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List of golfers with most European Tour wins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of golfers who have won eight or more events on the European Tour since it was established in 1972. There are some complications in preparing such a list, and different publications have produced different numbers. This list is based on what the European Tour reports the victories being according to their own player guide (through the 2009 season).[1]

The number of wins a player can accumulate on the European Tour depends in part on how many years he devotes to the tour. There have always been some leading European players or European Tour members from outside Europe who have gone on to play part or full-time on the U.S.-based PGA Tour and cut back their commitments in Europe, and this seems to be an increasing trend.[2]

Detailed criteria

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  • Only European Tour sanctioned events are counted. As all elite golfers enter the four major championships and the four (three before 2009) individual World Golf Championships each season it is possible for a player to accumulate eight wins in European Tour sanctioned events without ever joining the European Tour, and Tiger Woods (who has never joined the European Tour) reached that mark in the 2000 Open Championship.
  • The three U.S.-based majors were not designated as European Tour events until 1997, so victories in them before that date were initially excluded. This is in contrast to the list of golfers with most PGA Tour wins, which includes Open Championship wins before that tournament became an official money event in 1995, because they were retrospectively designated as PGA Tour wins in 2002. Sometime prior to 2009, the European Tour made such a retrospective designation with respect to the three U.S. majors, as reflected in their 2009 media guide.
  • Wins in the Wentworth World Match Play Championship before 2003 are not included.
  • The win lists in the player profiles on the European Tour's official site include some miscellaneous items which are not regular individual tour wins and are therefore excluded: wins in 18 hole pro-ams associated with European Tour events; wins in the Volvo Bonus Pool; team wins in the Seve Trophy; wins on the Challenge Tour and the European Senior Tour.

There are additional players who won eight or more tournaments on the pre-tour European circuit and the European Tour in the period straddling 1972 who are not included on the list.

Many of the players on the list have won many events on other tours and unofficial events. The numbers in the "Majors" column are the total number of major championships the player won in his career whether or not he was a member of the European Tour at the time.

Players under 50 years of age are shown in bold. At age 50, golfers become eligible for the major senior tours, most notably the European Senior Tour and the U.S.-based PGA Tour Champions, competing for substantial prize money against other golfers in that age group. Only Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Phil Mickelson have ever won a European Tour event after turning 50,[3] and only three golfers of that age have won on the PGA Tour since 1975.

Players with the same number of wins are listed alphabetically. This list is up to date through 21 January 2024.[4][a]

Rank Player Lifespan Wins Majors Winning span Span
(years)
1 Spain Seve Ballesteros H 1957–2011 50 5 1976–1995 20
2 Germany Bernhard Langer H 1957– 42 2 1980–2002 23
3 United States Tiger Woods H 1975– 41 15 1997–2019 22
4 Scotland Colin Montgomerie H 1963– 31 0 1989–2007 19
5 England Nick Faldo H 1957– 30 6 1977–1996 20
6 Wales Ian Woosnam H 1958– 29 1 1982–1997 16
7 South Africa Ernie Els H 1969– 28 4 1994–2013 20
8 England Lee Westwood 1973– 25 0 1996–2020 25
9 Spain José María Olazábal H 1966– 23 2 1986–2005 20
T10 Spain Miguel Ángel Jiménez 1964– 21 0 1992–2014 23
Scotland Sam Torrance 1953– 0 1976–1998 23
T12 England Mark James 1953– 18 0 1978–1997 20
Scotland Sandy Lyle H 1958– 2 1979–1992 14
14 Northern Ireland Rory McIlroy 1989– 17 4 2009–2024 16
T15 Spain Sergio García 1980– 16 1 1999–2019 21
Zimbabwe Mark McNulty 1953– 0 1979–2001 23
T17 Denmark Thomas Bjørn 1971– 15 0 1996–2013 18
England Paul Casey 1977– 0 2001–2021 21
Republic of Ireland Pádraig Harrington H 1971– 3 1996–2016 21
T20 Northern Ireland Darren Clarke 1968– 14 1 1993–2011 19
South Africa Retief Goosen H 1969– 2 1996–2007 12
Australia Greg Norman H 1955– 2 1977–1994 18
23 Fiji Vijay Singh H 1963– 13 3 1989–2008 20
24 England Ian Poulter 1976– 12 0 2000–2012 13
T25 England Howard Clark 1954– 11 0 1978–1988 11
Sweden Robert Karlsson 1969– 0 1995–2010 16
Germany Martin Kaymer 1984– 2 2008–2014 7
Northern Ireland Graeme McDowell 1979– 1 2002–2020 19
United States Phil Mickelson H 1970– 6 2004–2021 18
South Africa Louis Oosthuizen 1982– 1 2010–2023 14
England Justin Rose 1980– 1 2002–2018 17
South Africa Charl Schwartzel 1984– 1 2005–2016 12
Australia Adam Scott 1980– 1 2003–2019 17
Sweden Henrik Stenson 1976– 1 2001–2016 16
T35 Scotland Bernard Gallacher 1949– 10 0 1972–1984 13
Australia Graham Marsh 1944– 0 1972–1985 14
Sweden Alex Norén 1982– 0 2009–2018 10
Spain Jon Rahm 1994– 2 2017–2023 7
T39 Scotland Brian Barnes 1945–2019 9 0 1972–1981 10
England Matt Fitzpatrick 1994– 1 2015–2023 9
South Africa Branden Grace 1988– 0 2012–2020 9
United States Dustin Johnson 1984– 2 2013–2021 9
Spain Pablo Larrazábal 1983– 0 2008–2023 16
United States Jack Nicklaus H 1940– 18 1972–1986 15
Spain Manuel Piñero 1952– 0 1974–1985 12
T46 Scotland Gordon Brand Jnr 1958–2019 8 0 1982–1993 12
New Zealand Michael Campbell 1969– 1 2000–2005 6
England Tony Jacklin H 1944– 2 1972–1982 11
Thailand Thongchai Jaidee 1969– 0 2004–2016 13
Scotland Paul Lawrie 1969– 1 1996–2012 17
Denmark Thorbjørn Olesen 1989– 0 2012–2024 13
Argentina Eduardo Romero 1954–2022 0 1989–2002 14
Republic of Ireland Des Smyth 1953– 0 1979–2001 23
Austria Bernd Wiesberger 1985– 0 2012–2021 10
England Danny Willett 1987– 1 2012–2021 10

H signifies members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Based on referenced table with incremental updates.

References

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  1. ^ "Section 4: Records & Statistics". 2010 European Tour Official Guide. PGA European Tour. p. 457.
  2. ^ Scrivener, Peter (10 March 2023). "DP World Tour to 'become feeder' for PGA Tour - Matt Fitzpatrick". BBC Sport. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  3. ^ "Jimenez Rewrites History on Home Soil" (Press release). PGA European Tour. 18 May 2014.
  4. ^ "Most Official Victories". European Tour. 10 April 2017. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018.