Which Golfers Have Won On Their Professional Debuts?

Even the very best professionals are fully aware that they are as good as certain to lose more tournaments than they win throughout the course of their career. Therefore, it’s no surprise that getting a professional career off to a winning start is an incredibly rare feat.

Nevertheless, there have been a few notable examples of players winning on their professional debuts through the years. Here are some of the standout occasions.

Cary Middlecoff

The American graduated as a dentist, but it was his prowess on the golf course that made his name, with three Major titles among his career highlights.

Middlecoff declined the chance to captain the US Walker Cup team in 1947, opting to turn professional instead. Per the Sports Illustrated Vault, his first professional start came at that year's Charlotte Open, which he won for a $2,000 first prize.

Beverly Hanson

Hanson had a glittering amateur career, including winning the Texas Open in 1949, while the following the year she represented the US in the Curtis Cup as well as winning the US Women’s Amateur.

However, she wrote her name into the history books in 1951 at the Eastern Open, when she beat Babe Didrikson Zaharias in her first event as a professional.

She went on to win 17 times on the LPGA Tour and claimed three Major titles.

Marty Fleckman

Marty Fleckman was a standout college golfer at the University of Houston, and won the NCAA Championship in 1965. What's more, while still an amateur, he led the 1967 US Open after the third round, before finishing T18.

Therefore, after turning professional, there was plenty of expectation on his shoulders - not that it showed.

Per Sports Illustrated Vault, his first official tournament as a pro came at the PGA Tour’s Cajun Classic Open Invitational in 1967, which he won in a playoff for his one and only title on the circuit.

Rose Zhang

As if to accentuate the rarity of winning on a professional debut, Hanson’s achievement wasn’t matched in the women's game until 71 years later when, in 2023, Rose Zhang won the LPGA Tour’s Mizuho Americas Open in her first week as a professional.

She beat Jennifer Kupcho on the second playoff hole at Liberty National to set her on the way to a hugely impressive debut season.

The following year, she had a second LPGA Tour win at the Cognizant Founders Cup, cementing her reputation as a star in the making.

Adrien Dumont de Chassart

Remarkably, it only took another week for Belgian Adrien Dumont de Chassart to match Zhang’s achievement.

He turned professional in June 2023 after completing his college career at the University of Illinois.

Later that month, he won the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am, defeating Josh Teater in a playoff.

Honorable Mentions

Not many players have won on their professional debut, but some have come close.

Among them was Laura Davies. Per an interview Laura Davies gave to the FORE the Good of the Game podcast, she finished runner-up in her second tournament as a professional, the 1985 Hennessy Ladies Cup. A matter of weeks later, she tasted victory as a pro for the first time, winning the LET’s Belgian Open.

Another player who came close to winning on her pro debut was Lydia Ko. She has to wait for her second event as a pro, winning the 2013 Swinging Skirts World Ladies Masters in Taiwan, for which she collected $150,000.

And who could forget Tiger Woods? While he made a splash in his pro debut, the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open, where he made a hole-in-one, he didn’t need to wait long for his first win. That came in just his fifth start as a pro, at the Las Vegas Invitational.

Nowadays, his tally of professional wins stands at 110, with 82 on the PGA Tour and 15 Major titles.

Which Players Won Their First PGA Tour Event As A Member?

While perhaps not quite as special as winning in their professional debut, several players have won a PGA Tour tournament in their first event as a member.

They include Ben Crenshaw. He played his first PGA Tour event as a professional in August 1973, but that was before he earned his card.

By November that year, his card was secure and, in his first appearance after earning it, he beat Orville Moody in the San Antonio Texas Open.

Like Crenshaw, Robert Gamez had several PGA Tour starts before earning his card but, after doing so, he immediately won his first PGA Tour event, taking the 1990 Northern Telecom Tucson Open title by a commanding four shots over Mark Calcavecchia and Jay Haas.

Garrett Willis joined the exclusive club of players to win their first PGA Tour event as a member in 2001, beating Kevin Sutherland by one at the Touchstone Energy Tucson Open.

Before that, Willis had professional wins on the NGA Hooters Tour, and two more pro wins came on the Nationwide Tour after his victory in Tucson, although he never won another PGA Tour event.

Russell Henley already had two Web.com Tour wins before earning his PGA Tour card, but what an introduction he made as a member, cruising to the 2013 Sony Open in Hawaii title, breaking the scoring record along the way, to win by four.

While all those players had made PGA Tour appearances before earning their cards, one player went one better – Jim Benepe, who, in 1988, beat Peter Jacobsen by one at the Beatrice Western Open in his first-ever appearance on the Tour after only getting in on a last-minute sponsor exemption.