Ben Hogan
Rory McIlroy
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Ben Hogan leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Ben Hogan at #3 and Rory McIlroy at #12.
Head-to-head FAQ
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The case for Ben Hogan
Ben Hogan is the game's ideal of ball-striking perfection, the man whose swing has been studied frame by frame for seventy years. He won nine majors despite losing prime years to World War II service and a near-fatal 1949 car crash that shattered his pelvis and legs. Sixteen months later he won the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion, and in 1953 he produced the greatest single season of his era, winning the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship, the only three majors he entered that year, a run remembered as the Hogan Triple. He captured 64 PGA Tour titles and four U.S. Opens across his career. His 1957 book, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, remains the most influential instruction manual ever written and shaped how generations understood the swing.
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.