PGA Tour Record: Oldest Golfer With a Top 10 Finish
You might be able to guess which golfer holds that record, if you know much about the history of the PGA Tour. The record-holder as oldest with a Top 10 PGA Tour finish is Sam Snead. In 1975, Snead entered 11 PGA Tour events and finished in the Top 10 in two of them. He was 63 years old.
These are the two tournaments in which Snead established the record that still stands today:
1975 Walt Disney World National Team Championship
Slammin' Sam was 63 years, 4 months and 30 days old when he finished in the Top 10 of the 1975 Walt Disney World National Team Championship. And that remains the record today for oldest golfer to finish in the Top 10 on the PGA Tour.The Disney in 1975 was played on the Palm and Magnolia courses, both par-72, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The event was a team tournament that year, using a better-ball format.
Snead's partner was his nephew, J.C. Snead. The Sneads carded scores of 65, 65, 66 and 63, finishing at 29-under 259. They tied for seventh place with the Wadkins brothers, Lanny and Bobby, and finished seven strokes behind the winners, Jim Colbert and Dean Refram.
The Disney in 1975 was a team tournament, so maybe, even though the PGA Tour does, you don't want to give Snead credit for the record based on that. That's OK, because Snead is also the second-oldest player to finish in the Top 10 on the PGA Tour.
1975 B.C. Open
About two months earlier, Snead, then 63 years, 3 months and 5 days old, finished tied for eighth place in the 1975 B.C. Open. The tournament was played at En-Joie Golf Club, a par-71, in Endicott, New York.Sam carded rounds of 69, 73, 69 and 67 for a 6-under-par total of 278. That tied him for eighth place with Butch Baird, four strokes behind the winner, Don Iverson.
Snead had been so competitive in his early 60s, during the early 1970s, that his two Top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour at age 63 were barely remarked upon at the time. Wire service newspaper articles about the tournaments mentioned Snead's finishes only in passing.
Earlier in 1975 Snead had finished 14th in the Quad Cities Open. From 1972 to 1974, Snead finished in the Top 10 at three consecutive PGA Championships: fourth, ninth and third.
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