Golfers with the most second-place finishes at majors (2024)

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Golfers with the most second-place finishes at majors? ›

Jack Nicklaus – 19

Nicklaus has 19 runner-up finishes in majors, and five of those came in a playoff or by one stroke.

This record of consecutive cuts made in major championships was equaled by Tiger Woods at the 2006 Masters. Nicklaus holds the record for most runner-up finishes in majors with 19. Nicklaus holds the record for most top-five finishes in major championships with 56.

Woods has finished runner-up 31 times, and in third place 19 times. Woods has spent the most consecutive and cumulative weeks atop the world rankings. Woods holds the PGA Tour record for most consecutive rounds at par or better with 52.

Mickelson has finished in second or a tie for second six times at the U.S. Open (1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2013). He finished runner-up to champion Payne Stewart in 1999, the first of three U.S. Opens held at Pinehurst.

- No player was a runner-up to Woods more than Ernie Els. The Big Easy was a runner up to Tiger on five occasions.

Bobby Jones, who won the pre-Masters era Career Grand Slam in 1930, is the only golfer to win four majors in the same year.

And here he is. The greatest golfer of all time, Jack Nicklaus. The 'Golden Bear' barnstormed his way to a record 18 majors, part of his monstrous 117 professional tournament victories.

So I had the opportunity to shoot something really, really low.” The 13-under 59 came on a course that measured 7,149 yards and rated 74.4. The scorecard hung in the Isleworth clubhouse as the official course record until the course underwent a significant renovation in 2004.

Who is the oldest person to win the Masters? ›

Jack Nicklaus stands alone with six Masters wins. The 18-time major winner won his first Masters in 1963. Twenty-three years later in 1986, the then-46-year-old scored his sixth and final Masters victory -- becoming the oldest winner in tournament history.

His PGA prize money total (over $96 million) leaves him behind only Tiger Woods in tour history.

Woods has 82 victories in his career and Nicklaus 72, a considerable difference, but by itself not definitive when looking at the other finishes. Nicklaus had 57 runner-up finishes in his career and 269 top-10s while Woods had 31 runner-up finishes, or 26 behind Nicklaus, and 199 top-10s, 60 less than the Golden Bear.

Woods is the only player in history to complete what is now called the “Tiger Slam,” by winning four consecutive majors but not within the same calendar year. He did it from the 2000 U.S. Open to the 2001 Masters.

Tiger Woods has won back-to-back majors four times -- 1999-2000 and 2006-2007 at the PGA Championship, 2001-2002 at the Masters and 2005-2006 at the British Open.