The great players: from Old Tom Morris to the career grand slam

The Morrises of St Andrews

Golf’s first great champion never left its first great town for long. Old Tom Morris was born in St Andrews in 1821 and died there in 1908, known by then as the Grand Old Man of Golf. He was greenkeeper and professional of the links, and won four of the first eight Open Championships.

His son was faster still. Young Tom Morris won four Opens in a row by the age of 21, and kept the Challenge Belt for the three he won in succession. He died at St Andrews on Christmas Day 1875, aged 24.

Vardon, Jones and Hagen

Harry Vardon was born in Grouville, on Jersey, and showed his talent as a caddie in his teens. He won the Open a record six times and the U.S. Open in 1900.

Bobby Jones never turned professional. A lawyer by profession, he is the most successful amateur ever to play at national and international level, and the only golfer to win all four major championships of his era in a single year, in 1930. He retired from competition that year and went on to found and help design Augusta National, home of the Masters.

Walter Hagen was his opposite: the father of professional golf, who brought publicity, prestige, prize money and endorsements to the game. In 1922 he became the first native-born American to win the Open, and his 11 professional majors place him third, behind only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Sarazen, Hogan and Snead

Gene Sarazen was the first of the six players who have won each of the four modern majors. His most famous blow came in the final round of the 1935 Masters, at the 15th hole: a spoon, a modern four wood, struck 232 yards into the cup for a double eagle, "the shot heard 'round the world". In 1955 the bridge at the 15th green was named after him.

Ben Hogan won nine majors. In 1949 he was badly hurt in a head-on collision with a bus while driving home from a tournament; four years later, in 1953, he won the Masters, the U.S. Open and the Open in a single season. Sam Snead, his contemporary, is credited with a record 82 PGA Tour wins, seven of them majors.

A spoon, struck 232 yards into the cup: the shot heard ’round the world, 1935.

The Big Three

In the 1960s three men carried golf into living rooms. Arnold Palmer won seven majors between the 1958 and 1964 Masters, and his charisma did much to make golf a television event. Gary Player of South Africa won nine majors and more than 160 professional events on six continents, became the first player from outside the United States to win the Masters, in 1961, and has gone on to more than 400 course designs.

Jack Nicklaus won 117 professional tournaments and a record 18 majors; the last, the 1986 Masters, came at the age of 46 and was his sixth green jacket. Together they were called the Big Three, and they are credited with taking the game to a far wider international audience.

One of those televised Masters, in 1971, was watched on his parents’ new colour television by a 14-year-old Nick Faldo, who was hooked on golf from that day and later won six majors: three Opens and three Masters.

Watson, Seve and the European revival

Tom Watson won eight majors, five of them Open Championships. At nearly sixty he led the 2009 Open after the second and third rounds, and lost only in a four-hole playoff.

Seve Ballesteros won five majors between 1979 and 1988, the Open three times and the Masters twice, and was the second player from outside the United States to win at Augusta. He did as much as anyone to revive European golf, helping Europe to five Ryder Cup wins as player and captain.

Tiger, and the six who won them all

Tiger Woods has won 15 majors, second only to Nicklaus, and 82 PGA Tour events, level with Snead. When he won the 2001 Masters he held all four major titles at once, the only player to do so, and in 2019 he won the Masters again, his first major for eleven years.

Only six men have won all four of the modern majors: Sarazen, Hogan, Player, Nicklaus, Woods and, since the 2025 Masters, Rory McIlroy, the first European to do it, after ten years without a major. McIlroy has played for Europe at every Ryder Cup from 2010 to 2025. Jon Rahm, of Spain, has won two majors, the 2021 U.S. Open and the 2023 Masters.

The great women of the game

Babe Didrikson Zaharias won two Olympic gold medals and a silver in athletics in 1932 before turning to golf, where she won ten LPGA majors. Mickey Wright joined the tour in 1955 and won 82 LPGA events, 13 of them majors, and topped the money list four years running from 1961.

Annika Sörenstam of Sweden won 72 official LPGA tournaments, ten of them majors, completed her career grand slam in 2003 and in the same year became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event since 1945. Lorena Ochoa was the first Mexican golfer, man or woman, to be ranked number one in the world, and held the top place for 158 weeks in a row until she retired in 2010, aged 28.