Notable players, era by era.

This page lists titles and years only. Major counts are as the cited source gives them, and where sources count differently we say so. Pre-1900 Open champions are covered in more detail on the Open history page.

The early professionals

• Old Tom Morris won The Open in 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1867. His 13-stroke margin in 1862 is still the record, and at 46 in 1867 he is still the oldest champion.
• Young Tom Morris won in 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1872. He was 17 years and 156 days old at his first win and remains the youngest champion.
• The Great Triumvirate: Harry Vardon, J.H. Taylor and James Braid won 16 Opens between them. Taylor's first came in 1894, Vardon's in 1896 and Braid's in 1901. Vardon's six wins are still the record.
• Arnaud Massy of France won The Open at Royal Liverpool in 1907, the only champion from mainland Europe until 1979.

The American golden age

• Walter Hagen won 11 majors, according to The Open: four Opens (1922, 1924, 1928, 1929), two U.S. Opens and five PGA Championships. Wikipedia dates the PGA wins to 1921 and 1924 to 1927, four in a row.
• Gene Sarazen won the first of his seven majors at the 1922 U.S. Open at Skokie, aged 20, according to Fox Sports. He completed the career Grand Slam at the 1935 Masters.
• Bobby Jones, born in Atlanta on 17 March 1902, won his first major at the 1923 U.S. Open after an 18-hole playoff with Bobby Cruickshank, and the 1929 U.S. Open by 23 strokes in a 36-hole playoff with Al Espinosa. In 1930 he won the British Amateur at St Andrews, The Open at Hoylake, the U.S. Open at Interlachen and the U.S. Amateur at Merion, the original Grand Slam, then retired less than two months later aged 28 with 13 majors, according to ESPN. The Open says he is still the only player to win the Open and Amateur Championships of both Britain and the United States in the same year. He died in Atlanta on 18 December 1971.
• Byron Nelson won 18 PGA Tour events in 1945, including 11 in a row from March to August, with a scoring average of 68.3, according to the PGA Tour. The streak ended when the amateur Fred Haas won at Memphis.
• Sam Snead held the PGA Tour record of 82 wins and won into his 50s, but never won the U.S. Open. He made triple bogey on the final hole in 1939 to miss a playoff, and lost an 18-hole playoff to Lew Worsham in 1947.
• Ben Hogan came back from a near-fatal car accident in 1949. In 1953 he won the Masters, the U.S. Open and, on his only appearance, The Open at Carnoustie, by four strokes. It was his ninth and last major. The Open says nobody matched three professional majors in a year again until Tiger Woods in 2000.

The television era

• Arnold Palmer won seven majors: the Masters in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964, becoming the first four-time Masters winner; the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, from eight shots back after three rounds; and The Open in 1961 at Royal Birkdale and 1962 at Royal Troon.
• Gary Player of South Africa became the first international Masters champion on 10 April 1961 and won nine majors: The Open in 1959, 1968 and 1974; the Masters in 1961, 1974 and 1978; the PGA Championship in 1962 and 1972; and the U.S. Open in 1965.
• Jack Nicklaus won 18 professional majors, according to the Columbus Sports Commission: the Masters in 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975 and 1986; the PGA Championship in 1963, 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1980; the U.S. Open in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1980; and The Open in 1966, 1970 and 1978. He also won the U.S. Amateur in 1959 and 1961 and 73 PGA Tour events between 1962 and 1986, and at 46 in 1986 became the oldest Masters champion. Some counts give him 20 majors by including the two U.S. Amateurs; NBC Sports reports that Nicklaus himself has said 18 is probably right.
• Mickey Wright won 13 majors, according to Sky Sports.
• Kathy Whitworth won a record 88 LPGA events, the first at the 1962 Kelly Girls Open, including six majors. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1975, captained the first U.S. Solheim Cup team in 1990, and died on 24 December 2022 aged 83.

Europe's rise

Seve Ballesteros won The Open at Royal Lytham in 1979, aged 22, the first winner from mainland Europe since Massy in 1907. Sky Sports, as summarised in search results, says he became the first European Masters champion on 13 April 1980, aged 23, then the youngest winner.

The modern era

• Annika Sorenstam won 72 LPGA events, from the 1995 U.S. Women's Open to the 2008 Michelob Ultra Open, and 10 majors. She was Player of the Year eight times, shot the LPGA's first 59 in 2001 and played the PGA Tour's Colonial event in 2003.
• Tiger Woods won his third straight U.S. Amateur in August 1996, turned professional the following week, and won his first PGA Tour event that October. He won the April 1997 Masters at 21, the youngest champion, with a record 270 and a 12-shot margin. He won the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 shots, the largest margin in major history, and completed the "Tiger Slam" at the 2001 Masters, holding all four professional majors at once. His 15 majors are five Masters, three U.S. Opens, three Opens and four PGA Championships; the 15th was the April 2019 Masters, his first major in 11 years. On 28 October 2019, at the first Zozo Championship in Japan, he tied Snead's record of 82 PGA Tour wins, aged 43.
• Phil Mickelson won the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course on 23 May 2021, aged 50 years and 341 days, the oldest major champion, beating Julius Boros's 1968 mark. It was his sixth major.

Players still competing

Results below are dated; the 2026 season was still running on 20 October 2026.

• Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Masters on 13 April 2025 in a playoff with Justin Rose, his first major in 11 years, completing the career Grand Slam. He won the 2025 Race to Dubai, his seventh, according to CBS Sports. He won the Masters again on 12 April 2026, becoming the fourth player to win in successive years, after Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Woods; it was his sixth major. On 6 October 2026 The National reported him second in the 2026 Race to Dubai, which was still in progress.
• Scottie Scheffler won the Masters in 2022 and 2024, the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in 2025 and The Open at Royal Portrush in 2025, his fourth major. He won Olympic gold at Paris 2024 and his second FedEx Cup at the Tour Championship on 30 August 2026, after which the Official World Golf Ranking called him the undisputed world number one.
• Nelly Korda won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020 (played in 2021) and the 2024 Chevron Championship. In 2026 she won the Chevron Championship and her first U.S. Women's Open, her fourth major. The LPGA still described her as Rolex Rankings number one on 31 July 2026.
• Lydia Ko won Olympic silver at Rio 2016, bronze at Tokyo 2020 and gold at Paris 2024. About two weeks after the Paris gold she won the 2024 AIG Women's Open at St Andrews, her third major.

The career Grand Slam

Six men have won all four professional majors over a career. Golf Compendium lists them with the year and event that completed the set:

For every major result from 2023 onward, see the majors.