Golf Champions
The field of winners in the four major men’s championships (the Masters, the US Open, the British Open, the PGA Championship) which constitute the elite in world golf is dominated by American players, as the ranking below shows (winning time-span in brackets):
- Jack Nicklaus, USA, (1962-1986), 18 wins
- Tiger Woods, USA, (1997-2008 and running…), 14 wins
- Walter Hagen, USA, (1914-1929), 11 wins
- Gary Player, South Africa, (1959-1978) and Ben Hogan, USA, (1946-1953), 9 wins
- Tom Watson, USA, (1975-1983) 8 wins.
The first English names in the ranking are Jerseyman Harry Vardon with 7 wins between 1896 and 1914 and, more recently, Nick Faldo with 6 wins between 1987 and 1996, while the first Continental European is Seve Ballesteros with 5 wins between 1979 and 1988. For the full ranking see www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golfers_with_most_wins_in_men%27s_major_championships
And the ladies? The status of “major” tournament in the LPGA is not as universally recognised as for the PGA, hence the ranking includes winners from some tournaments which are now defunct:
- Patty Berg, USA, (1937-1958), 15 wins
- Mickey Wright, USA, (1958-1966), 13 wins
- Louise Suggs, USA, (1946-1959), 10 wins
- Annika Sorenstam, Sweden, (1995-2006), 10 wins
- Babe Zaharias, USA, (1940-1954), 10 wins.
