Who Has Won The Most PGA Tour Events?

Two men lead the way at the top of the list of players with the most victories in the history of the PGA Tour

Who has won the most pga tour events
Two are tied on 82
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In 1916, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America was founded. Although a formalised circuit of tournaments wasn’t established until 1929, the PGA Tour today recognises wins post 1916 as counting as PGA Tour victories.

There are two players tied at the top of the official standings for having recorded the most PGA Tour victories – Both Sam Snead and Tiger Woods have recorded 82 professional wins that are recognised as PGA Tour victories.

Sam Snead

Sam Snead

Sam Snead winning the 1954 Palm Beach Round Robin

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Sam Snead turned professional in 1934 and won the first of his 82 PGA Tour titles in the West Virginia Closed Pro of 1936. He won that event by an incredible 16 strokes having shot a second round of 61.

Snead enjoyed remarkable longevity in his career. His final PGA Tour title came almost 29 years after his first, in the Greater Greensboro Open of 1965. At 54-years-old, Snead shot four rounds in the 60s to win by five.

He continued to be competitive into his late 60s. Shooting his age of 67, then beating it with a 66 in the Quad Cities Open of 1979. He also became the oldest player to make the cut in a Major when, at 67, he achieved the feat in the 1979 PGA Championship.

In total, Snead won 142 professional tournaments between 1936 and 1982, including seven Majors. He recorded top-10 finishes in Major championships in five different decades – the 1930s to the 1970s.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods

Tiger's first PGA Tour win - the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational

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Tiger could still surpass Sam Snead to stand alone at the top of the list of players with the most PGA Tour titles to their name. At the time of writing he, like Sam Snead, has 82.

Tiger’s first title came in the Las Vegas Invitational of October 1996 having turned professional just two months earlier. He claimed his maiden PGA Tour victory via a playoff against Davis Love III.

Woods has accrued his 82 PGA Tour titles over a shorter timespan than Snead. He claimed his most recent in the Zozo Championship, in October 2019, just over 23 years after his inaugural win.

Tiger has won the PGA Tour money list on 10 occasions, and he has 15 Major titles under his belt. Only Jack Nicklaus with 18 has more. Jack secured 73 PGA Tour titles (he’s third on the all-time list.)

Woods is still competing and, despite his well-documented injuries, there remains a chance that he could win again on the PGA Tour. Woods is a man who has repeatedly defied the odds and general consensus over the years.

Who has the most victories on the LPGA Tour?

Kathy Whitworth

Kathy Whitworth won 88 LPGA Tour events

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Woods and Snead lead the men’s list, but they fall six short of the woman at the top of the list of players with the most victories on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour.

Kathy Whitworth, who died last year, recorded an incredible 88 victories on the LPGA Tour between 1962 and 1985. Her first win came in the Kelly Girls Open in July 1962, her final victory on the circuit was in the United Virginia Bank Classic, in May 1985.

She enjoyed a period of dominance on tour in the late 1960s and, in 1968, she won no fewer than 10 events. She was LPGA Tour player of the year seven times between 1966 and 1973.

Mickey Wright is second on the list of all-time victories on the LPGA Tour with 82, Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam is third with 72.

Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly. 

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?