If we take a look back at the best golfers in history, there are a few things that need to be taken into account. Namely, how they impacted the growth of the sport, how many wins they achieved, what world records they held, how long their careers were and of course, their major victories.
Let’s delve in and see who rises to the top of our list of greatest golfers of all time:
Gary Player
Majors Won: 9 (1959 British Open, 1961 Masters, 1962 PGA Championship, 1965 U.S. Open, 1968 British Open, 1972 PGA Championship, 1974 Masters, 1974 British Open, 1978 Masters)
Gary Player is renowned for having won tournaments on every continent except Antarctica. The South African won 63 events and has been credited with 165 professional victories on various tours in a career spanning 60 years. Player is also one of just five men to achieve a career Grand Slam by winning the Masters, U.S Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship in a calendar year.
Tom Watson
Majors Won: 8 (1975 British Open, 1977 Masters, 1977 British Open, 1980 British Open, 1981 Masters, 1982 U.S. Open, 1982 British Open, 1983 British Open).
Watson is renowned for having won the British Open five times in the span of nine years from 1975 to 1983. He also incredibly forced a playoff in the British Open in 2009 at the age of 59.
But the British Open wasn’t his only accolade. Watson won the Master’s twice, won the U.S Open once and had eight second-place finishes in majors. Despite a long career, Watson’s peak was shorter than some other all-time greats.
Byron Nelson
PGA Tour Victories: 52. Majors Won: 5 (1937 Masters, 1939 U.S. Open, 1940 PGA Championship, 1942 Masters, 1945 PGA Championship)
Few other golfers were as affected by World War 1 or World War 2 quite like Lord Byron Nelson. Over half of his career PGA victories came in 1944 and 1945. Unfortunately, a lack of tournaments during this period means he never quite matched others on this list.
Nelson played in a total of 29 majors from 1937 to 1951, finishing eighth or better in 26 of them, including six second-place finishes. For a decade and a half, if Nelson was playing in a major, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be in contention on the final day.
Arnold Palmer
PGA Tour Victories: 62. Majors Won: 7 (1958 Masters, 1960 Masters, 1960 U.S. Open, 1961 British Open, 1962 Masters, 1962 British Open, 1964 Masters)
Nicknamed “The King”, Palmer won 62 tournaments over the span f nearly two decades. This included seven majors between 1958 and 1964. Four of those wins were at the Masters, a total that only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger woods have been able to match.
Not surprisingly, Palmer was named the PGA Player of the Year in both 1960 and 1962, winning two majors in both of those years.
Bobby Jones
PGA Tour Victories: 9. Majors Won: 7 (1923 U.S. Open, 1926 U.S. Open, 1926 British Open, 1927 British Open, 1929 U.S. Open, 1930 U.S. Open, 1930 British Open)
Bobby Jones is an interesting player on this list. Despite only being able to play 50% of the majors during his career, he was able to win seven of them.
The Masters was not an official event until Jones co-founded it in 1934, four years after he had already retired. Jones retired from golf at the age of 28, winning all 13 of his majors (seven official, six unofficial) in the span of eight years. By the same age, Tiger Woods had won eight majors and Jack Nicklaus had won seven.
Sam Snead
PGA Tour Victories: 82. Majors Won: 7 (1942 PGA Championship, 1946 British Open, 1949 Masters, 1949 PGA Championship, 1951 PGA Championship, 1952 Masters, 1954 Masters)
Although he own few majors, Sam Snead is the all-time leader in PGA Tour victories.
Despite his unfortunate luck when it came to the Majors, Snead won at least six events in six different years, the best of which was his 11-win season in 1950—though he didn't win a major that year, oddly enough.
To this day, he is the oldest player to win a PGA Tour event, taking the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open.
Walter Hagen
PGA Tour Victories: 45. Majors Won: 11 (1914 U.S. Open, 1919 U.S. Open, 1921 PGA Championship, 1922 British Open, 1924 British Open, 1924 PGA Championship, 1925 PGA Championship, 1926 PGA Championship, 1927 PGA Championship, 1928 British Open, 1929 British Open)
Walter Hagen is one of only three golfers to win at least 10 majors in his career. Hagen is often an afterthought in lists like this because of how long ago he achieved this milestone.
The most remarkable thing about Hagen's achievements was the limited opportunities he had to play in majors. He never won the Masters because it wasn't founded until 1934, which was well past his prime. And from 1915 to 1919 (ages 23-27 for Hagen), there was an average of just one major per year because of World War I. In all, there were 37 majors held from 1914 to 1929, and Hagen won 11 of them.
Ben Hogan
PGA Tour Victories: 64. Majors Won: 9 (1946 PGA Championship, 1948 U.S. Open, 1948 PGA Championship, 1950 U.S. Open, 1951 Masters, 1951 U.S. Open, 1953 Masters, 1953 U.S. Open, 1953 British Open)
Despite a near-fatal car accident that ruined his 1949 season, Ben Hogan dominated the golfing scene from 1946 to 1953.
Hogan won an incredible 13 tournaments in 1946 alone, including the first of his nine majors. From 1946 to 1948 he won a massive 30 tournaments and was named the PGA Player of the Year in 1948. To this day, Tiger Woods is the only other golfer to ever win three majors in a single calendar year.
Over the course of his entire career, Hogan placed in the top 10 in 40 of 58 majors. That's 69.0 percent, compared to 49.4 percent (38 of 77) for Woods and 44.5 percent (73 of 164) for Jack Nicklaus. Had Hogan played in as many tournaments as those guys did, there's a good chance he'd be the undisputed greatest of all time.
Tiger Woods
PGA Tour Victories: 79. Majors Won: 14 (1997 Masters, 1999 PGA Championship, 2000 U.S. Open, 2000 British Open, 2000 PGA Championship, 2001 Masters, 2002 Masters, 2002 U.S. Open, 2005 Masters, 2005 British Open, 2006 British Open, 2006 PGA Championship, 2007 PGA Championship, 2008 U.S. Open)
From 1997 to 2008, Tiger Woods finished in the top 30 in 44 of 46 consecutive majors, winning 14 of them. He is the only person ever to hold all four major titles at the same time. And this wasn’t even the most impressive stretch of his career, placing top four in 12 of 14 majors from 2005 to 2008 with six wins.
Unfortunately, after multiple knee and back surgeries, along with personal problems that eroded his career, Woods has slipped in form leaving him a distant No.2 to the all-time greatest golfer.
Jack Nicklaus
PGA Tour Victories: 73. Majors Won: 18 (1962 U.S. Open, 1963 Masters, 1963 PGA Championship, 1965 Masters, 1966 Masters, 1966 British Open, 1967 U.S. Open, 1970 British Open, 1971 PGA Championship, 1972 Masters, 1972 U.S. Open, 1973 PGA Championship, 1975 Masters, 1975 PGA Championship, 1978 British Open, 1980 U.S. Open, 1980 PGA Championship, 1986 Masters)
While Sam Snead and Tiger Woods won more total events on the PGA Tour than the Golden Bear, Jack still holds the record at the majors.
No other golfer has achieved more than 46 top-10 finishes, but Jack was a top-10 finisher 73 times and finished top-five 56 times. At his peak from 1971 through 1977, Nicklaus placed in the top-5 in 23 of 28 majors, including six wins.
Even at Tiger Woods’ peak from 1998 through 2009, he only finished in the top 10 in 33 of 48 majors (68.8 percent). It's almost not fair that Nicklaus was even more consistent, and for a decade longer.
Bet on mens and womens golf with Betway online and make sure to check the odds on the Evian Championship being held at Evian-les-Bains, France from 13 to 16 September 2018, all at betway.com.gh, the most thrilling sports betting and casino site around.
For all the latest sports news, betting tips and promotions, follow Betway Ghana on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube