Tom Watson
Gene Sarazen
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Tom Watson leads 2 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Tom Watson at #9 and Gene Sarazen at #10.
Head-to-head FAQ
Who leads more shared metrics?
How do the published ranks compare?
Are these live stats?
The case for Tom Watson
Tom Watson inherited the mantle of best player in the world in the late 1970s, dueling Jack Nicklaus in some of the sport's most famous encounters. He won 8 majors, including five Open Championships and two Masters, and his 1977 Duel in the Sun against Nicklaus at Turnberry, where Watson shot 65-65 to win by a single stroke, is regarded as the finest head-to-head in golf history. A brilliant links player and a fearless putter in his prime, he won 39 PGA Tour titles. Remarkably, at age 59 in 2009 he came within an eight-foot putt of winning a sixth Open at Turnberry, losing a playoff to Stewart Cink, the closest any player has come to capturing a major championship in his sixties, a near-miss that stunned the sport.
The case for Gene Sarazen
Gene Sarazen, the son of an immigrant carpenter, was the first player to win all four of the modern professional majors, completing the career Grand Slam in 1935. He won 7 majors in total, including two U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships and the 1935 Masters, and 39 PGA Tour events across a career that began in 1920. That Masters victory featured the shot heard round the world, a holed 4-wood for an albatross two on the 15th that forced a playoff he went on to win. Sarazen also changed the game's equipment forever by inventing the modern sand wedge in 1932, adding a flange that let the sole bounce through sand rather than dig, a design principle still used in every wedge made today, and one of golf's most important innovations.