Regular and Senior Majors: Most Combined Wins

Which golfers have won the most major championships combined between the PGA Tour and Champions Tour? The golfer with the highest combined total of regular majors and senior majors is, no surprise, Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus is the only golfer so far to reach 20 combined victories, and his total is in the mid-20s.

Just as a reminder, there are four "regular" (meaning non-senior) majors in men's golf: The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. And there are five senior majors on the 50-and-over Champions Tour: U.S. Senior Open, Senior PGA Championship, Senior British Open, Senior Players Championship and The Tradition.

The List: Most Combined Wins in Regular, Senior Majors

Following is the list of all golfers who won at least five major championships between the PGA Tour majors and the Champions Tour majors. Some golfers won all their titles just among the "regular" majors, some won all their majors just in senior golf.

Note that the Champions Tour was founded in 1980. Only one of the senior majors pre-dates 1980, but the Champions Tour counts only those won from 1980 forward in its major championship win records. (See note about this at the bottom.) Where "n/e" appears in the Senior column, it stands for "not eligible" and indicates the golfer is either not yet old enough to compete on the Champions Tour; or that the golfer was retired (or dead) prior to the founding of the Champions Tour.

  Total PGAT Snr.
Jack Nicklaus 26 18 8
Gary Player 18 9 9
Tiger Woods 15 15 n/e
Tom Watson 14 8 6
Bernhard Langer 14 2 12
Arnold Palmer 12 7 5
Walter Hagen 11 11 n/e
Lee Trevino 10 6 4
Hale Irwin 10 3 7
Ben Hogan 9 9 n/e
Raymond Floyd 8 4 4
Bobby Jones 7 7 n/e
Gene Sarazen 7 7 n/e
Sam Snead 7 7 0
Harry Vardon 7 7 n/e
Steve Stricker 7 0 7
Nick Faldo 6 6 0
Phil Mickelson 6 6 0
Peter Thomson 6 5 1
Seve Ballesteros 5 5 0
James Braid 5 5 n/e
Brooks Koepka 5 5 n/e
Byron Nelson 5 5 n/e
J.H. Taylor 5 5 n/e
Billy Casper 5 3 2
Dave Stockton 5 2 3
Miller Barber 5 0 5

Others Who Won Both Regular and Senior Majors

We used five wins as the minimum for inclusion in the list above. But there are more golfers who won fewer than four majors combined, yet won both a regular major and a senior major. In fact, all of the golfers who have won both regular and senior majors in men's golf are represented between the list above and the following:

  Total PGAT Snr.
Padraig Harrington 4 3 1
Vijay Singh 4 3 1
Tom Lehman 4 1 3
Retief Goosen 3 2 1
Mark O'Meara 3 2 1
Fuzzy Zoeller 3 2 1
Fred Couples 3 1 2
Craig Stadler 3 1 2
Bob Charles 2 1 1
Darren Clarke 2 1 1
Roberto De Vicenzo 2 1 1
Jim Furyk 2 1 1
Don January 2 1 1
Tom Kite 2 1 1
David Toms 2 1 1
Tom Weiskopf 2 1 1

Note About Pre-1980 Senior Majors

As pointed out above, the PGA Tour/Champions Tour only recognizes, in its official records, senior majors played since 1980, which is the year the Champions Tour was founded. Four of the senior majors were founded in 1980 or later anyway. But the Senior PGA Championship dates to the 1930s.

If wins prior to 1980 in the Senior PGA Championship were officially counted by the tours as major championship wins (and, again, they currently are not), that would impact the ranking of several golfers in the list of combined majors.

The three golfers affected are these: Sam Snead won six Senior PGA titles prior to 1980. Combined with his seven regular major titles, his total would increase to 13 combined victories, sixth-best. Gene Sarazen's two pre-1980 Senior PGA wins would boost his combined total to nine majors. And Julius Boros, with three PGA Tour majors and two pre-1980 Senior PGA wins, would make the list with five combined majors.

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