Top ten golfers of all time!!

[Sante TwoGloves]

I did a search but didn't see anything. I'm sure it's been talked about before but who do you rank as the top ten golfers of all time?

[saevel25]

1. Tiger Woods
2. Jack Nicklaus
3. Phil Mickelson
4. Tom Watson
5. Gary Player
6. Arnold Palmer
7. Ben Hogan
8. Sam Snead
9. Lee Trevino
10. Vijay Singh

Good enough :) 

[davechen]

Pretty subjective, but I think going by the most majors gives you a pretty good list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_men's_major_championships_winning_golfers

• 1 Nicklaus
• 2 Woods
• 3 Hagen
• T4 Hogan
• T4 Player
• 6 Watson
• T7 Sarazen
• T7 Palmer
• T7 Snead
• T7 Bobby Jones
• T7 Harry Varden

 

[Kenny Lee]

#1- Titanic Thompson

I'll need some more time to come up with #2 thru #10.

[ncarlsongolf]

10. Seve Ballesteros

9. Phil Mickelson

8. Tom Watson

7. Gary Player

6. Bobby Jones

5.Arnold Palmer

4. Sam Snead

3. Ben Hogan

2. Tiger Woods

1.  Jack Nicklaus

 

 

 Just my humble opinion.. I think Tiger is very close to the greatest ever, excited to see how is final career chapter ends!

[Mike Boatright]

As everyone stated of course they might be forgetting Byron Nelson, but has anyone ever heard of Mike Austin?

 

[iacas]

As everyone stated of course they might be forgetting Byron Nelson, but has anyone ever heard of Mike Austin?

We have, but he is nowhere near the top ten golfers of all time.

[mvmac]

I think my list is the same as @saevel25's. Other guys that came to mind were Billy Casper, Ernie Els, Seve, Nick Faldo. I think if Byron Nelson hadn't retired at 34 he'd be on the list for sure. Wasn't sure about Vijay at first but he got to #1 in the Tiger era and has won 41 PGA Tour events (9 wins in 2004).

Pretty subjective, but I think going by the most majors gives you a pretty good list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_men's_major_championships_winning_golfers

Majors are important but there's more to consider, strength of field is one of them.

[Kenny Lee]

Greg Norman- the greatest ball striker of all-time probably deserves to be on any Top 10 list, IMO.

[iacas]

Greg Norman- the greatest ball striker of all-time probably deserves to be on any Top 10 list, IMO.

Yeah, I beg to differ. There might be 40 people ahead of him on the list of all-time greats.

[Mr. Desmond]

Greg Norman- the greatest ball striker of all-time probably deserves to be on any Top 10 list, IMO.

Always thought of Norman as one of the better athletes in golf. I can't put him up there as one of the top 50(?) because he went for the "hero" shot too much and could not manage his way around the course on many occasions and threw away wins.

Tiger could pull off hero shots consistently. Norman? Not so much.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Mr. Desmond

[saevel25]

Being able to finish should be an aspect of the top golfers. He might be one of the top drivers of the ball of his time. He seriously underperformed.

 

[jbishop15]

1. Tiger

2a. Hogan

2b. Jack

4. Mickelson

5. Player

6. Snead

7. Palmer

8. Watson

9. Vardon

10. Vijay

 

Edited October 18, 2015 by jbishop15

[turtleback]

Being able to finish should be an aspect of the top golfers. He might be one of the top drivers of the ball of his time. He seriously underperformed.

 

In a way, Norman turned out to be the anti-Spieth.  One is an underachiever (for his talent level) with a crap mental game and one is an overachiever with a very tight mental game.

1. Tiger

2a. Hogan

2b. Jack

4. Mickelson

5. Player

6. Snead

7. Palmer

8. Watson

9. Vardon

10. Vijay

 

I like your list a lot, except that IMO you have Phil waay too high.  I would be at nearly 100% agreement if I drop Phil to just below Vijay as #10, or make Phil and Vijay 9a and 9b.  I just cannot see any way to put a player at #4 who never, for a single season of his career, was considered the best payer in the game.

Drop Vardon and that makes an excellent post-ww2 list.  

I personally could not accept it as an all time list, however because of the luminaries it excludes, players like Hagen, Sarazen, Jones, etc.

[jbishop15]

In a way, Norman turned out to be the anti-Spieth.  One is an underachiever (for his talent level) with a crap mental game and one is an overachiever with a very tight mental game.

I like your list a lot, except that IMO you have Phil waay too high.  I would be at nearly 100% agreement if I drop Phil to just below Vijay as #10, or make Phil and Vijay 9a and 9b.  I just cannot see any way to put a player at #4 who never, for a single season of his career, was considered the best payer in the game.

Drop Vardon and that makes an excellent post-ww2 list.  

I personally could not accept it as an all time list, however because of the luminaries it excludes, players like Hagen, Sarazen, Jones, etc.

All fair points. I could've put Phil anywhere between fourth and eighth, but I genuinely feel that he is a top-four all-timer. Vardon's selection is more than a little fanboyish on my part, as he is one of my golfing heroes who I relate to very strongly. If I were to replace him, I'd put Jones in that spot, or Nelson. You could talk me into removing Vijay, too, but it wouldn't be easy. 

Edited October 18, 2015 by jbishop15

[skydog]

Yeah, I beg to differ. There might be 40 people ahead of him on the list of all-time greats.

40 seems a bit harsh. The dude underachieved severely in the majors but he won 90 times around the world and spent over 6 years as the world #1. I don't think he's close to the top 10 all time, but I'd give him top 20 give or take.

As for top 10, obviously hugely subjective as we all know. I'd make some modifications but I like ncarlsongolf's list for the most part. Biggest question mark for me is Bobby Jones, because I just don't know how to think about him given the huge difference in eras.

Edited October 19, 2015 by skydog

[iacas]

40 seems a bit harsh.

That's why I said "might."

Norman was one of about three golfers my dad could even ever identify, and he was dominant just as I was getting into golf and watching tournaments on TV religiously, so I know how good he was. Probably one of the top five drivers of all time, if not the top three or best.

[bubble]

Nicklaus

woods

hagen

player

watson

Sarazen

Palmer

Snead

Jones

Vardon

 

This is the top ten in winning majors.

 

then trevino and faldo.

I would add daly, singh and  boumboum