Winners of the Senior Career Grand Slam in Golf

Bernhard Langer is a winner of the senior career grand slam

How many golfers in the history of the Champions Tour have won the Senior Career Grand Slam? Not many! So far, only two. And one of those two golfers won five different senior majors, while the other only won four different senior majors.

The Champions Tour's first season was 1980, at which time the Senior PGA Championship and U.S. Senior Open were the only majors. The Senior Players Championship was created in 1983, and The Tradition debuted in 1989, increasing the senior majors count to four.

Then, in 2003, the Champions Tour finally recognized the Senior British Open as a major, bringing the number of senior majors to five. One of the two golfers who has won the Senior Career Grand Slam did so in the four-major era, the other one did so in the five-major era.

Career Senior Slam Winners in Golf

1. Jack Nicklaus

Nicklaus, who was a career grand slam winner on the PGA Tour three times over, was the first golfer in Champions Tour history to earn the career senior slam. And Nicklaus achieved that at a time when there were only four senior majors recognized by the Champions Tour.

Nicklaus won The Tradition and the Senior Players Championship in 1990, and completed the senior slam when he won the Senior PGA Championship and U.S. Senior Open in 1991. Those were the only four senior majors at the time. His 1991 U.S. Senior Open victory is the one that completed the slam for him. Overall, Nicklaus won The Tradition four times, the U.S. Senior Open twice, and the Senior PGA and Senior Players once each.

Note that Nicklaus did not win the Senior British Open, which, today, is a senior major. However, the Senior Open was not recognized as a major by the Champions Tour until 2003, and 2003 is the final year that Nicklaus played any senior majors. He did not win any Champions Tour tournaments beyond 1996. So his Champions Tour career was essentially over before the Senior Open became a major.

Note that there is some disagreement among golf historians and record-keepers whether Nicklaus deserves inclusion on this list, given that he won four different senior majors and, today, there are five senior majors. In fact, a representative of the Champions Tour, in an email in 2020, told GolfCompendium.com that the tour does not count Nicklaus as a Senior Career Grand Slam winner. For reasons we've explained, we disagree with that, and, therefore, have put him on our list.

2. Bernhard Langer

Because the Senior British Open became a Champions Tour major in 2003, before he joined the senior tour, Langer had to win five Champions Tour majors to earn the senior career grand slam. And he did it: Langer is the only Champions Tour golfer so far to win five different majors.

Langer won the Senior British Open and the U.S. Senior Open in 2010, but didn't win anothor major until 2014. That year he added the third leg, the Senior Players Championship. In 2016, Langer picked up his fourth different major trophy, The Tradition.

And when Langer won the 2017 Senior PGA Championship, he completed the career senior slam and became the first winner of five different majors on the Champions Tour. Overall, Langer has 11 wins in senior majors: four in the Senior British, three Senior Players Championships, two Traditions, and one each of the U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA.

Photo credit: "Bernhard Langer, Open 2006" by SN#1 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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