In the history of the four modern men's major championships -- the Masters, PGA Championshhip, US Open and the British Open Championship -- a player has won wire-to-wire, without ties, on 26 separate occasions.
Brooks Koepka was the player to jump on this list, winning the 2019 PGA Championship wire-to-wire with an opening 63 and never facing a tie all the way to taking his fourth major title and becoming the first two-time defending champion of two majors at the same time.
The last wire-to-wire Masters champion was Jordan Spieth in 2015, when he tied Tiger Woods' then-72-hole scoring record on 18-under 270. He led after each and every round, with no ties, making him the fifth wire-to-wire Masters winner.
Martin Kaymer was the last wire-to-wire US Open champion, doing so at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2014 on the back of opening 65s. He never looked back and ran away for the win.
Join Golf News Net for $10 per year, and go ad-free!Rory McIlroy is the last wire-to-wire Open Championship winner, taking the claret jug at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake).
On other occasions, players have gone a different version of wire-to-wire, having at least a share of the lead after every round. However, some of the major organizations, namely Augusta National and the PGA of America, do not county those wins as truly in this category. Nevertheless, we included the available wins with ties and distinguished them in our list.
Wire-to-wire men's golf major champions
Masters:
- 1941 - Craig Wood (no ties)
- 1960 - Arnold Palmer (no ties)
- 1972 - Jack Nicklaus (no ties)
- 1976 - Raymond Floyd (no ties)
- 2015 - Jordan Spieth (no ties)
U.S. Open:
- 1903 - Willie Anderson
- 1906 - Alex Smith
- 1914 - Walter Hagen (no ties)
- 1916 - Charles Evans Jr.
- 1921 - Jim Barnes (no ties)
- 1953 - Ben Hogan (no ties)
- 1958 - Tommy Bolt
- 1970 - Tony Jacklin (no ties)
- 1972 - Jack Nicklaus
- 1977 - Hubert Green
- 1980 - Jack Nicklaus
- 1991 - Payne Stewart
- 2000 - Tiger Woods (no ties)
- 2001 - Retief Goosen
- 2002 - Tiger Woods (no ties)
- 2011 - Rory McIlroy (no ties)
- 2014 - Martin Kaymer (no ties)
Open Championship:
- 1899 - Harry Vardon
- 1900 - J.H. Taylor
- 1903 - Harry Vardon
- 1912 - Ted Ray (no ties)
- 1927 - Bobby Jones (no ties)
- 1932 - Gene Sarazen (no ties)
- 1934 - Henry Cotton (no ties)
- 1971 - Lee Trevino
- 1973 - Tom Weiskopf (no ties)
- 1974 - Gary Player
- 2005 - Tiger Woods (no ties)
- 2014 - Rory McIlroy (no ties)
PGA Championship:
- 1964 - Bobby Nichols (no ties)
- 1969 - Raymond Floyd
- 1971 - Jack Nicklaus (no ties)
- 1982 - Raymond Floyd
- 1983 - Hal Sutton (no ties)
- 2000 - Tiger Woods
- 2019 - Brooks Koepka (no ties)
The following players have posted the most wire-to-wire major-championship victories:
- 4 - Tiger Woods
- 3 - Raymond Floyd
- 2 - Rory McIlroy
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