Wins in consecutive majors

[Golfnutgalen]

Talking about Bobby Jone's dominance in the US Open got me thinking that we don't really talk about the consecutive major wins outside of the grandslam which modern historians often ignore because of the amateur wins included. So, leaning in that direction and ignoring those mostly US am wins he still had 3 wins in a row.

 

1929 US Open - 1930 British Open - 1930 US Open

 

He was sooo close to 5 in a row actually. He won the 1927 British Open and then lost in a 36 hole playoff by 1 stroke in the 1928 US Open! 

 

Now that we've talked about Jones here are the others I could find with 3 or more consecutive major wins:

 

4 Tiger Slam 2000 US Open - 2001 Masters

4 Young Tom Morris 1868-1872 British Open

3 Ben Hogan 1953 Masters, US, British Opens

3 Ben Hogan 1950 US Open-1951 Masters- 1951 US Open

3 Bobby Jones 1929 US Open-1930 US Open

3 Willie Anderson 1903-1905 US Open

3 Bob Ferguson 1880-1882 British Open

3 Jamie Anderson 1877-1879 British Open

 

You can see just how ridiculous Hogan's wins were, nobody does that! Not to mention that is all post-accident. Hogan was also painfully close to winning 4 in a row, but Sam Snead beat him in a playoff in the 1954 Masters by 1 shot in an 18-hole playoff. 

 

I'm more than a little surprised that Vardon isn't in there. He traded wins with JH Taylor and James Braid too often.

 

Also notice the years, it's been 70 years since Hogan's run and only Tiger was able to do anything like it since.

 

2 or more consecutive majors like the title suggests:

 

3 Tiger - One of those he won 4 so you could split it and say he won back-to-back majors 4 times in his career. 2000-01, 2002, 2006

2 Hogan - 3 in a row 1950-1951 and 3 in a row 1953

2 Bobby Jones - 3 in a row 1929-1930 and 2 in a row 1926

2 Gene Sarazen - 2 in a row 1922 and 2 in a row 1932

1 Young Tom Morris - 4 in a row 1868-1872 Open

1 Willie Anderson - 3 in a row 1903-05 US Open

1 Bob Ferguson - 3 in a row 1880-1882 British Open

1 Jamie Anderson - 3 in a row 1877-1879 British Open

 

1 Jordan Spieth - 2015 Masters and US Open

1 Rory - 2014 British and PGA

1 Harrington - 2008 British and PGA

1 Phil - 2005 PGA 2006 Masters

1 Nick Price - 1994 British and PGA

1 Tom Watson - 1982 US and British Open

1 Seve - 1979 British and 1980 Masters

1 Jack - Surprisingly only once. The 1972 Masters and US Open

1 Trevino - 1971 US and British Open

1 Arnie - 1960 Masters and US Open

1 Sam Snead - 1951 PGA, 1952 Masters

1 Bobby Locke 1949-1950 British Open

1 Craig Wood - 1941 Masters and US Open

1 Walter Hagen - 1924 British Open and PGA

1 James Braid - 1905-1906 Open

1 Vardon - 1898-1899 Open

1 J H Taylor - 1894-1895 Open

1 Old Tom Morris 1861-1862 Open

 

Surprising Koepka isn't there. He got awfully close finishing 2nd to Tiger in the 2019 Masters, won the PGA, then finished 2nd to Gary Woodland at the US Open.

 

Also, this list may not match others you have seen. This is because I'm going by each player's starts while others just go by each major, regardless of whether that player attended or not. It's accurate as far as I know, but of course it's possible I made an error or two so please correct me if that's the case. 

Edited March 31 by Golfnutgalen

[MtlJeff]

We probably don't talk about it much because most of the people who would have seen these achievements died in the Second Boer war. 

 

This list is why Tiger is the GOAT

 

[Golfnutgalen]

My favorite Byron Nelson never won consecutive majors either, but he was close on 3 separate occasions.

-----------------

 

won 1939 US Open, 2nd in the PGA Championship (losing to Henry Picard in 37 holes)

won 1940 PGA Championship (defeating Sam Snead 1 up in 36 holes), 2nd to Craig Wood in the 1941 Masters (by 3 shots)

2nd in 1941 PGA (lost in 38 holes to Vic Ghezzi), won 1942 Masters (beating Hogan in a playoff)

 

And even though Nelson had a short career he managed to win 5 majors and finish 2nd in 6. Crazy stuff when you consider over that same timeframe Hogan had 1 win and 2 runner ups while Snead had 2 wins and 5 runner ups.

 

Snead in particular had 4 runner up finishes before finally breaking through when he won the 1942 PGA. At that point Nelson already had 4 wins and 3 runner ups. Hogan had 1 runner up finish, the playoff loss to Nelson. 

 

---------------

 

But back to Hogan. People forget that he was still insanely competitive after 1953 finishing 2nd in 4/6 majors after that. He finished 6th and 8th in the others. 

 

1954 Masters: lost in a playoff to Sam Snead

1955 Masters: 2nd but a distant 7 strokes behind Cary Middlecoff

1955 US Open: The loss to Jack Fleck in a playoff

1956 US Open: 2nd, just 1 shot behind Cary Middlecoff

 

  

2 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

We probably don't talk about it much because most of the people who would have seen these achievements died in the Second Boer war. 

 

This list is why Tiger is the GOAT

 

 

Maybe a bit exaggerated but I agree on Tiger's GOAT status.

Edited March 31 by Golfnutgalen

[sheepdawg]

2 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

We probably don't talk about it much because most of the people who would have seen these achievements died in the Second Boer war. 

 

This list is why Tiger is the GOAT

 

18 wins, 19 2nds and 7 3rds is why Tiger isn't.

[tatertot]

Just now, sheepdawg said:

18 wins, 19 2nds and 7 3rds is why Tiger isn't.

But random meaningless stats sure are fun.

[golferdude54]

34 minutes ago, sheepdawg said:

18 wins, 19 2nds and 7 3rds is why Tiger isn't.

 

Let's go outside the majors. Let's say Jack qualified for the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average every year, which he never did because he never played the minimum amount of rounds required to qualify.

 

Nicklaus would win the Vardon Trophy 8 times, while also being the leading money winner 8 times. Tiger officially won 9 Vardon Trophy's and was leading money winner 10 times. Tiger won 82 events to Nicklaus' 73 and made 142 consecutive cuts to his 105. 

 

They're both tied in consecutive cuts in majors, at 39. But their first 14 major wins, Jack beat the runner-up by an average of 2.29 strokes while Tiger beat the runner-up by 4.14 strokes. 

[stinger_gc]

1 hour ago, sheepdawg said:

18 wins, 19 2nds and 7 3rds is why Tiger isn't.

2nd just means first loser

[BombinJim]

12 minutes ago, stinger_gc said:

2nd just means first loser

If you ain’t first you’re last!

[stinger_gc]

1 hour ago, sheepdawg said:

18 wins, 19 2nds and 7 3rds is why Tiger isn't.

Are Monty’s 5 runner up finishes in majors equivalent to 1 win

[Golfnutgalen]

20 minutes ago, stinger_gc said:

Are Monty’s 5 runner up finishes in majors equivalent to 1 win

 

More than anyone else without a win! That's gotta hurt. 

 

So nobody wants to talk about Bobby Jones? Can't we at least agree he was the best of his time?😆

 

 

[iBanesto]

Greg Norman potentially could have won 5 majors in a row.

 

1986 Masters - 1986 US Open - 1986 Open - 1986 PGA - 1987 Masters.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 31 by iBanesto

[mosesgolf]

3 hours ago, sheepdawg said:

18 wins, 19 2nds and 7 3rds is why Tiger isn't.

Jack sure choked ALOT!!!

Tiger 14/14 when holding 3rd round lead at majors.  
4 majors in a row plus TPC included

3 consecutive US Junior Ams in a row followed by 3 consecutive US Ams. 
But then again Tiger’s contemporaries were weak or was he just that much better?

 

[iBanesto]

2 minutes ago, mosesgolf said:

Jack sure choked ALOT!!!

Tiger 14/14 when holding 3rd round lead at majors.  
4 majors in a row plus TPC included

3 consecutive US Junior Ams in a row followed by 3 consecutive US Ams. 
But then again Tiger’s contemporaries were weak or was he just that much better?

 

 

14/15.

 

Damn you Y.E. Yang! 😅

 

[mosesgolf]

12 minutes ago, iBanesto said:

 

14/15.

 

Damn you Y.E. Yang! 😅

 

Crazy that it took Tiger 10 years to recover from that disaster.

[stinger_gc]

6 hours ago, Golfnutgalen said:

 

More than anyone else without a win! That's gotta hurt. 

 

So nobody wants to talk about Bobby Jones? Can't we at least agree he was the best of his time?😆

 

 

He’d be a stinger for sure!

[tatertot]

Amazing how many threads turn into this juvenile argument over whose daddy is strongest.

[tatertot]

1 hour ago, stinger_gc said:

He’d be a stinger for sure!

You think he'd take terrorist money?

 

Ya see, you can't say "don't talk politics", and then try to turn EVERY THREAD YOU PARTICIPATE ON INTO A LIV COMMERCIAL.

[Hawkeye77]

6 hours ago, mosesgolf said:

Jack sure choked ALOT!!!

Tiger 14/14 when holding 3rd round lead at majors.  
4 majors in a row plus TPC included

3 consecutive US Junior Ams in a row followed by 3 consecutive US Ams. 
But then again Tiger’s contemporaries were weak or was he just that much better?

 

 

Jack held the outright lead 8 times after 54 holes - won them all.

 

Tiger couldn't win from behind - Jack was actually better at "charging" than Tiger, lol.

 

And . . . whatever!

[iBanesto]

17 minutes ago, Hawkeye77 said:

 

Jack held the outright lead 8 times after 54 holes - won them all.

 

Tiger couldn't win from behind - Jack was actually better at "charging" than Tiger, lol.

 

And . . . whatever!

 

Jack or Tiger?

 

[stinger_gc]

4 hours ago, iBanesto said:

 

14/15.

 

Damn you Y.E. Yang! 😅

 

 

[stinger_gc]

1 hour ago, tatertot said:

You think he'd take terrorist money?

 

Ya see, you can't say "don't talk politics", and then try to turn EVERY THREAD YOU PARTICIPATE ON INTO A LIV COMMERCIAL.

You mean the same money Tiger is negotiating for now 😂. It was a joke and let’s not go there

[stinger_gc]

1 hour ago, Hawkeye77 said:

 

Jack held the outright lead 8 times after 54 holes - won them all.

 

Tiger couldn't win from behind - Jack was actually better at "charging" than Tiger, lol.

 

And . . . whatever!

Tiger didn’t need to come from behind though.  He won 14 of 46 majors (I’m counting 1997 Masters to 2008 US Open) 36%. He also shot 69 or higher in 10 of those wins. Tiger would play super boring golf on Sunday and watch everyone else around him crumble.

[dropkicked]

 

Who else held all 5 at the same time?

 

#GOAT

[gvogel]

14 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

We probably don't talk about it much because most of the people who would have seen these achievements died in the Second Boer war. 

 

This list is why Tiger is the GOAT

 

An excellent and promising Scottish amateur, Freddie Tait (2 Amateur Championships, 2 third place finishes in the Open), did die in the Second Boer war (1900).  A painting of him hangs in the R&A.

[gvogel]

10 hours ago, Golfnutgalen said:

 

More than anyone else without a win! That's gotta hurt. 

 

So nobody wants to talk about Bobby Jones? Can't we at least agree he was the best of his time?😆

 

 

No one has ever had a record to equal Jones from 1923 to 1930.  7 years.  No one.

[MtlJeff]

8 minutes ago, gvogel said:

An excellent and promising Scottish amateur, Freddie Tait (2 Amateur Championships, 2 third place finishes in the Open), did die in the Second Boer war (1900).  A painting of him hangs in the R&A.

 

See i know my history! 

[Hawkeye77]

27 minutes ago, gvogel said:

An excellent and promising Scottish amateur, Freddie Tait (2 Amateur Championships, 2 third place finishes in the Open), did die in the Second Boer war (1900).  A painting of him hangs in the R&A.

If he hadn’t died and lived to be 125 hand him 40 - 50 majors!

[sheepdawg]

12 hours ago, stinger_gc said:

2nd just means first loser

Tiger would give his left nut for 4 more wins in the majors.

[mosesgolf]

https://www.espn.com/premium/tours/columns/harig_bob/690694.html
 

 “He plays a game with which I am not familiar”

 

Jones said that about Jack to which Jack said that about Tiger.  I hope we hear Tiger utter those words in my lifetime.  
 

 

[Golfnutgalen]

1 hour ago, gvogel said:

No one has ever had a record to equal Jones from 1923 to 1930.  7 years.  No one.

 

Correct. 

 

I mean just look at this:

 

2nd 1922 US Open (age 20)

1st 1923 US Open 

2nd 1924 US Open 

2nd US Open 

1st 1926 US Open 

1st 1926 British Open 

11th 1927 US Open

1st 1927 British Open 

2nd 1928 US Open

1st 1929 US Open 

1st 1930 US Open 

1st 1930 British Open 

 

That's 11 out of 12 top 2 finishes, 8/9 in the US Open. For comparison again Hagen had only 2 top finishes in the US Open (both wins).

 

Gene Sarazen had 2 wins and 2 2nds in the US Open. He beat Bobby Jones by a single stroke in 1922. His other win was after Jones retired; they were the same age. 

 

Looking back Vardon had a pretty good stretch himself with 8/9 top 2 finishes in the Opens from 1896-1903. He had 5 wins in there. His other 2 wins started 8 years later however meaning Jones still takes first place.

--------------

And it's impossible not to mention Hogan. Cherry picking to make his numbers the best he won 8/11 majors from 1948 to 1953. I included that 2nd place for Jones however which would make it 8/12 top 2 finishes for Hogan.