What's The Largest Ever Margin Of Victory In A Golf Tournament?

Largest victory margin on PGA Tour

The largest margin of victory on the PGA Tour is 16 strokes and is attributed to four people.

None of these four would have known at the time that they were creating, or equalling, a PGA Tour record as their achievements pre-date the formation of the PGA Tour.

But retrospectively these four tournaments have been deemed to count as PGA Tour events.

James Douglas Edgar, 1919 Canadian Open

Edgar was an Englishman who had coached Tommy Armour and emigrated to America after the First World War where he became head professional at Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta and coached the teenaged Bobby Jones.

At the Canadian Open in 1919 he shot two under par. The previous winning scores in this event had ranged from 8 to 26 over par. He won the Canadian Open again in 1920, in a playoff, having tied with Tommy Armour and Charles Murray at 10 over par.

Edgar got to the quarter finals of the inaugural PGA Championship in 1919, and lost the final in 1920. He was stabbed to death in 1921, aged 36, in a crime which went unsolved.

Joe Kirkwood Sr., 1924 Corpus Christi Open

Sydney-born Joseph Henry Kirkwood Sr was a farmhand introduced to golf by his boss. He won the 1920 Australian Open with a score of 290, beating the previous lowest tournament record score by 12 shots.

He travelled to Europe and the US to play tournament golf and to put on trick-shot shows. He won the second annual Corpus Christi open golf tournament, carding 285, to win by 16 strokes over Bobby Cruickshank, who had been runner up in the previous year’s US Open.

Sam Snead, 1936 West Virginia Closed Pro

Snead’s 16-stroke win is particularly meritorious as it was made in a 36-hole event, at The Greenbrier, where he shot 70-61.

However it is surprising that the PGA Tour has retrospectively considered this as a PGA Tour event as the tournament was only for those in West Virginia. Despite this, the PGA Tour counts this tournament win as the first of Sam Snead’s 82 PGA Tour victories.

Bobby Locke, 1948 Chicago Victory National Open

South African Bobby Locke’s 18-under par total of 266 was enough to win by 16 shots. The next year he won the Open Championship, the first of his four wins in this Major.

Largest victory margin in a Major and on DP World Tour

The answer to these come from the same tournament, and it is 15 strokes.

Tiger Woods, 2000 US Open Championship

This was the first part of the Tiger Slam, when Woods won four consecutive Major wins, and his first US Open title. His wire-to-wire win and his 12-under total beat the previous record of 8-under. He led by one shot after his first round 65; by six after two rounds; by 10 after three rounds; and by 15 after four rounds.

Largest victory margin in a women’s Major

The record margin is 14 strokes and the record has stood for over three-quarters of a century.

Louise Suggs, 1949 U.S. Women’s Open

Louise Suggs shot 69-75-77-70 around the par-75 layout at Prince George's Country Club in Landover, Maryland for a wire-to-wire victory which was 14 shots ahead of the runner up and defending champion Babe Zaharias. This was the fourth of Suggs’ 11 Major titles.