A Half Dozen Grand Slammers

This past April 13, 2025, it was Masters time again on the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) tour. The very first winner of this prestigious tournament was Horton Smith in 1934 and the following year, Gene Sarazen became the champion. Last year Scottie Scheffler won the match and earned his green jacket.

Only three players have won back-to-back Masters championships, and they are Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Nick Faldo. Nicklaus won three titles in a span of four years from 1963 to 1966, missing only in 1964 when his prime rival Arnold Palmer walked away with the title. Palmer also won it in 1962.

The Master Tournament held in Augusta, Georgia is one of the tournaments that makes up an exclusive club on the PGA call the Grand Slam of golf. To be in that club a player would have to win the title in the Masters, The Open Championship (formerly the British Open), the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship over the course of their careers.

As the winner of the 2025 Masters being Rory McIlroy and with his green jacket he became just the sixth member of the small fraternity of those who won the four most major tournaments in professional golf. The other five are huge names in the game and in no particular order are: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus.

For McIlroy, this is a pretty rich group to be in. The six men for their entire careers won a total of 473 professional tournaments. Some consider either Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus to be the greatest golfer ever but based on this small group of Grand Slam winners, ahead I rank the six in greatness from sixth to the best golfer ever with some stats on each thrown in.

6. Rory McIlroy

At just 35 years of age, and given Tiger Woods history of recent injuries, this Irish golfer could very well one day be the man that supplants Jack Nicklaus with the most major wins in history. I rank him last because his career is in his prime and it’s too early in his career to rank him higher. For the record, thus far, McIlroy has 29 PGA victories and 11 international wins. Of 263 tournaments played in, he has missed the cut just 31 times. He has finished second 11 times, the same for third place finishes, and ended up in the top five of a tournament 83 times. As for top 10 finishes, he’s done it 129 times.

On the tour since 2010, Rory McIlroy has earned a cool $104,246,906 in winnings. Born in Holywood, Northern Ireland he still calls his birthplace home. Where Tiger Woods was once the dominant golfer on the tour, Rory McIlroy is the golfer with the target on his back these days.

5. Gene Sarazen

Next up is an old-timer as Sarazen first stepped up to tee-off in his first PGA event in 1920. While being a great golfer, when he retired, he had just 38 PGA tour victories and only one international win. But in 316 tournaments he made the cut every time except on 25 occasions where he missed finishing the tournament. Sarazen finished in third place 29 times and in the top five for 124 tournaments. In his 316 outings he completed the event in the top 10 185 times.

With today’s top golfers earning millions of dollars, Gene Sarazen put away his clubs with earnings of just $76,815. A pro golfer of smaller stature, Gene Sarazen stood just 5’5”. He had a long life passing away at the age of 97 on May 13, 1999. Born in Harrison, New York, Sarazen is not in the same league as Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus, however he did make it into the Grand Slam club.

4. Gary Player

This next golfer has the perfect name for this sport or any other. Gary Player was certainly a player. A great player. His best performances came on the international scene where he won 118 tournaments. On the PGA tour he was the victor 24 times. Gary Player was an active participant in pro tournaments, 449 all together of which he failed to make the cut 65 times. On 33 occasions he finished second. Finishing third happened 22 times for Gary Player and in 177 tournaments he found himself in the top 10 on the final scoreboard.

Now 89, Player can call himself a millionaire golfer with winnings total $1,834,482. A native of Johannesburg, South Africa, Gary Player was born on November 1, 1935, and now finds his home on Jupiter Island in Florida. With his wife Vivienne, the Players have six children and incredibly, 21 grandchildren.

3. Ben Hogan

Certainly, one of the greatest golfers ever, Ben Hogan deserves to be near the top. With 300 tournaments under his belt, he has compiled 64 PGA wins and just one international victory. To his credit he missed the cut on just seven of his 300 matches. 44 times he finished a tournament just behind the winner. He was third 27 times. When it comes to finishing in the top five of a tournament, Ben Hogan accomplished that feat 169 times and in the top 10 on 229 occasions. Hogan joined the tour in 1931 but as a sign of his era, his total winnings were just $33.516.

Hogan got his start as a pro way back in 1919. A native of Dublin, Texas, Hogan passed away on July 25, 1997, at 84 years of age and obviously is an all-time great.

2. Tiger Woods

Some golfing aficionados will say Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer ever. He was on track to prove that with his number of victories and major wins. But then with a rash of injuries and off-the-course issues, Woods began to decline. Due to a ruptured Achilles tendon, Woods could not compete in the 2025 Masters, missing his first Augusta match in four years. The last time he missed the tournament was in 2021 due to injuries resulting from an automobile accident.

The last few years have shown very little results in competing for a tour victory. In 2024 Woods competed in just five tournaments and missed the cut three times. The year before saw him play in just two events, one of which he withdrew from. Go back one year more and again, three tournaments, one withdrawal, one missed cut. This was the ongoing them between 2021 and early 2022 when he again entered three tourneys and missed the cut on one. His last busy season came in the 2019-2020 season when with seven tournaments played, Tiger had his last victory, finished in the top 10 twice and the top 25 also twice.

His last victory in October of 2019 came in the Zozo Championship. He also tied for first in the Memorial Tournament. But he hasn’t won a match since. For the duration of his career, Tiger Woods has won 15 majors and trails the legendary Jack Nicklaus by only three. He has already surpassed the Golden Bear in total victories 82-73. Nicklaus won 20 international matches whereas Woods has 12.

At age 35 can Rory McIlroy surpass both Woods and Nicklaus? Given that golf does not discriminate against age, it is not out of the realm of possibility. Rory needs 53 more victories to catch Woods in wins, but he already is just one behind Tiger in international wins. McIlroy has only five major wins, so he needs 10 more to catch the Tiger.

As for Woods, he has played in 378 matches, far behind Nicklaus’s 584. Their style of play is vastly different. Jack Nicklaus had the nickname “Golden Bear.” And for good reason. He was fiercely competitive on the golf course and his style of an aggressive, determined approach to attacking a hole intimidated some golfers.

Woods is and has been more of a finesse player with ice in his veins. He has been sort of like a magician with a golf club in his hand. He made unthinkable shots and when he approached the final green with either a lead or just off the lead, you could pretty much count on a Tiger Woods victory. No narrow lead or trailing by little ever unnerved Tiger Woods. In fact, he became more confident in those situations, sort of like knowing he was about to clinch another win.

Woods is certainly the richest golfer in history with earnings totaling $120,999,166. A pro since 1996, Tiger Woods may also be remembered for his appearance on the Mike Douglas show golf club in hand along with father when he was just shy of three years old. For us older folk, it is hard to believe Woods is now 49. As Tiger is one of the most athletic golfers in history, he trained his body like an athlete in football might. His workout regimes were in place so he could use his athleticism to master his game. But in the end, it might be a reason for his rash of continuing injuries. At 6’1” and 185 pounds, he is certainly one of the bigger golfers ever to hit the links.

All those traits of Tiger Woods’ game seem to have diminished almost down to nothing. Now it doesn’t seem possible that Tiger Woods will catch Jack Nicklaus’s 18 major victories even though he is just three behind. Unless he comes back from this latest injury and is Tiger Woods of old, he will forever be regarded as the best golfer in history aside from Jack Nicklaus. 

1. Jack Nicklaus

The king of golf has been and may forever be “The Golden Bear.” Jack Nicklaus may have seen his total PGA victories fall to Tiger Woods, but his 584 matches stand alone. He still owns the majors record and as suggested above, Tiger Woods’ health is the only thing standing in the way of this record falling.

Jack Nicklaus played in his last tournament in 2005 and at the Masters, The Memorial, and the U.S. Open, he missed the cut in all three matches. He was a plus nine in the Masters, +8 in The Memorial, and a plus three in the Open. Incredibly, it’s been 39 years since the Golden Bear last won a tournament, but it was a big one. Nicklaus won the Masters on April 13, 1986, giving him 18 majors victories. Nicklaus was 46 years old when he won his last green jacket.

Now 85, of Nicklaus’s 584 tournaments he missed the cut 89 times many of which came in the twilight of his career. That equates to a 85% successful cut rate. Nicklaus would finish second 58 times, 34 times in third place. He finished in the top five 109 times and in the top 10 286 times. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Nicklaus only trails Tiger Woods in golf earnings with a nice $9,106, 238 in winnings. Rory McIlroy is certainly destined to surpass that number.

Jack Nicklaus while not as athletic as Tiger Woods he still weighed in at 185 on his 5’`10” frame. It’s been 64 years since Jack Nicklaus stepped up to tee off as a professional and he has made his mark not just as a player but as a consultant and cours designer. With his wife Barbara, Nicklaus has five children and 22 grand children.

For the record, Jack Nicklaus has the most Masters victories with six, one more than Tiger Woods. The great Arnold Palmer claims four, and with three each are Gary Player, Sam Snead, Nick Faldo, Phil Michelson, and Jimmy Demaret. Four players are tied for most U.S. Open wins, and they are Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, and Willie Anderson. Trailing that group by one is Tiger Woods and Hale Irwin.

What was formerly known as the “British Open” is now just called “The Open.” Six times one Harry Vardon won that tournament, and you would have to go all the way back to 1890 when Vardon began his professional career. Vardon did have 49 victories as a pro and includes on his resume a victory in the U.S. Open in 1900. Tom Watson ranks second in The Open with five victories and is tied with James Braid, John Henry Taylor, and Peter Thomson for second place.

Jack Nicklaus won The Open three times but trails by one to Walter Hagen, Tom Morris Sr., Tom Morris Jr., Willie Park Sr., and Bobby Locke. When it comes to the PGA championship, Nicklaus and Hagen have each won it five times. Tiger Woods is next with four. Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, and current tour player Brooks Koepka each have three. As for the World Golf Hall of Fame, all but Rory McIlroy has been inducted into this prestigious honor.