Largest Margins of Victory in Senior PGA Championship

Which golfer holds the record for largest winning margin in the Senior PGA Championship? One of the giants of the game: Sam Snead.

Snead won the 1973 Senior PGA Championship by a whopping 15 strokes over the runner-up, and fellow multiple-major winner, Julius Boros. Snead opened 66-66, then closed with rounds of 67 and 69, to score 20-under-par 268.

Snead was 61 years old in 1973, but he was playing so well that he tied for ninth place in the regular (non-senior) PGA Championship that year. The 1973 Senior PGA victory was his record sixth in the tournament.

Whose record for margin of victory did Snead break in 1973? His own. He had won by nine strokes in 1967, the previous best.

Senior PGA Championship Largest Winning Margins

• 15 strokes — Sam Snead, 1973
• 12 strokes — Hale Irwin, 1997
• 9 strokes — Sam Snead, 1967
• 8 strokes — Don January, 1979 (December)
• 7 strokes — Hale Irwin, 1998
• 7 strokes — Doug Tewell, 2000
• 6 strokes — Eddie Williams, 1942
• 6 strokes — Jack Nicklaus, 1991

Hale Irwin now ranks second on the list of biggest winning margins with the only other double-digit Senior PGA Championship victory. He also joins Snead as the only golfer to appear twice on the list above. The distant runners-up to Irwin were Jack Nicklaus and Dale Douglass in 1997; and Larry Nelson in 1998. (The second-place finisher to Snead in 1967 was Bob Hamilton.)

Note that Tewell's 7-stroke win in 2000 was achieved in just 54 holes. The tournament was shortened by poor weather that year. Williams' 6-shot victory in 1942 was in just 36 holes.

See also:

• 18-hole scoring record in the Senior PGA Championship
• 72-hole scoring record in the Senior PGA Championship
• Who is the oldest winner of the U.S. Senior Open?

Sources:
PGA of America. Senior PGA Championship 2018 Media Guide.
PGA of America. 2024 Senior PGA Player Guide, All-Time Records.