Largest Final-Round Leads Lost in PGA Tour History
The record is six strokes, and it is shared by nine golfers. Nine times a golfer in a PGA Tour event held a 6-stroke lead following 54 holes of play, but wound up losing. It happened the first time in 1928 and most recently in 2023, and it has happened to some very good golfers.
Largest 54-Hole Leads Lost on PGA Tour: 6 Strokes
- Bobby Cruickshank, 1928 Florida Open (scored 80 in final round)
- Gay Brewer, 1969 Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic (73 in final round)
- Hal Sutton, 1983 Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic (77 in final round)
- Greg Norman, 1996 Masters Tournament (78 in final round)
- Sergio Garcia, 2005 Wachovia Championship (72 in final round)
- Spencer Levin, 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open (75 in final round)
- Dustin Johnson, 2017 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions (77 in final round)
- Scottie Scheffler, 2022 Tour Championship (73 in final round)
- Collin Morikawa, 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions (72 in final round)
The thing that jumps out to us about this list is that, with the exception of Levin, all of these golfers who blew 6-stroke leads were big-time players. Brewer, Sutton, Norman, Garcia, Johnson, Scheffler and Morikawa are major championship winners. Norman is in the World Golf Hall of Fame, and Johnson and Garcia (at minimum) will join him some day. Cruickshank was a 17-time winner.
Just another proof of what most golf fans already know: Being a great golfer is no guarantee you can't blow a tournament, big-time.
And who won the tournaments that those seven golfers lost? Henry Ciuci beat Cruickshank; Arnold Palmer caught Brewer. Calvin Peete won the 1983 Anheuser-Busch Classic, and, of course, it was Nick Faldo who ruined Norman's day at the 1996 Masters. Vijay Singh beat Garcia in a playoff, Kyle Stanley won in Phoenix, and Justin Rose took advantage of Johnson's WGC collapse. Rory McIlroy beat Scheffler and Jon Rahm bested Morikawa.
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