the time. Starting with the Open in 1959, Player won the Masters in 1961, the PGA Championship in 1962 and finally the US Open in 1965. Then came a later haul of majors. Player won the Open in 1968 and 1974, the PGA Championship in 1972 and the Masters in 1974 and 1978.

With nine majors in total, he is tied for fourth on the all-time list of winners. Known for his distinctive all-black attire, the South African was nicknamed the ‘Black Knight’. Player would win 24 PGA Tour titles and another 20 on the South African Sunshine Tour. In later life he competed on the Champions Tour, where he won 22 tournaments, including nine senior majors.

8. Walter Hagen

Walter Hagen was the greatest player from the 1920s, becoming a well-known figure in the sport, before its rise in popularity. A New Yorker, Hagen learned his golfing trade as a caddie. In total he won 45 titles on the PGA Tour, which ranks him eighth on the all-time winners list. Hagen ranks even higher for Major championship wins, with his total of eleven, having only been bettered by Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

There is an argument that Hagen should be credited with even more Majors, as he also won the Western Open five times, back when that tournament was rated only second to the Open and US Open. As it stands, he won the PGA Championship in 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927, the US Open in 1914 and 1919 and the Open in 1922, 1924, 1928 and 1929. Hagen was the US captain for the first six Ryder Cups, playing in the first five.

7. Tom Watson

It is not just Tom Watson’s achievements that made his golfing career a great one, but also his longevity. His glory years came in the 1970s and 80s. Between 1978 and 1982 he was ranked as the top golfer in the world. Around this period, he hoovered up major championships. Watson won eight in total, with five of them coming at the Open, where he was successful in 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1983. He also won the Masters in 1977 and 1981, and the US Open in 1982.

At 59-years-old and some 26 years after winning his last major, Watson came close to winning the Open, when he led after the second and third rounds, only to eventually lose in a play-off. This came after winning three Senior Open titles in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Watson was also a five-time PGA Tour money list winner and a six-time PGA Player of the Year. In total he won 39 titles on the PGA Tour. One of the most complete golfers to have played the sport, Watson was twice the US Ryder Cup captain.

6. Bobby Jones

The sport of golf as we know it was shaped by Bobby Jones. He founded the Augusta National Golf Club and was one of the co-founders of the Masters. Before that, he was the most successful amateur golfer that there has ever been. While earning his living as a lawyer, Jones went up against the top professionals of the day, such as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, more often than not coming out on top.

Jones won the US Open four times (1923, 1926, 1929 and 1930) and the Open three times (1926, 1927 and 1930). In that era, the US Amateur title, which he won in 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1930, was also considered a major. As was the British Amateur title, which Jones won in 1930. In all, he entered 21 majors and won 13 of them. In 1930 he won all four of the majors in the same year, winning $60,000 after betting on himself to do so, at odds of 50/1.

5. Sam Snead

While some golfers burn extremely brightly for just a short while, Sam Snead fell into the camp who was consistent over many years. Born in 1912, Snead won 82 times on the PGA Tour, which is a record jointly held with Tiger Woods. He won seven majors, claiming the PGA Championship three times (1942, 1949 and 1951), the Masters three times (1949, 1952 and 1954) and the Open once (1946).

Snead’s favourite tournament had to be his home West Virginia Open, which he won 17 times. Winning senior events as late as 1982, he was the first player to win tournaments across six separate decades. Snead even competed for majors, long after his last victory in such an event. At the 1974 PGA Championship, aged 62, he finished joint-third, only three strokes behind the winner Lee Trevino. Snead played in seven Ryder Cups and captained the US team in 1951, 1959, and 1969.

4. Arnold Palmer

There are golfers on this list that it is easy to imagine having been even more successful in a different era. Arnold Palmer is one of them, having been a top level golfer at one of the most competitive times in the sport, fighting it out against the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. Yet Palmer would still win seven majors, starting with the Masters in 1958, which he also won in 1960, 1962 and 1964. He claimed the US Open in 1960 and the Open in 1961 and 1972.

In total, he would win 62 PGA Tour titles, putting him fifth on the all-time winners list. Palmer was known as ‘The King’, but despite his regal nickname, he actually hailed from a working class steel mill town in Pennsylvania. His modest upbringing endeared him to the American public and helped to spread the game beyond its country club origins.

3. Ben Hogan

Many of the players on this list were golfing prodigies, winning tournaments at a tender age. Ben Hogan found the path to the top much tougher, which makes his remarkable career all the more interesting. Turning pro aged 17 in 1930, Hogan would not win a major until he was 34. He did not win a title of any description for the first ten years of his career, as he battled a problem with a hook that he later cured.

After hitting the big time by winning the PGA Championship in 1946, he won it again in 1948, along with the US Open. In 1949, he was involved in a car crash which had doctors fearing that he would never walk again. Instead, he made a miraculous recovery and won the US Open in 1950. Hogan then won the US Open again and the Masters in 1951, before his greatest ever year of 1953, when he won the Masters, US Open and Open. Hogan’s total of 64 PGA Tour wins is the fourth highest effort of all-time and could have been even bigger, if it were not for the disruption of his injuries and World War II.

2. Tiger Woods

At one point it would have looked certain that Tiger Woods would be destined to top a list like this. He was a child prodigy, becoming the first player to win three US Amateurs. He turned professional aged 20 in 1996 and by 1997 had won three PGA Tour titles and the Masters. With 82 PGA Tour wins he is tied with Sam Snead on the all-time winner list, while his 15 majors puts him second only to Jack Nicklaus.

Woods has won the Career Grand Slam. A five-time Masters winner (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019), he has won the PGA Championship on four occasions (1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007), the US Open three times (2000, 2002 and 2008), along with the Open three times (2000, 2005 and 2006). At one stage it looked as if nothing could stop him and the best betting sites rarely offered any good odds on other potential winners, but off-course problems and debilitating injuries slowed the trickle of titles, which may have now come to a full stop. Regardless, those that saw Tiger roar will never forget it.

1. Jack Nicklaus

Our greatest ever golfer is Jack Nicklaus. ‘The Golden Bear’ comes out on top where it really matters. Major championships. He won 18 in all, across a 24-year timespan. Nicklaus won the Masters six times (1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975 and 1986) and the PGA Championship on five occasions (1963, 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1980). Then there were his four US Open wins (1962, 1976, 1972 and 1980) and three Open Championships (1966, 1970 and 1978).

It is fair to say that Nicklaus lived for those big occasions, competing in more majors (164) than any other player in history. To increase his chances of winning those tournaments, he was selective about the PGA tour events that he entered, yet still won 73 titles. Nicklaus set records for his success as majors as a young player and then became the oldest to win the Masters aged 46, which is a record that still stands.