Jack Nicklaus
Sam Snead
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Jack Nicklaus at #1 and Sam Snead at #5.
Head-to-head FAQ
Who leads more shared metrics?
How do the published ranks compare?
Are these live stats?
The case for Jack Nicklaus
The Golden Bear set the standard by which every golfer is measured: 18 professional major championships between the 1962 U.S. Open and the 1986 Masters, a record that has stood for nearly four decades. Beyond the wins lies an even more staggering statistic, 19 runner-up finishes in majors, giving him 37 top-two results on the biggest stages. Nicklaus won 73 PGA Tour events and captured each of the four majors at least three times, the only player to complete the career Grand Slam three times over. His 1986 Masters victory at age 46, closing with a back-nine 30, remains the sport's most beloved single moment. Renowned for peerless course management and a genius for peaking at the majors, he combined prodigious power in his youth with the finest strategic mind the game has known, finishing in the top ten in an astonishing 73 major championships.
The case for Sam Snead
Sam Snead owned the most natural swing in golf and the record that proves it: 82 PGA Tour victories, the all-time mark until Tiger Woods tied it in 2019. Known as Slammin' Sammy for his effortless power and flexibility, he could still kick the top of a door frame in his seventies. Snead won 7 majors, including three Masters and three PGA Championships. His career-long frustration was the U.S. Open, which he never won despite four runner-up finishes, the single gap in an otherwise complete record. His professional career spanned five decades; in 1979 he became the first player to shoot his age on the PGA Tour, carding a 66 at 67, then repeating the feat, a testament to the longevity of the smoothest action the game has produced.