When Tiger Woods missed the cut at the Byron Nelson Championship two weeks ago, I started thinking of his incredible consecutive cut streak. After realizing how great it was, I also started thinking of some other great PGA Tour records. So the following is a list of PGA Tour records that are the most incredible in my opinion. You won’t find the record for most money won on the PGA Tour because the legends of golf didn’t have a fair shot at that one. And Tiger’s four major championships in a row didn’t make the cut either.
If there is anything you want to add to this list, feel free to comment below or discuss it in our forum. Now, let’s get to the list already!
Number Five: Sam Snead’s 82 PGA Tour Wins
Sam Snead had one of the sweetest swings in the history of golf. Everyone in the golf world also knew him as “Slammin” Sam Snead. He was one of the longest hitters of his generation and continued to play competitive golf well into his 60s. He won on the PGA Tour at age 52, and that record still stands to this day. He also finished third in the 1974 PGA Championship at age 62. With all this being said, his record of 82 PGA Tour wins also stands strong today. Jack Nicklaus is in a distant second with 73 victories. Seven of Snead’s wins just happened to be major championship victories, and he also won in six different decades! This record would be ranked higher on the list if Tiger Woods wasn’t playing on the PGA Tour. Tiger has already won 43 times on tour since joining in 1996. He is more than halfway to the record and could someday pass “Slammin” Sam. Snead is still the name that shows up on the top of the list, however, and that name will remain there for at least another decade or so.
Number Four: Byron Nelson’s 11 Straight Tournament Victories
When Tiger Woods won six straight tournaments from late-1999 to early-2000, it seemed as if it was some kind of record. That couldn’t be farther from the truth, as those six victories was merely half of what Byron Nelson did in 1945. Some golf writers believe that the year Nelson had in 1945 is still the best ever in the history of the game. He won an amazing 18 times in 1945, and at one time during the year, he won 11 straight tournaments. Needless to say, Lord Byron was the tour’s leading money winner that year and also named the Associated Press male athlete of the year.
Number Three: Tiger’s Consecutive Cut Streak
Speaking of Byron Nelson, that is the site where Tiger Woods missed the cut just two weeks ago. That was the first time Mr. Woods didn’t play a weekend since the 1998 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Tiger competed in 142 straight tournaments without missing a cut. The streak would have been longer, but the 1998 Pebble Beach Pro-Am was postponed until later in the year, and Tiger opted not to finish out the tournament. The last cut Tiger actually missed prior to the Byron Nelson two weeks ago was the 1997 Bell Canadian Open. Woods surpassed the previous record set by Byron Nelson. Nelson played in 113 straight tournaments without missing a cut. Tiger not only passed it, but he passed it with some room to spare. Any time a player can play that many tournaments in so many different course conditions is remarkable to say the least! This record will be very tough to surpass.
Number Two: Byron Nelson’s 18 Wins in 1945
The great year Byron Nelson had in 1945 was already mentioned, but this record also occurred in 1945. Byron Nelson won a total of 18 tournaments that year. Just to give a little comparison, Ben Hogan is second in this category with 13 wins in a single season (1946). The most recent runs at this record were Tiger Woods in 2000 (nine wins) and Vijay Singh just last year (nine wins). Out of the 18 tournaments Byron Nelson won in 1945, one was the PGA Championship. That was the only major held in 1945. Some people say his 18 wins in the same season wasn’t that great due to some of the events being team events. Some of the golfers were also in World War II. That is the only reason this record was number two on the list instead of number one. I don’t care who is playing the events, 18 victories in the same year is amazing!
Number One: Jack Nicklaus’ 18 Major Championship Victories
This is the record all golfers dream of. To me, this is just like the homerun record in baseball. This is the one the fans talk about more than any other. Golfers tee it up each week in preparation for the four major championships throughout the year. They are the big-time events, and majors characterize a lot of men’s careers when it’s all said and done. Over his entire career, Jack Nicklaus has won a total of 18 major championships. The breakdown of each includes four U.S. Open wins, five PGA Championships, three British Open victories, and an amazing six wins at The Masters! The last of his major wins was in 1986 at Augusta National, and he was 46 years old. The closest to Nicklaus in major championship wins is Walter Hagen with 11. Tiger Woods has made it clear he wants this record before he retires, and he is halfway there as it stands today. For anyone to break this remarkable record, whether it be Tiger or someone else, the player will have to stay very competitive and healthy for many years. This record is simply the best there is!
Photo Credit: © Augusta.Com.
I think Nelson 1945 season should stand alone as the greatest record ever. I think Jack’s record is catchable by Tiger and if I remember correctly, Nelson finished second seven times. 25 top-2 finishes!
But Nicklaus has the cool pants which makes him the greatest.
I think Jack’s 18 Majors will be broken, soon, probably even this decade. Tiger’s cut streak on the other hand… I don’t belive I’ll live long enough to see it.
This 1 thru 5 list is out of order. Sam Snead was and still is the all time greatest golfer ever. No other golfers won as many over as long a period of time as Sam did. Many other worldwide tournaments included total over 150 wins for this remarkable legend.
The Jones Grand slam??
Did Byron Nelson play 11 consecutive weeks in 1945 when he won 11 straight tournaments? If he did then there’s no way Tiger will ever catch Lord Byron. Tiger picks and chooses where he wants to play, specifically on courses he knows he can win on.
I agree with Ell. Let Tiger play 11 consecutive weeks on whatever course in whatever tournament and lets see if he wins all 11. He plays the Byron Nelson every year in Dallas but conveniently can’t make the Colonial on its tight course with lots of trees.
Are you serious Scott? It’s not that he can’t make it, it’s that he prepares so much for the tournaments that are a priority to him. He has earned the right not to have to play in every single tournament or 11 weeks in a row.
1) Tiger has SIGNIFICANTLY more competition today than B.Nelson ever had. Nelson was obviously a great player….but he was no Tiger. I would love to see A) what tournaments Nelson won during his streak, and B) who were ALL the contestants in the field for each of these Tourneys. Does anyone have access to this info, as I can’t seem to find it on the ‘net?
With loses in non-PGA events, such as the recently completed Dubai Desert Classic, it is becoming increasingly difficult to compare Tiger’s current PGA Tour winning streak with Nelson’s winning streak in 1945.
Nelson’s winning streak was exactly what the dictionary defines to be a winning streak – wins in consecutive events. One must remember that Nelson did skip one tournament during his streak – due to a shoulder injury. The other point to note is that it was a real PGA Tour streak. Back in 1945, it was not so easy to hop on to a plane and play in golfing events outside the USA. Besides, these golfers, especially Nelson played week after week just to get a paycheck. In Nelson’s case, buying his dream ranch was a big motivator.
With this background, let’s look at the 1945 streak more carefully and see how it compares with the recent (2006-present) Tiger streak. As I will try to show now, Tiger only needs one more win to beat Nelson’s 1945 winning streak, if the streak is limited to consecutive PGA Tour stroke play events. We are already calling it a PGA Tour ONLY streak. Why not call it a PGA Tour Stroke Play ONLY streak?
Two recent articles (see link) tabulate all of Nelson’s wins, unfortunately without the exact dates.
http://www.golfonline.com/golfonline/features/features/article/0,17742,1563734-6,00.html
Nelson’s streak starts with a win at the Miami Four ball, a match play event. Then according to the table, Nelson wins 7 stroke play events in a row. This is followed by a win in the PGA Championship – but back in 1945 the PGA Championship was a match play event. He then followed with 2 more wins in stroke play events after which the streak ended. I am assuming that the wins are listed chronologically, see also the link below with the list in the same order.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/2005-05-11-nelson_x.htm
So, if we only want to include PGA Tour events and restrict the wins to stroke play events, Nelson only had 7 in a row in 1945, exactly the same as Tiger does now.
To be fair and consistent, since we all seem to agree that we are talking onloy about a PGA Tour win streak, IMHO, Tiger just needs one more win in a PGA Tour event to break Nelson’s streak !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As the hard facts here indicate, he does NOT need five more wins in a row to break Nelson’s PGA Tour winning streak (match play excluded).
Let’s hope Tiger gets his 8th win in a row in the next PGA Tour event and actually makes one more golf history.
OK, ok, let’s be fair, again. It is not Nelson’s fault that the PGA Championship was a match play event in 1945.
So, Tiger needs three more wins to beat Nelson’s 9-win streak in 1945, if we only count the stroke play events.
To moderator: I fixed a couple of typos here and am resubmitting.
Here is a link that shows the timeline of those victories: http://www.eds.com/news/events/byronnelson/tribute/byron_tribute.swf
All other factors set aside it was quite an accomplishment.
The biggest thing with the Byron streak is to miss the cut meant not making any money. You had to finish in the top 20 most of the time to make money. There were 30 tournaments that Tiger made the cut where there was not a cut. Also, when Byron won 11 tournaments in a row the only one he missed was the St Paul Open because he had a bad back and could not compete. Not to mention he one 7 more tournaments for 18 for the year. I don’t give a r—ts a—s who he was playing against…anyone that can win that many tournaments in a year is unreal. What type of contestants does Tiger have now. A few wannabes that win a major every once in awhile. No Watsons, Palmers, Trevinos, Millers, that Nicklaus had to compete with when he won 18 majors and finished second in majors 19 times. Don’t get me wrong, Tiger is great…..we just see way too much of him.
Some people resort to any convoluted arguments about “tour events” “then and now” and other nonsense to support their claim that Tiger is the greatest of all time. There is certainly no doubt that he is the best on the planet today. But until they invent a time machine and put all the greats together in their prime and with the same equipment, such comparison’s are silly.
It is legitimate to wonder if Tiger could week five weeks consecutively as Nelson did, take a month off and then win another six weeks in a row. With all his other committments, would he even find time to do it, let alone be able to handle the rigors of the schedule.
Regardless of the competition, Nelson shot better than anybody that year. Par is still 72, and nobody has ever matched his scoring average for that year. He could have been playing against Joe Schmoe or Tiger and neither would be that kinda game.
I agree also, that too much has been made of the, now over, “Tiger streak”. Tigers streak was in no way comparable to Nelsons, as BN’s was more of a true back to back to back win streak and also done in the “same calander year”with only one week off due to injury. Tigers “pick and choose ” style of tounament play negates any realistic chances for him to have a legitimate shot at this record in my mind. Nelson was a week to week grinder in a tough time, when playing good golf was crucial to their livelyhood…..Not much has been said about another stat of Nelsons that still stands to this day and that is his record of “113” top 20 finishes !….Mind Boggling that one…Tiger has 47 I belive…enough said 🙂
Paul is one of those misinformed people who should check facts before spouting off. He lauds Nelson’s record of 113 top 20 finishes – which is indeed impressive. But then shortchanges Tiger by saying Tiger has 47 top 20s. As of the date of Paul’s post, Tiger has 55 official PGA tour WINS. And I’m pretty sure a win is in the top 20. Enough said.
Well, Paul made me curious. So I went to PGATour.com and counted up Tiger’s top 20 finishes just in official PGA Tour events. Paul should do his homework. Tiger has 168 top 20 finishes in just over 10 full seasons of play. I do not know if that figure is topped by anyone else and I do not know if the 113 figure Paul gave for good old Byron Nelson is accurate – but it makes me wonder since Paul was WAY off the mark on Tiger’s top 20s. Now there really is Enough Said.
I never see anything mentioned about a little known fact in a match play win that Byron Nelson had at the PGA championship during his 11 straight record.
The 1945 PGA championship took 7 days.
Byron Nelson played (((204))) holes!
He finished the tournamed 37 under par.
http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/2005/history_1945.html
let us realize. That comparisons only can be fairly compaired,
if compaired by each and every generation. This is because, with each generation every thing changes.
Some examples: dna, every generation gets better at everything overall, if it didnt we would be extinct by now.
travel capabilities, equipment, etc.
how about thinking about this one!
Tom Morris Jr. winning 4 consecutive of what is now the
Open championship! Wonder how tall the rough was at that
time? Remember John deere was a goat at one time. As long as dna. gets better records will be broken no matter what.
I would like to add that Byron Nelson finished 2nd 7 times the year he won 18 tournaments. He also had a scoring average of 68.77 or something close to that. With the equipment that they had to use that is pretty impressive. It doesn’t matter who he played. A win is a win. He played against the best of that time. I would also like to add that the great Dustin Murray’s hole-in-one on the 150 yard 7th hole at Lakeside golf course withh his trusty 7 wood is the most impressive thing that has ever happened in all of golf. Respect my authoritah.lol
We can nit pick all day about Nelson’s consecutive tour wins compared with Tiger’s. The only thing that matters is that Byron won 11 in a row (with a match play tourney) and Tiger won 7 in a row (with a match play tourney). 11 beats 7 no matter how you calculate it. It simply is “simple” math. Each generation has its sports greats and they are exceptions to the ordinary athlete and these exceptions can play in any generation in their sport and also win!!!!!
I feel like I’m running across a fareway during a thunderstorm with a golf club in my hand when I make this comment (you’ve probably heard the joke–that even God can’t hit a one iron) but, here it its.
In 1945, WWII had reached its greatest intensity with something like 16 million Americans in uniform. Like almost every other profession, golf was decimated by the draft. It was against this backdrop that Mr. Nelson performed his remarkable feat, such a significant fact that I’ve always believed record books should include an asterisk beside his name stating this obvious fact.
I’m not suggesting that Nelson was not a fine golfer nor did he shirk his duty to his country (he was a hemophiliac and exempted from the draft). But, he attained his 11 wins against a field with little competition and then retired in 1946 at the ripe old age of 34.