Golfers With Most PGA Tour Wins Over Three Consecutive Years

One way of considering a golfer's peak is to look only at his single, best year. And we've done that in our list of golfers with the most PGA Tour wins in a single season. Another way to think of "peak" is not as a single year, but as a stretch of seasons. That's what we do here. The list below shows the PGA Tour golfers who won the most tournaments over three successive tour seasons.

It should not come as a surprise that the golfer who had more wins than anyone else in PGA Tour history over a three-year period is Byron Nelson. After all, Nelson had 18 wins alone in his amazing 1945 season.

Something that probably will surprise you, however, is that Jack Nicklaus doesn't make the list below. The highest number of PGA Tour wins Nicklaus had over any given three-year period was 19 from 1971-73 (five in 1971, seven each in 1972 and 1973). And 19 isn't enough to make our list.

Sam Snead, the longtime record-holder for most PGA Tour wins in a career (82), also isn't on the list. High highest three-year total was also 19 (six in 1946, 11 in 1950, two in 1951). Snead and Nicklaus simply won consistently, multiple times per year, for a long time.

The List: Most Wins in 3-Year Period on PGA Tour

• 32 — Byron Nelson, 1944–1946. Nelson had eight wins in 1944, 18 wins in 1945 and six wins in 1945.
• 30 — Ben Hogan, 1946–1948. Hogan had 13 wins in 1946, seven wins in 1947 and 10 wins in 1948. He is the only golfer in PGA Tour history with 10 or more wins in two different seasons.
• 26 — Byron Nelson, 1943–1945 (zero wins in 1943, eight wins in 1944, 18 wins in 1945). Nelson is the only golfer who makes this list with a three-year stretch that includes a zero-win year. And he had two, three-year stretches that qualify like that.
• 25 — Ben Hogan, 1945–1947 (five wins in 1945, 13 wins in 1946, seven wins in 1947).
• 24 — Byron Nelson, 1945–1947 (18 wins in 1945, six wins in 1946, zero wins in 1947). Nelson's third time on the list, all from the 1943-46 period, all powered by that massive 18-win year.
• 22 — Arnold Palmer, 1960–1962 (eight wins in 1960, six wins in 1961, eight wins in 1962).
• 22 — Tiger Woods, 1999–2001 (eight wins in 1999, nine wins in 2000, five wins in 2001).
• 21 — Arnold Palmer, 1961–1963 (six wins in 1961, eight wins in 1962, seven wins in 1963).
• 21 — Tiger Woods, 2005–2007 (six wins in 2005, eight wins in 2006, seven wins in 2007).

So in PGA Tour history, there have been nine, three-year stretches in which a golfer has won 21 or more times total. But only five golfers account for those nine seasons: Nelson has three, Hogan two, Palmer two, Woods two.

In the cases of Nelson, Hogan and Palmer, their different three-year periods include overlapping years. Woods is the only golfer who makes the list with two distinct, three-year periods — no overlapping years.

Related:

• Most wins in a single PGA Tour tournament
• Largest final-round comebacks to win in PGA Tour history
• The youngest winners in PGA Tour history