The Best Golfers In PGA Tour History
Germany’s Bernhard Langer may have only won three PGA Tour events, but that includes two Masters Tournaments, and he had three top-five finishes at other major championships. Langer’s astounding 42 wins on the European Tour are the second-most in history, and he has more than proven his brilliance later in life as a member of the PGA Tour Champions organization, which is open to players over 50 years old.
Since he first joined the PGA Tour Champions in 2007, Langer has amassed 40 wins, which is the second-most ever, and 11 senior majors, which is the most ever.
The World Golf Hall of Fame, of which Lloyd Mangrum is a member, remarked that he was “movie star handsome” and “one of golf’s toughest competitors.” The Texan won 36 PGA Tour events in the 1940s and ’50s, including the 1946 U.S. Open, which was his lone victory in a major championship. He finished in the top three at four other majors, however, and twice earned the Vardon Trophy, which is given to the PGA Tour’s player with the lowest average score for the year.
His golfing accomplishments would likely be even more impressive if he hadn’t taken time out to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he earned a Purple Heart and four battle stars before returning to the game.
Tennessee native Cary Middlecoff was called “Doc” because he worked as a dentist before becoming a professional golfer in 1947. He won at least one PGA Tour event every year of his career, according to the World Golf Hall of Fame, finishing his run with 40 wins, which is the 10th-most in history. Among that massive tally of victories, the last of which came in 1961, Middlecoff also won three majors and finished second at the 1955 PGA Championship.
He was also the first amateur to ever win the prestigious North and South Open, which had also counted legends like Ben Hogan and Sam Snead among its victors.
Within four years after taking his first golf lesson, Nick Faldo became Britain’s best amateur golfer. He would go on to become a brilliant professional, winning 30 events on the European Tour, including five in 1983 alone. In the States, Faldo would win nine PGA Tour events, including an astounding six majors. He won the British Open and the Masters three times each, including both in 1990, and finished as runner up of the other two majors. In recent years, he’s become one of the game’s most respected television commentators.
Ernie Els is among the greatest South African golfers in history, which puts him in some elite company with guys like Gary Player and Bobby Locke. He’s won 19 PGA Tour events in his impressive career, including four major championships. “The Big Easy” has also finished inside the top three at the Masters and the PGA Championship, putting him dangerously close to a career Grand Slam. For 758 straight weeks, from 1994 to 2009, he was ranked among the world’s top-10 golfers by the Official World Golf Ranking, which is a record.
The youngest player to make our list, Rory McIlroy has done some incredible things in just 12 years on the PGA Tour so far. In that time, the Northern Irishman has won 17 tournaments, averaging out to more than one per year, and four majors. If he wins the Masters at some point, he’d become only the sixth man to win the career Grand Slam, having conquered all four major tournaments. He’s also been named PGA Tour Player of the Year three times and, in 2019, he became only the ninth man ever to win the Vardon Trophy three times.
Probably the best PGA Tour player to ever come from Australia, Greg Norman won the Byron Nelson Award, for the year’s lowest adjusted average score on the tour, five times in his career, which is the second-most ever. That kind of repeated excellence for entire seasons in the ’80s and ’90s came with plenty of winning. “The Great White Shark” won 20 PGA Tour events, including two British Opens, and he finished as runner-up of the other three major championships multiple times. He was named PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1995, which was also one of three years that he led the circuit in prize earnings.
Hale Irwin is the Sam Snead of the PGA Tour Champions circuit, as his 45 wins on the senior tour are the most in history. But he didn’t just start dominating after he turned 50, as the Missouri native also won 20 tournaments during his days on the PGA Tour, starting in 1968. Among that impressive list of wins are three U.S. Opens, his only major championships. In addition to being a great player, Irwin has been hailed as a perfect steward for golf, being given the prestigious Payne Stewart Award in 2019 for his work as an ambassador for the game.
Similar to Nick Faldo, Spain’s Seve Ballesteros did most of his dominating on the European Tour — but he saved plenty of fireworks for the PGA Tour. The former teen prodigy won nine PGA Tour events, including five majors, in a short span from 1979 to 1988. The mind-blowing 50 events he won on the European Tour are the most in history, making him arguably the most dominant golfer in history of the sport in Europe.
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