Arnold Palmer
Rory McIlroy
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Arnold Palmer leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Arnold Palmer at #7 and Rory McIlroy at #12.
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The case for Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer did not merely win; he made golf popular. The King brought a swashbuckling, go-for-broke style and blue-collar charisma that, wedded to the arrival of television, turned golf into a mass-market sport in the late 1950s and 1960s. He won 7 majors, four Masters, one U.S. Open and two Open Championships, and 62 PGA Tour events, and his decision to cross the Atlantic in 1960 revived the Open's global standing when American stars had been ignoring it. Palmer's devoted galleries became Arnie's Army. Though his major haul was smaller than his great rivals', his commercial impact was unmatched: he was the first athlete to build a business empire around his own name, and he defined the modern professional's reach and earning power far beyond the ropes of the course.
The case for Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy is the finest ball-striker of his era and, since April 2025, a member of golf's most exclusive club. His victory at the 2025 Masters completed the career Grand Slam, making him only the sixth man to win all four professional majors and ending an eleven-year major drought that had come to define his prime. McIlroy has won 5 majors in all, including the 2011 U.S. Open by eight shots and back-to-back majors in the summer of 2014, along with roughly 29 PGA Tour titles and more than 120 weeks at World No. 1. Blessed with prodigious clubhead speed and a classic, rhythmic swing, he has topped the European order of merit repeatedly and stood as the leading voice and on-course face of professional golf through the tour's era of upheaval.