Most PGA Tour Wins of All Time
On this page16
- 01Most PGA Tour career wins at a glance
- 02Sam Snead — 82 wins
- 03Tiger Woods — 82 wins
- 04Jack Nicklaus — 73 wins
- 05Ben Hogan — 64 wins
- 06Arnold Palmer — 62 wins
- 07Byron Nelson — 52 wins
- 08Billy Casper — 51 wins
- 09Walter Hagen — 45 wins
- 10Phil Mickelson — 45 wins
- 11Cary Middlecoff — 39 wins
- 12How we ranked the leaderboard
- 13Why the win record differs from the majors record
- 14Why the totals get fuzzy before 1950
- 15At a glance: the all-time top 10
- 16Where today’s players stand
This ranking uses one number only: official PGA Tour career victories, the figure the Tour itself keeps. Majors, money, and world rankings are context, not tiebreakers here — a player sits higher purely because he won more sanctioned events. Ties are ordered by longevity at the top of the game.
Most PGA Tour career wins at a glance
| Rank | Golfer | Official PGA Tour wins | Career context |
|---|---|---|---|
| T-1 | Sam Snead | 82 | Won across four decades and remained competitive into his 50s |
| T-1 | Tiger Woods | 82 | Matched the record at the 2019 Zozo Championship |
| 3 | Jack Nicklaus | 73 | Also holds the record with 18 professional majors |
| 4 | Ben Hogan | 64 | Nine majors and a historic three-major 1953 season |
| 5 | Arnold Palmer | 62 | Four Masters titles and transformative television appeal |
| 6 | Byron Nelson | 52 | Won a record 11 consecutive events in 1945 |
- Career leader (tied)
Sam Snead — 82 wins
Snead holds a share of the record with 82 official PGA Tour victories, a total he built across an almost absurd span: his wins run from 1936 to 1965, four different decades of collecting trophies. That longevity is the whole story — no one else from the pre-television era stayed competitive long enough to reach 82, and the mark stood unmatched for more than 40 years.
The famous gap in his résumé is the U.S. Open, which he never won despite four runner-up finishes. Snead took seven majors overall, but his case for the top rests on volume and durability rather than the biggest titles — the reason he ranks alongside Woods on wins yet trails him badly on the most majors in golf.
Career: 1936-1965 · Majors: 7 · Signature: 82 wins across four decades, no U.S. Open
- Career leader (tied)
Tiger Woods — 82 wins
Woods reached 82 at the 2019 Zozo Championship, tying Snead's mark and doing it in far fewer starts — a rate of winning that separates his peak from everyone below him. Across 2000 and 2001 he won 17 times, and his records page documents streaks and margins, like the 15-shot 2000 U.S. Open rout, that no modern player has come close to repeating.
He edges level with Snead rather than clearly ahead because injuries stalled him just short of an outright record; multiple back and leg surgeries have limited his schedule since 2019. Woods is still a PGA Tour member, so the tie can technically be broken, but his 15 majors and his role in the career Grand Slam of golf conversation already place him in the sport's top tier.
Career: 1996-present · Majors: 15 · Signature: 82nd win at the 2019 Zozo, still an active member
- The major king
Jack Nicklaus — 73 wins
Nicklaus won 73 times on Tour between 1962 and 1986, and while that trails the top two by nine, his 18 professional majors is the number that anchors the greatest-ever debate. His edge over Snead and Woods is not raw wins — it is where he won: Nicklaus also finished second in majors 19 times, a record of sustained contention in the biggest events that no volume total captures.
That is why he ranks third here on the metric that governs this list while topping the most masters wins count with six green jackets. On career victories he is the clear leader of the chase group, comfortably ahead of Hogan.
Career: 1962-1986 · Majors: 18 (record) · Signature: 73 wins plus a record 19 major runner-ups
- The ball-striker
Ben Hogan — 64 wins
Hogan's 64 wins are remarkable for what interrupted them: a near-fatal 1949 car crash that doctors thought might end his walking, let alone his golf. He returned to win six more majors after it, including the 1953 season in which he took the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship in his only three major starts that year.
He sits above Palmer on wins by a two-title margin, and his influence outlasts the number — his teaching classic is broken down in our guide to the Five Lessons Ben Hogan golf book, still the reference text on the modern swing.
Career: 1938-1959 · Majors: 9 · Signature: 64 wins, 1953 Masters/U.S. Open/Open treble
- The game-grower
Arnold Palmer — 62 wins
Palmer's 62 victories came in a concentrated burst — 1955 to 1973 — and coincided with golf's arrival on television, which turned his charging style and "Arnie's Army" galleries into the sport's first mass audience. His seven majors include four Masters, and his rivalry with Nicklaus defined the 1960s.
On this list he ranks a notch below Hogan on wins, but no one above him did more to expand the paychecks the players below now chase, a shift visible in the modern PGA Tour career money list.
Career: 1955-1973 · Majors: 7 · Signature: 62 wins, four Masters, golf's first TV superstar
- The 1945 phenomenon
Byron Nelson — 52 wins
Nelson's 52 wins are inseparable from one season: in 1945 he won 18 times, including 11 tournaments in a row — a streak treated as unbreakable, since the next-best consecutive run in Tour history is six. That single year accounts for more than a third of his career total.
He ranks sixth on volume despite retiring young, effectively stepping away from full-time competition at 34. Had he kept playing, he would likely sit higher; instead his placement reflects a short, blindingly hot prime rather than Snead-style longevity.
Career: 1935-1951 · Majors: 5 · Signature: 52 wins, 11 straight in 1945
- The underrated grinder
Billy Casper — 51 wins
Casper's 51 victories are the most overlooked total on this list, a byproduct of winning in the Palmer-Nicklaus-Player spotlight. He was among the finest putters of his era and famously erased a seven-shot back-nine deficit to beat Palmer at the 1966 U.S. Open, one of three majors he took.
He ranks seventh on wins, one clear of Hagen and Mickelson, and his case is the reverse of Hagen's below him: more Tour titles, fewer majors. It is a reminder that this list rewards week-to-week winning, not just trophy prestige.
Career: 1956-1975 · Majors: 3 · Signature: 51 wins, 1966 U.S. Open comeback over Palmer
- The match-play showman (tied)
Walter Hagen — 45 wins
Hagen's 45 wins came in the game's earliest professional days (1914-1936), and his 11 majors rank behind only Nicklaus and Woods — a stunning ratio of majors to total wins. He dominated the match-play PGA Championship, winning it five times, including four straight from 1924 to 1927.
He sits eighth by volume, tied with Mickelson, but did as much off the course as on it: Hagen is widely credited with forcing golf clubs to treat professionals as gentlemen rather than hired help, elevating the standing of the paid player.
Career: 1914-1936 · Majors: 11 · Signature: 45 wins, 5 PGA Championships incl. 4 straight
- The modern lefty (tied)
Phil Mickelson — 45 wins
Mickelson's 45 PGA Tour wins tie Hagen for eighth, and one of them rewrote a record: his 2021 PGA Championship title made him, at 50, the oldest man to win a major. Six majors and a swashbuckling short game made him the era's most popular player next to Woods.
His total is effectively frozen — he resigned his PGA Tour membership to join LIV Golf, so barring a return he stays at 45. That caveat is why he no longer factors into the active chase for the record, unlike the still-eligible Woods above him.
Career: 1991-2022 (Tour) · Majors: 6 · Signature: 45 wins, oldest major champ at 50
- The dentist who dominated
Cary Middlecoff — 39 wins
Middlecoff, a trained dentist who turned pro in the mid-1940s, rounds out the top 10 with 39 official wins, a figure some historical tallies put at 40 depending on how a handful of early events are counted. He won three majors, including two U.S. Opens and the 1955 Masters.
He is tied at this spot with Tom Watson, whose eight majors far outstrip Middlecoff's three — another case where career wins and major count diverge. We flag the 39-versus-40 discrepancy openly rather than assert a single number the sources don't agree on.
Career: 1945-1961 · Majors: 3 · Signature: 39-40 wins, 1955 Masters, tied 10th with Tom Watson
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- Sam Snead — 82 wins
- Tiger Woods — 82 wins
- Jack Nicklaus — 73 wins
- Ben Hogan — 64 wins
- Arnold Palmer — 62 wins
- Byron Nelson — 52 wins
- Billy Casper — 51 wins
- Walter Hagen — 45 wins
- Phil Mickelson — 45 wins
- Cary Middlecoff — 39 wins
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How everyone ranked them
Built from reader rankings using position-based points.
Career PGA Tour wins measure one thing well: how often a golfer beat a full field of professionals over a lifetime. The list above is ordered by that number alone. The sections below explain how it is counted, where the totals get fuzzy, and how the win metric differs from the major-championship record it is often confused with.
How we ranked the leaderboard
The single input is official PGA Tour career victories — the count the Tour maintains for each player. We did not weight majors, prize money, or world ranking; those appear only as context inside each entry. Where players are tied on wins (Snead and Woods at 82, Hagen and Mickelson at 45), we list the longer-tenured or record-setting player first, but the shared total is the point. Wins on other tours — European, LIV, senior, or amateur events — are excluded, which is why totals here can look lower than a player’s global career count.
Why the win record differs from the majors record
The most common mix-up is treating this list as a ranking of the greatest golfers. It is not. Career wins reward consistency across ordinary Tour stops; the majors record rewards peaking four specific weeks a year. The two diverge sharply: Walter Hagen has 45 wins but 11 majors, while Sam Snead has 82 wins and 7 majors. Nicklaus tops the majors count with 18 yet sits third here. If you want the trophy-prestige version of the debate, see the most majors in golf breakdown and our take on the greatest golfers overall.
Why the totals get fuzzy before 1950
Pre-war and immediate post-war records are the source of nearly every disputed number. In golf’s early decades, it was not always clear which tournaments counted as official Tour events, and the PGA Tour has revised some historical tallies since. That is why Cary Middlecoff turns up as 39 or 40 wins, and why some early-era players’ totals carry an asterisk in different databases. For every player active in the last few decades, the numbers are settled and consistent.
At a glance: the all-time top 10
| Rank | Wins | Player | Era | Majors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 82 | Sam Snead | 1936-1965 | 7 |
| 1 | 82 | Tiger Woods* | 1996-present | 15 |
| 3 | 73 | Jack Nicklaus | 1962-1986 | 18 |
| 4 | 64 | Ben Hogan | 1938-1959 | 9 |
| 5 | 62 | Arnold Palmer | 1955-1973 | 7 |
| 6 | 52 | Byron Nelson | 1935-1951 | 5 |
| 7 | 51 | Billy Casper | 1956-1975 | 3 |
| 8 | 45 | Walter Hagen | 1914-1936 | 11 |
| 8 | 45 | Phil Mickelson | 1991-2022 | 6 |
| 10 | 39 | Cary Middlecoff | 1945-1961 | 3 |
*Still a PGA Tour member; total current as of the 2026 season.
Where today’s players stand
Among active golfers, only Woods appears on this leaderboard, and only because he reached the record before injuries slowed him. The fastest riser behind him is Scottie Scheffler, who reached about 20 career wins by early 2026 — an elite pace for his age, but the math to 82 remains steep. Field depth is the reason: more players are capable of winning any given week than in Snead’s or Nelson’s era, which compresses everyone’s win totals and makes streaks like Nelson’s 11-in-a-row in 1945 look more untouchable every year.
Frequently asked questions
Who has the most PGA Tour wins of all time?+
Sam Snead and Tiger Woods are tied for the most PGA Tour wins, with 82 official victories each. Snead compiled his from 1936 to 1965; Woods matched it at the 2019 Zozo Championship. Jack Nicklaus is third with 73, ahead of Ben Hogan (64) and Arnold Palmer (62). Because Woods remains a Tour member, the tie could still be broken outright, though injuries have sharply limited his schedule since 2019.
How did Tiger Woods reach 82 wins so much faster than Sam Snead?+
Woods won at a far higher rate. His peak in 2000-2001 produced 17 victories in two seasons, and his career win percentage is among the highest of the modern era. Snead's 82 came from remarkable longevity across four decades rather than a dominant peak. So while the two share the record number, Woods reached it in significantly fewer tournament starts, which is why many rank his prime as more concentrated.
Why is Jack Nicklaus ranked third if he's considered the greatest?+
This list ranks strictly by PGA Tour wins, and Nicklaus has 73 — nine fewer than Snead and Woods. His claim to greatest-ever rests on a different metric: 18 professional majors, the record, plus 19 runner-up finishes in majors. Career wins reward week-to-week victories, while Nicklaus's dominance showed up most in golf's four biggest events, so the two measures rank him differently.
Which active players could challenge the record of 82?+
Realistically, only Tiger Woods, who already shares it and remains a Tour member. Among younger players, Scottie Scheffler has climbed fastest, reaching roughly 20 career wins by early 2026 — a strong start, but still less than a quarter of the way to 82. The modern Tour's depth makes long win totals harder to build, so no active player besides Woods is close to the mark.
Do LIV Golf wins count toward PGA Tour victory totals?+
No. This leaderboard counts only official PGA Tour victories, so events on other circuits, including LIV Golf, are excluded. That directly affects Phil Mickelson, whose total is frozen at 45 after he left for LIV. It also means players who moved to LIV stop adding to their PGA Tour count, which is why the record chase now centers almost entirely on Woods.
Why do some sources list slightly different win totals?+
Older records are inconsistent about which early events counted as official Tour victories, so tallies for pre-1950 players can differ by a win or two — Cary Middlecoff appears as 39 or 40 depending on the source. The PGA Tour has retroactively adjusted some totals over the years. For living, modern players the numbers are firm; the small discrepancies almost always involve golfers from the game's early professional decades.
Sources
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