The Top 10 Greatest Golfers of All Time in History

With so many great golfers competing for accolades, one has to ask: who is the greatest of them all?  That’s a tough question to answer, but we can narrow it down to the top 10. What we’re looking at is the very best of the best. These are the champions who’ve won all the major tournaments, and they’re considered the best in the game.

Top 10 Greatest Golfers of All Time

1. Jack Nicklaus

Jack William Nicklaus was born on January 21, 1940, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. He is an American professional golfer whose achievements in golf are generally considered by experts to rank him as the greatest golfer of all time.

Jack Nicklaus won 18 major golf championships, including six Masters, five PGA Championship, and three Open Championships. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the same year as Tiger Woods.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• 6 times Masters Tournament winner (1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986).
• 5 times PGA Championship winner (1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980).
• 4 times US Open winner (1962, 1967, 1972, 1980).
• 3 times The Open Championship winner (1966, 1970, 1978).
• World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
• 8 times PGA Tour leading money winner (1964, 1965, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976).
• 5 times PGA Player of the Year (1967, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976).
• Bob Jones Award in 1975.

Top 5 things about Jack Nicklaus:

1. Jack Nicklaus’s nickname is “The Golden Bear”

2. He was the first player to win $320,542 in official money for a single season in 1972.

3. Between 1971 and 1980, Jack Nicklaus became the first player to complete the double and triple career grand slams.

4. Nicklaus became the first player to win the Masters Tournament two years running in 1966.

5. At the age of 26, the youngest Nicklaus won all four golf majors in 1966.

2. Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers of all time, but he has many competitors for the title. He has won 15 professional major championships, the second-most of any player in history.

Eldrick Tont Woods, the nickname is Tiger was born on December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California. He began playing golf at the age of 2 and was a professional golfer by the age of 20. In 1996, he became the youngest-ever winner of the Masters Tournament.

He was six when he played his first round of golf. Tiger Woods was a promising junior player with three USA Junior titles. He graduated from Western High School in 1994 and accepted a golf scholarship to attend Stanford University, he won his first collegiate event.

What is Tiger Woods Net Worth?

Tiger Woods has a net worth of $600 million according to Forbes in 2009. He’s the first athlete to earn over $100 million for a single year of play, and he’s remained the only one for over a decade.

What is Tiger Woods world ranking?

Tiger Woods was ranked #1 in the world according to the Official World Golf Ranking. But at the end of 2020, he is at 41.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• 5 times Masters Tournament winner (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019)
• 4 times PGA Championship winner (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007)
• 3 times US Open winner (2000, 2002, 2008)
• 3 times The Open Championship winner (2000, 2005, 2006)
• World Golf Hall of Fame in 2021
• PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1996
• 11 times PGA Player of the Year (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013)
• 11 times PGA Tour Player of the Year (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013)
• 10 times PGA Tour leading money winner (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013)
• 9 times Vardon Trophy (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013)
• 9 times Byron Nelson Award (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009)

Top 5 things about Tiger Woods:

1. South Vietnamese Colonel Vuong Dang Phong, Tiger Woods’s father’s friend gave the name “Tiger” in honor. Vuong Dang Phong had also been known as Tiger.

2. Tiger Woods is the first golfer in history to hold all four major championships simultaneously.

3. Tiger Woods is the highest-paid athlete in the world. He made $769,440,709 from 1996 to 2007 according to Golf Digest.

4. He was world number #1 for 264 consecutive weeks from August 1999 to September 2004, and again #1 for 281 consecutive weeks from June 2005 to October 2010.

5. Tiger Woods’s father Earl was a retired US Army officer and Vietnam War veteran.

3. Ben Hogan

William Ben Hogan was an American professional golfer, generally considered one of the greatest players in the history of the sport and the best of his time.

Ben Hogan is ranked at #10 in the world. He was born in Stephenville, Texas, USA, in 1912 and died in 1997. He was the first player to win three consecutive professional majors, winning the US Open in 1948, the PGA Championship in 1948, and the British Open in 1953. Hogan has won the most majors in the PGA Tour, with nine.

Hogan was ranked as the No. 2 greatest golfers of all time by Golf Digest magazine in 2000. He also holds the record for most PGA Tour wins (64) and most majors (nine) won.

From the year 1948 to 1953, Hogan won the US Open four times, the PGA Championship two times. During his career, Hogan was one of the greatest and most successful golfers in the world.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• 2 times Masters Tournament winner (1951, 1953)
• 2 times PGA Championship winner (1946, 1948)
• 4 times US Open winner (1948, 1950, 1951, 1953)
• The Open Championship winner in 1953
• World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974
• 5 times PGA Tour leading money winner (1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1948)
• 4 times PGA Player of the Year (1948, 1950, 1951, 1953)
• 3 times Vardon Trophy (1940, 1941, 1948)

Top 5 things about Ben Hogan:

1. Hogan was the third child of Chester and Clara Hogan. In 1922 at the family home, his father Chester committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot in front of him when he was nine years old.

2. Hogan is known as “The Hawk”, “Bantam Ben”, “The Wee Iceman” for his relentless pursuit of perfection and his devotion to practicing.

3. Ben Hogan was one of the only five players to have won all four majors in his career: The Masters Tournament, The Open Championship, the US Open, and the PGA Championship.

4. In his last major championship, the U.S. Open in 1948 at the age of 36, he set the record for the lowest 8-under par score in relation to par ever recorded in a major championship.

5. In 1974, he was awarded the World Golf Hall of Fame.

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4. Walter Hagen

Walter Charles Hagen was born on 21st December 1892 in Rochester, New York. Hagen was the son of a German immigrant who worked as a millwright in Rochester’s railroad-car shops. Walter was the second of five children and the only son of William and Louisa.

Hagen learned to play golf at a young age. He started out as a caddie at the Country Club in Rochester.

Walter Hagen was quite a great golfer but he was also a very rich and famous person. Among other things, he was the first winner of the PGA Championship and the first inductee of the PGA Golf Hall of Fame. He also won 11 major championships and was ranked number one for five years. He died on 6th October 1969 at Traverse City, Michigan.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• Masters Tournament T11 in 1936
• 5 times PGA Championship winner (1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927)
• 2 times US Open winner (1914, 1919)
• 4 times The Open Championship winner (1922, 1924, 1928, 1929)
• World Golf Hall of Fame player in 1974

Top 5 things about Walter Hagen:

1. Walter Hagen was the first American to win the British Open, which he did in 1922.

2. Walter Hagen was one of the most dominant golfers in the early 20th century.

3. Walter Charles Hagen, nicknamed “The Haig” and “Sir Walter”.

4. Hagen won 11 major championships and 58 Professional in a career spanning from 1912.

5. Hagen died in throat cancer. Before his death, he fought for over four-year and went through several operations.

5. Sam Snead

Samuel Jackson Snead was born on May 27, 1912, at Ashwood, Virginia, United States, and died on May 23, 2002, at Hot Springs, Virginia, US. He was an American professional golfer and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Sam Snead was a gifted and skilled golfer in his time. He was considered one of the best golfers in the world. He is among the top 10 greatest golfers of all time.

His greatest achievements were in the Ryder Cup competition where he won a record 7 matches (1937, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1959, 1969) and 2 times was the winning captain.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• 3 times Masters Tournament winner (1949, 1952, 1954)
• 3 times PGA Championship winner (1942, 1949, 1951)
• 4 times US Open 2nd/T2 (1937, 1947, 1949, 1953)
• The Open Championship winner in 1946
• World Golf Hall of Fame player in 1974
• 3 times PGA leading money winner (1938, 1949, 1950)
• PGA Golfer of the Year in 1949
• 4 times Vardon Trophy winner (1938, 1949, 1950, 1955)
• PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998
• Most PGA Tour victories: 82
• Most PGA sanctioned tour victories: 94
• 17 times West Virginia Open winner (1936–1938, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1966–1968, 1970–1973)
• 8 times Greater Greensboro Open winner (1938, 1946, 1949, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1965)

Top 5 things about Sam Snead:

1. His family was poor, and Snead was not able to practice golf. Even though Snead had very little formal training, he was able to work as an assistant pro (at The Homestead at 17 in 1929) at several golf clubs during the Depression, and he continued to work as a caddie. It was at this time that he began to develop his skills as a professional golfer in 1934.

2. Snead self-taught himself the game of golf from a set of clubs carved from tree limbs. Snead joined the PGA Tour in 1936, and he won West Virginia Closed Pro tournament.

3. Sam Snead won 8 times Canada Cup (1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962)

4. During World War II from 1942 to 1944, Sam Snead was an athletic specialist in Cmdr. Gene Tunney’s program in San Diego.

5. At the age of 52 years, 10 months, 8 days, he won Greater Greensboro Open in 1965 as the oldest player.

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6. Arnold Palmer

Doris and Milfred Jerome’s son, Arnold Daniel Palmer was born on 10th September 1929 at Latrobe, Pennsylvania, United States. He was an American professional golfer who is among the most charismatic players in history.

Arnie, as he was affectionately known, played in the Ryder Cup in seven consecutive events, from 1961 through 1975, and won more than 22 Ryder Cup matches. He competed on seven winning US Ryder Cup teams: 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1971, 1973, and 1975.

His father was head professional and greenskeeper at Latrobe Country Club. Who suffered from polio at a young age. Arnold Palmer learned golf from his father.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• 4 times Masters Tournament winner (1958, 1960, 1962, 1964).
• 3 times PGA Championship T2 (1964, 1968, 1970).
• US Open winner in 1960.
• 2 times The Open Championship winner (1961, 1962).
• World Golf Hall of Fame player in 1974.
• 4 times PGA Tour leading money winner (1958, 1960, 1962, 1963).
• 2 times PGA Player of the Year (1960, 1962).
• 4 times Vardon Trophy winner (1961, 1962, 1964, 1967).
• Sportsman of the Year in 1960.
• Bob Jones Award in 1971.

Top 5 things about Arnold Palmer:

1. He is known as “Arnie” and “The King” of Golf. Palmer’s family nickname was “Dumpy” stated his grandson, Sam Saunders.

2. Arnie is regarded by many fans as one of the best golfers of all time, and he was one of the Master organizers of the Augusta National Golf Club.

3. An icon of the game of golf, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in 2004, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

4. He set the world record as the professional golfer to play in a PGA tournament, Palmer won 62 PGA Tour titles from 1955 to 1973.

5. Palmer had an airplane pilot certificate. After almost 55 years, he flew nearly 20,000 hours of flight time in various aircraft. Westmoreland County Airport was renamed Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in his honor in 1999.

7. Bobby Jones

Son of Robert Purmedus Jones, Bobby Jones was a Top 10 greatest golfer. Robert Tyre Jones Jr. was born on 17th March 1902 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. He died on 18th December 1971 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

He was also known as the “Grand Slam” as he won the first four major championships of his era in the same year. The Grand Slam title was:

• The Amateur Championship on May 31, 1930.
• The Open Championship on June 20, 1930.
• US Open on July 12, 1930.
• US Amateur on September 27, 1930.

Bobby Jones is credited with helping to invent the modern concept of the sport of Golf and has been referred to as one of the greatest athletes of the first half of the 20th century.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• 4 times US Open winner (1923, 1926, 1929, 1930).
• 3 times The Open Championship winner (1926, 1927, 1930).
• 5 times US Amateur winner (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930).
• British Amateur winner (1930).
• Achievements and awards World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
• James E. Sullivan Award in 1930.
• Georgia Tech Athletic Hall of Fame player in 1958.
• Georgia Tech Engineering Hall of Fame player in 1997.
• 5 times Walker Cup winner (1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1930).

Top 5 things about Bobby Jones:

1. Bobby Jones was an American amateur golfer and a professional lawyer.

2. In 1948, he was restricted to a wheelchair by causing paralysis. After three days of converting to Catholicism, he died on December 18, 1971.

3. Bobby’s son, Robert T Jones III died in a heart attack in 1973 at the age of 47. After that, his wife, Mary died in 1975 after his death at the age of 72.

4. In September 2009, Bobby was ranked as the third greatest golfer of all time by Golf Magazine.

5. Jones performed in a series of instructional short films (How I Play Golf, 12 films) by Warner Brothers in 1931. He also performed in “How to Break 90” (six films) in 1933.

8. Gary Player

The golf legend, Gary Player was born on 1 November 1935 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a South African professional golfer. His nickname was the Black Knight, Mr. Fitness, and the International Ambassador of Golf.

The Black Knight is generally considered one of the greatest golfers of all time, and in polls by golf magazines, golf Asia Magazine, he was ranked as the second greatest global golfer of all time in 2002. In 2000 by a poll, he was awarded “Sportsman of the Century” in South Africa. He was also awarded the Bob Jones Award in 1966.

With a friendly attitude on and off the green, Mr. Fitness has been a role model for all. As a child, he had a passion for golf, and eventually became the top-ranked golfer in the world. By the time Gary Player was a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• 3 times Masters Tournament winner (1961, 1974, 1978)
• 2 times PGA Championship winner (1962, 1972)
• US Open winner (1965)
• 3 times The Open Championship winner (1959, 1968, 1974)
• World Golf Hall of Fame (1974)
• PGA Tour leading money winner (1961)
• 2 times Southern Africa Tour Order of Merit winner (1976/77, 1979/80)
• PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012
• GCSAA Old Tom Morris Award in 2020
• Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2021
• He received the 1966 Bob Jones Award.
• Named Honorary Member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1994.
• He received an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of St Andrews in 1995.
• Received Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland in 1997.

Top 5 things about Gary Player:

1. When Gary Player was 8-year-old his mother died cause of cancer.

2. Mr. Fitness was first introduced to golf when his father, Harry, managed to take a loan and gave him an ancient set of golf clubs to use.

3. The Black Knight is one of only five golfers to have won the Career Grand Slam in 1965 at the age of 29.

4. At age 14, the “International Ambassador of Golf” played his first round of golf at the Virginia Park golf course in Johannesburg and parred the first three holes.

5. The Virginia Park golf course in Johannesburg is where Player first began his love affair with golf. He became a professional golfer at the age of 17.

9. Tom Watson

Thomas Sturges Watson, known as Tom Watson, was born on September 4, 1949, in Kansas City, Missouri. He is an American professional golfer. He was one of the world’s leading golfers throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and remains one of the most successful Americans, with eight major championship victories.

Watson was the four times winner of the Missouri State Amateur championships (1967, 1968, 1970, and 1971). He first earned local fame while on his high school team at The Pembroke-Country Day School in Kansas City. 

Tom Watson is one of the top 10 greatest golfers of all time. He is famous for the outstanding golf career of his professional life.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• Two times Masters Tournament winner (1977, 1981).
• US Open winner (1982).
• Five times The Open Championship winner (1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983).
• World Golf Hall of Fame in 1988.
• Five times PGA Tour leading money winner (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1984).
• Five times PGA Player of the Year (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984).
• Three times Vardon Trophy winner (1977, 1978, 1979).
• Bob Jones Award in 1987.
• Old Tom Morris Award in 1992.
• Payne Stewart Award in 2003.
• Two times Charles Schwab Cup winner (2003, 2005).

Top 5 things about Tom Watson:

The top interesting facts about the greatest golfer Tom Watson are as follows:

1. He is known as the “winningest player in history with 70 Professional tour titles.”

2. He is also noted as a “five-time Open Championship winner” and three times “Senior British Open Championship titles” winner.

3. He is the winner of “39 PGA Tour titles including eight majors.”

4. He is the five times professional Ryder Cup winner (1977, 1981, 1983, 1993, 2014).

5. Watson’s first coach was Stan Thirsk at the Kansas City Country Club.

10. Byron Nelson

John Byron Nelson Jr. (Byron Nelson) was born on February 4, 1912, in Waxahachie, Texas, United States. He was an American professional golfer. Nelson is best remembered for his 5 major championship wins, including a record 64 professional wins.

In a career interrupted by World War II, Nelson won 18 tournaments, including the US Open, in addition to the four majors. He also won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average in 1939. When he retired in 1946, Nelson was the first player to reach 50 career PGA Tour wins.

He had a smooth, rhythmic, and repeating swing. Nelson had an extremely accurate shot, which helped him in his short game. He is also known as the father of the modern golf swing.

Best Results in Major Championships and Honors:

• Two times Masters Tournament winner (1937, 1942).
• Two times PGA Championship winner (1940, 1945).
• Won US Open in 1939.
• World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
• Vardon Trophy winner (1939)
• Two times PGA Tour leading money winner (1944, 1945)
• Two times Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year (1944, 1945)
• Bob Jones Award in 1974.
• PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
• Payne Stewart Award in 2000.
• Congressional Gold Medal in 2006.

Top 5 things about Byron Nelson:

1. Nelson’s nickname is “Lord Byron”, given him by Atlanta sports journalist OB Keeler.

2. He was a coach and mentor of World Golf Hall of Fame members Ken Venturi and Tom Watson, along with Marty Fleckman, and Harvie Ward from the 1950s to the 1970s.

3. Nelson was a television golf commentator too. One of the most memorable events was the US Open for ABC Sports in 1966.

4. After his retirement and Crosby’s victory in 1951, Lord Byron arranged paid golf exhibitions.

5. A blood disorder kept Nelson out of military service during World War II.

List of 20 Greatest Golfers in History

Men’s World Golf Rankings 2021: Top 10 golfers in the world

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf