Golfers Who Lost the Most Presidents Cup Matches
Which golfers, in the history of the Presidents Cup, have lost the most matches? We're talking about their overall losses — their career losses — in the Team International vs. Team USA tournament. Combined losses across the three competition formats: foursomes, fourball and singles. Multiple Hall-of-Famers are among those biggest losers.
The record-holder is Adam Scott, who, through the 2024 tournament, has 28 career losses in Presidents Cup matches. Some of the golfers on the following list even have winning records — one of them even holds the Presidents Cup record for most match wins. Those golfers make the list through sheer volume: They've played in so many Presidents Cups they've wound up accumulating losses even though they've been, overall, good players in the tournament.
But others on the following list actually have, well, terrible overall records.
The List: Most Career Losses in the Presidents Cup
- 28 losses, Adam Scott, Team International: Scott has played in 11 Presidents Cups so far, every one from 2003 through 2024. And he is now 10 losses ahead of the second-place golfer on this list. Scott's overall record so far is 20 wins, 28 losses, six halves. That includes a 5-6-0 record in singles. He was 5-12-4 in fourball and 10-10-2 in foursomes. Since we're talking about golfers with the most losses, Scott's worst Presidents Cup showings were 1-3-1 in 2007 and 1-3-0 in 2017.
- 18 losses, Ernie Els, Team International: Els played in eight Presidents Cups from 1996 to 2013, with an overall winning record: 20-18-2. He didn't have a losing record in any of the three formats: 8-7-1 in fourball, 8-7-1 in foursomes and 4-4-0 in singles. He did go 0-5-0 in the 2000 Presidents Cup, though, and 1-4-0 in 2011.
- 17 losses, Robert Allenby, Team International: Allenby, in six appearances ranging from 1994 through 2011, had one of the worst overall Presidents Cup records — 8 wins, 17 losses, 3 ties. He was 4-6-0 in fourball, 3-7-2 in foursomes, 1-4-1 in singles. Allenby went 0-4-0 in the 2011 Presidents Cup, 1-4-0 in 1994 and 1-3-0 in 2000.
- 16 losses, Phil Mickelson, Team USA: Mickelson holds the Presidents Cup record for most playing appearances with 12, each one from 1994 through 2017. His overall record was a very good 26-16-13. In fourball, Mickelson was 10-5-6; he was 12-6-4 in foursomes and 4-5-3 in singles. He did bomb in the 2003 Presidents Cup, however, going 0-5-0.
- 15 losses, Vijay Singh, Team International: Like Els, Singh is just above .500 with a record of 16 wins, 15 losses, 9 halves. He was 9-5-2 in fourball, 6-6-4 in foursomes, but only 1-4-3 in singles. His worst showing was 1-4-0 in 2000.
- 15 losses, Tiger Woods, Team USA: Woods makes the list of most overall losses, but he also holds the Presidents Cup record for most overall wins. Woods, in nine playing appearances from 1998 through 2019, won 27 matches, lost 15 and halved one. He was 8-9-0 in fourball, but 12-4-1 in foursomes and 7-2-0 in singles (also the Presidents Cup record for most singles wins). His only losing record in an individual Presidents Cup was 2-3-0 in 2011.
- 14 losses, Stuart Appleby, Team International: The Presidents Cup was not kind to the A-named Aussies. Like Allenby, Appleby has one of the worst records. He won only 5 matches against 14 losses, with 2 ties. Appleby was 4-3-0 in fourball, but 1-6-2 in foursomes and 0-5-0 in singles. He went 0-3-0 in 2000 and was 0-4-1 in the 2005 Presidents Cup.
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