Golfers Who Won the British Open and PGA Championship in Same Year
The PGA Championship and the British Open (Open Championship) are two of the four "major championships" in men's professional golf. That makes them two of the most important tournaments on the schedule every year. Winning just one of them earns a golfer a place in history. Winning them both? That is an uncommon achievement. Winning them both in the same calendar year? That's something that has happened well under 10 times in golf history.
So far, only five golfers have won both the PGA Championship and British Open in the same year. One of them, though, did it twice, so it has happened a total of six times.
These are the golfers who won both the British Open and PGA Championship in the same calendar year:
- Walter Hagen, 1924: "The Haig," a trailblazer in so many ways in professional golf, was the first golfer to pull off the PGA/Open double. His 1924 PGA Championship win culminated in a 2-up victory over Jim Barnes in the 36-hole championship match. Hagen went on to win the next three PGA Championships, too, making him one of just two golfers to win the same major four times consecutively. At the 1924 Open Championship, Hagen won by one stroke over runner-up Ernest Whitcombe. It was the second of his four career wins in the Open.
- Nick Price, 1994: It was 70 years before another golfer joined Hagen on this list. Why so long? Two reasons: It wasn't until the 1970s that most of the top American golfers regularly played the British Open; and it wasn't until the 1980s that many of the top European golfers regularly played the PGA Championship. Price won the 1994 British Open by one stroke over Jesper Parnevik. A month later, he ran away with the 1994 PGA Championship crown, winning by six strokes.
- Tiger Woods, 2000 and 2006: Woods is the only golfer so far to pull off the PGA/Open twofer twice. He first did it in 2000 when, at the British Open, Woods dominated with an 8-stroke victory. Then, at the 2000 PGA Championship, Woods beat Bob May in a three-hole playoff. Those were the second and third wins, respectively, in what came to be known as the "Tiger slam."
In 2006, Woods pulled off the double again. At the 2006 British Open, Woods won by two strokes over runner-up Chris DiMarco. At the 2006 PGA Championship, he claimed a 5-stroke victory. Those were his third wins in each of the two majors, and they were his 11th and 12th career wins in majors, respectively.
- Padraig Harrington, 2008: Harrington was the first European golfer to accomplish the PGA/Open, single-season double. He won by four strokes at the 2008 British Open after third-round leader Greg Norman collapsed in the final round. Then Harrington won the 2008 PGA Championship by two strokes over runners-up Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis.
- Rory McIlroy, 2014: McIlroy is the fifth and, so far, most-recent golfer to win both the PGA Championship and British Open in the same year. Winning the 2014 British Open made McIlroy the first European man to win three different majors (he had previously won the U.S. Open and PGA Championship). At the 2014 PGA Championship, McIlroy made par on the tournament's final hole in fading light to win by one stroke over Phil Mickelson.
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