List of men's major championships winning golfers
This article lists the 191 men who have won a major golf championship by the number of majors they have accumulated, and is complete through the 2006 U.S. Open. The four majors are the most prestigious events of the golf season, and the number of wins that a player accumulates in them has a very important influence on his stature in the sport. The four majors taken into account in the main list are the current four professional majors. See the final section of this article for an alternative historical ranking.
In the chart immediately below, an asterisk (*) in the Masters column indicates that player was in his prime primarily before the initiation of the Masters tournament in 1934 (by Bobby Jones and his partners). An asterisk (*) in any other column indicates that a player won the amateur versions of those titles, when the amateurs were considered majors. For example Bobby Jones won 5 U.S. Open amateur titles when those titles were considered majors and 4 U.S. Open professional titles. Additionally, he won 1 Amateur British title when that title was considered a major, and 3 British Open professional titles, making his total number of majors 13.
| Name | Country | Masters | U.S. Open | British Open | PGA | Total | Winning span |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Nicklaus | United States | 6 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 1962-1986 |
| Bobby Jones | United States | 0* | 9* | 4* | 0 | 13* | 1923-1930 |
| Walter Hagen | United States | 0* | 2 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 1914-1929 |
| Tiger Woods | United States | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 1997-2005 |
| Ben Hogan | United States | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 1946-1953 |
| Gary Player | South Africa | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 1959-1978 |
| Tom Watson | United States | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 1975-1983 |
| Harry Vardon | England | 0* | 1 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 1896-1914 |
| Gene Sarazen | United States | 1* | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 1922-1935 |
| Sam Snead | United States | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 1942-1954 |
| Arnold Palmer | United States | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 1958-1964 |
| Nick Faldo | England | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1987-1996 |
| Lee Trevino | United States | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1968-1984 |
| Seve Ballesteros | Spain | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1979-1988 |
| James Braid | Scotland | 0* | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 1901-1910 |
| Byron Nelson | United States | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1937-1945 |
| J.H. Taylor | England | 0* | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 1894-1913 |
| Peter Thomson | Australia | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 1954-1965 |
- 4 majors - 7 golfers: Willie Anderson, Jim Barnes, Ray Floyd, Bobby Locke, Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris, Willie Park, Sr.
- 3 majors - 17 golfers: Jamie Anderson, Tommy Armour, Julius Boros, Billy Casper, Henry Cotton, Jimmy Demaret, Ernie Els, Bob Ferguson, Ralph Guldahl, Hale Irwin, Cary Middlecoff, Larry Nelson, Nick Price, Denny Shute, Vijay Singh, Payne Stewart, Phil Mickelson.
- 2 majors - 32 golfers: Jack Burke, Jr, Ben Crenshaw, John Daly, Leo Diegel, Olin Dutra, Doug Ford, Retief Goosen, David Graham, Hubert Green, Harold Hilton, Jock Hutchison, Tony Jacklin, Lee Janzen, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer, John McDermott, Bob Martin, Johnny Miller, Greg Norman, Andy North, José María Olazábal, Mark O'Meara, Willie Park, Jr., Henry Picard, Edward Ray, Paul Runyan, Alex Smith, Horton Smith, Dave Stockton, Curtis Strange, Craig Wood, Fuzzy Zoeller.
- 1 major - 117 golfers: Tommy Aaron, George Archer, Laurie Auchterlonie, William Auchterlonie, Paul Azinger, Ian Baker-Finch, John Ball, Jerry Barber, Rich Beem, Tommy Bolt, Gay Brewer, Mark Brooks, David Brown, Billy Burke, Walter Burkemo, Jack Burns, Richard Burton, Mark Calcavecchia, Michael Campbell, Bob Charles, Charles Coody, Fred Couples, Tom Creavy, Ben Curtis, Fred Daly, Roberto DeVicenzo, George Duncan, David Duval, Steve Elkington, Chick Evans, Johnny Farrell, Max Faulkner, Willie Fernie, Jim Ferrier, Dow Finsterwald, Jack Fleck, James Foulis, Ed Furgol, Jim Furyk, Al Geiberger, Vic Ghezzi, Bob Goalby, Johnny Goodman, Wayne Grady, Lou Graham, Bob Hamilton, Todd Hamilton, Chick Harbert, Claude Harmon, Chandler Harper, Arthur Havers, Jay Hebert, Lionel Hebert, Fred Herd, Sandy Herd, Don January, Steve Jones, Herman Keiser, Tom Kidd, Hugh Kirkaldy, Tom Kite, Paul Lawrie, Tom Lehman, Tony Lema, Justin Leonard, Lawson Little, Gene Littler, Joe Lloyd, Davis Love III, Willie Macfarlane, Fred McLeod, John Mahaffey, Tony Manero, Lloyd Mangrum, Dave Marr, Arnaud Massy, Dick Mayer, Shaun Micheel, Larry Mize, Orville Moody, Kel Nagle, Bobby Nichols, Geoff Ogilvy, Francis Ouimet, Alf Padgham, Mungo Park, Sam Parks, Jr., Jerry Pate, Corey Pavin, Alf Perry, Horace Rawlins, Johnny Revolta, Bill Rogers, Bob Rosburg, Alec Ross, George Sargent, Jack Simpson, Scott Simpson, Jeff Sluman, Willie Smith, Craig Stadler, Andrew Strath, Hal Sutton, David Toms, Jerome Travers, Jim Turnesa, Bob Tway, Ken Venturi, Lanny Wadkins, Cyril Walker, Art Wall, Jr., Mike Weir, Tom Weiskopf, Reg Whitcombe, Jack White, Ian Woosnam, Lew Worsham
Majors with Amateurs always included
As stated above, before the professional game acquired its modern dominance, the British Amateur and the U.S. Amateur were regarded as majors. Some people consider these tournaments to continue to be major championships in terms of summing a player's major championship wins, while others make a distinction between professional majors and total majors. In any case, if wins in these tournaments up to this day are included, there are four men with ten or more major titles: Jack Nicklaus 20; Bobby Jones 13; Tiger Woods 13; Walter Hagen 11.
The Masters was not universally considered to be a major championship in its earlier years, the quartet of professional majors not being established at the time. In the first half of the twentieth century golf fans in the United States sometimes attributed major status to the Western Open and/or the North and South Open.