18
Most professional major championships
Nicklaus won 18 professional majors and finished runner-up 19 times, the two defining records of career greatness in golf and the standard every contender is measured against.
Golf keeps meticulous records across six centuries, and its benchmarks range from the eternal, such as Jack Nicklaus's 18 majors, to the astonishingly specific, like the lowest round ever shot in a top-tier professional event. Because the game is played on wildly different courses in varying conditions, many records carry an asterisk of context: a number that stood for decades can fall in a single perfect afternoon.
The marks below span scoring, dominance and longevity. Some, such as Tiger Woods's 142 consecutive cuts or his 683 weeks at World No. 1, reflect sustained excellence over many years. Others capture a single moment of history, a holed shot, a record margin, or the oldest or youngest champion the game has crowned. Together they map the outer limits of what golf has produced.
Records
82
Most PGA Tour victories
Snead's 82 official PGA Tour wins stood alone for decades until Tiger Woods tied the mark at the 2019 Zozo Championship. No active player is close to catching them.
683
Most weeks at World No. 1
Woods spent 683 weeks atop the Official World Golf Ranking, including a single stretch of 281 consecutive weeks, more than triple the total of any other player in the ranking's history.
142
Most consecutive cuts made
Woods made the cut in 142 straight PGA Tour starts over seven years, a consistency record widely considered among the most unbreakable in the sport.
58
Lowest round in PGA Tour history
Furyk shot a 12-under 58 in the final round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands, the only sub-59 round ever recorded on the PGA Tour.
263 (-21)
Lowest 72-hole score to par in a major
Schauffele won the PGA Championship at Valhalla at 21 under par, breaking the previous record of 20 under and setting the lowest score relative to par in major-championship history.
15 strokes
Largest winning margin in a major
Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 shots, the most dominant single performance in the modern history of the four professional majors.
50 years
Oldest major champion
Mickelson won the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island aged 50 years and 11 months, becoming the oldest player ever to win one of golf's four majors.
17 years
Youngest Open champion
Young Tom Morris won the Open Championship at Prestwick aged 17, still the youngest winner of any major, and went on to take four Opens before his early death at 24.
$120M+
Career earnings leader, PGA Tour
Woods has earned more than 120 million dollars in official PGA Tour prize money alone, a figure dwarfed by his career off-course endorsement income of well over a billion dollars.
515 yards
Longest drive in a recognized event
The 64-year-old Austin drove the ball 515 yards, wind-aided, at the U.S. National Seniors Open in Las Vegas, a long-standing benchmark for the longest measured competitive drive.
4 of 4 majors
Only single-season Grand Slam
Jones won the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, Open Championship and British Amateur in one calendar year, the only sweep of an era's four majors ever achieved.
19
Most major runner-up finishes
Nicklaus finished second in 19 major championships, a record that underlines both his longevity and his near-permanent presence in contention on the game's biggest stages.
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