All the Pro Golfers Who've Won 3 Majors In the Same Year
In the history of professional golf, only six golfers have won three of the pro majors in the same calendar year. Four women have done it and two men.
Nobody (yet) has won four majors in the same year. (Remember, we're talking about the majors of professional golf, so Bobby Jones' 1930 Grand Slam year, which included two pro majors and two amateur majors, isn't included.)
Men Who've Won 3 Pro Majors in the Same Year
The four major championships of men's professional golf are The Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the British Open.These are the two golfers who've won three of those in a single calendar year:
- Ben Hogan, 1953: This is sometimes called Hogan's "Triple Crown." Several years removed from his near-fatal auto accident, Hogan played sparingly. He entered only six tour events in 1953, winning five of them.
Hogan first won The Masters by five strokes, then the U.S. Open by six, then the British Open by four. He was unable to play the PGA Championship because its dates overlapped by two days with the British Open dates. So Hogan entered three majors and won all three in 1953.
- Tiger Woods, 2000: Woods first won the 2000 U.S. Open in June with a new scoring record and by a record 15-strokes. Then he won the British Open in July, tying the tournament's records for strokes under par (19-under) and modern margin of victory (eight strokes). Then he won the PGA Championship in August, tying the tournament's strokes-under-par (18-under) record.
In his first major of the year, at the 2000 Masters, Woods finished fifth. He went on to the win the 2001 Masters, becoming the first golfer to hold four professional major championship titles simultaneously.
Women Who've Won 3 Pro Majors in the Same Year
The numbers and identities of the professional majors in women's golf have changed multiple times over the years. These are the golfers who've won three in the same calendar year:- Babe Didrikson Zaharias, 1950: In 1950, the first year of the LPGA Tour's existence, there were three majors played. And the Babe won all three. (Yes, the LPGA counts it as a Grand Slam.) She won the Titleholders Championship by eight strokes, then beat Patty Berg in the match-play final of the Women's Western Open, and capped it off with a 9-stroke win in the U.S. Women's Open.
- Mickey Wright, 1961: Wright won the Titleholders Championship, followed by the U.S. Women's Open and then the LPGA Championship. The fourth major in 1961 was also the first played that year, the Women's Western Open, and Wright finished third (but eight strokes behind the winner) there.
- Pat Bradley, 1986: There were four LPGA majors in 1986. Bradley won the first one, the Nabisco Dinah Shore; then the second one, the LPGA Championship. At the U.S. Women's Open she finished tied for fifth. Then she capped off her year by winning the final major, the du Maurier Classic.
- Inbee Park, 2013: This was the first year the LPGA counted five tournaments as majors, and Park won the first three on the calendar: the ANA Inspiration, U.S. Women's Open and Women's PGA Championship. Her attempts to add a fourth didn't go so well: Park was 67th in the Evian Championship and 42nd in the Women's British Open.
Related articles:
- Golf's major winners over the age of 40
- Golfers who finished second at all four majors
- Golfers who won on the PGA Tour the week before winning a major
Photo credit: Mickey Wright, LPGA Tour Publicity Bureau, 1960 Press Wire Photo, public domain
