Golf Compendium

Which golfers have finished second the most times in the PGA Championship? So far, there are five golfers with three runners-up finishes each. But the PGA Championship tournament record for most seconds is four.

Dunce Cap is the name of a game for a group of golf buddies who love giving each other the needle. Because in Dunce Cap, one of your group is likely to suffer a little embarrassment on each hole.

A "wire-to-wire winner" is a golfer who wins a tournament by holding the lead following each round of play. Winning a tournament wire-to-wire is considered an impressive achievement in the golf world.

Ben Hogan played in the PGA Championship only 10 times in his career. Why so few? The after-effects of his near-fatal car crash early in 1949. But he did win the PGA Championship twice before that accident.

How do golfers qualify to play in the PGA Championship? By meeting one of 13 "exemption criteria." The PGA of America, which runs this men's major championship, sets down the qualification requirements that golfers must meet to earn a spot in the tournament field.

Jimmy Thomson was a pro golfer who played on the PGA Tour from the late 1920s into the 1940s. But he was famous for longer than that because of his huge drives. Thomson is often considered among the longest-drivers in PGA Tour history, and was arguably the biggest hitter of the first half of the 1900s.

The Bell Atlantic Classic, also known as The Instinet Classic among other names, was a professional golf tournament on the Champions Tour. Fifty-four holes in length, it was played from the mid-1980s into the early 2000s mostly in Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Open dates to the late 19th century and the PGA Championship to the early 20th century. Since 1916 it has been possible for a golfer to win them both in the same calendar year. But how many golfers have actually pulled off that feat?

Three Club Monte is a golf format that requires golfers to pick just three golf clubs to use during their round. That's it: Three clubs (with one typical exception—more on that below) is all you can carry.

Many recreational golfers tend to share a certain phobia when playing approach shots: the fear of flying the green. And because of that — also because the terms are used often during television and streaming broadcasts of golf tournaments — most golfers quickly become familiar with the phrases "fly the green," "flew the green," and "flying the green."

Fay Crocker was a South American golfer who, in the 1950s, was the first star on the LPGA Tour not born in the United States. She had a brief LPGA career — just seven years — because she was already 39 years old by the time she arrived on the LPGA scene. But Crocker made the most of that short span:

Which golfer holds the record for making the most cuts on the PGA Tour? The answer is Jay Haas, and Haas made the cut in more tournaments than Sam Snead or Jack Nicklaus even played in.

The Masters and the U.S. Open are two of the four major championships in men's professional golf. Winning just one of them in a given year makes that a great year for any golfer. But how many times has a golfer won them both in the same year?

Sometimes a golf course or golf tournament will let players know that something called an "automatic 2-putt rule" is in place. It can also be called an "auto 2-putt." If you encounter the auto 2-putt, what does that mean for you on the greens? It essentially means that you will actually be stroking only one putt per green, and adding a maximum of two putts to your score for the hole.

How many times has a golfer won both The Masters Tournament and the PGA Championship in the same calendar year? That double-major combo has been achieved only four times.

Have you heard of the team golf tournament format called Get Out? Get Out is a type of scramble in which teams that fail to meet the scoring standard are told to get out of the tournament.

Bill Nary was a professional golfer from California who played on the PGA Tour from the early 1940s into the mid-to-late 1950s. He then spent decades as a teaching pro, working with pupils into his 90s. Nary never won a PGA Tour tournament. But he did play one historic round in a tour event in 1952 in which he set multiple, all-time PGA Tour records — one of which stood for 50 years.

How many golfers have won the PGA Championship wire-to-wire? A " wire-to-wire win " is one is which the golfer holds the lead after each round of the tournament (is the first-round leader, second-round leader, third-round leader and winner). In the history of the PGA Championship, only five golfers are on the list of wire-to-wire champs.

How many golfers, in the history of the PGA Championship, have repeated as winners in consecutive years? Since the tournament switched to stroke play, only two golfers have been back-to-back PGA Championship winners.

The 2027 Masters Tournament will be the 91st time this golf tournament is played. The Masters is one of the four major championships of men's professional golf (along with the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and British Open). It is the first of the four played each year, and the only one played at the same golf course every year. In 2027, The Masters will take place April 8-11.

When a pro golfer (or any golfer, for that matter) refers to his "A-game," he or she simply means "playing the best I can play." In other words, the golfer is saying that on the A-B-C-D-F grading scale used in many schools, his or her game, that day, deserved an A.

The 2026 Masters Tournament will be the 90th time this golf tournament is played. The tournament dates to 1934 and is one of the four major championships of men's professional golf — the first one played each year. In 2026, The Masters will take place April 9-12.

Cyril Tolley was an English amateur golfer who won multiple big titles in the 1920s. His first really big win was the British Amateur, and his last really big win was the British Amateur. In-between, he also won a pair of national opens against the pros, and gave Bobby Jones one of the toughest tests of Jones' Grand Slam year.

What is the fewest putts any golfer has needed to play a round in a PGA Tour tournament? That PGA Tour record is 18 — just 18 putts to finish 18 holes. And who holds that record? Quite a few golfers.