Golfing Lists

Amateur Golf

Amateur golf at the highest level has provided some of golf's great tournaments and both the British and US Amateur Championships are as old as their professional counterparts. Those two Championships remain the leading individual amateur events and are well documented below. Some of the world’s great professionals have lifted one or both of those trophies.

Amateur team events for both men and women are not covered here but can be found in the Team Events section while Women’s Amateur Golf also has it very own section here.

British Amateur Championship
The Amateur Championship, known widely as the British Amateur Championship was first held between 20-23 April 1885 at the Royal Liverpool Club at Hoylake. From 40 starters, the inaugural winner was Allan Macfie (Scotland) who beat Horace Hutchinson (England) 8 & 6 in the 18-hole final. The current format of the competition consists of 36 holes of stroke play with the leading 64 golfers then engaging in a match-play knockout. This format was first introduced in 1983.

All the following information is correct up to and including 2025.

Most Wins

Wins	Golfer (Country)	First Win	Last Win
8	John Ball (England)	1888	1912
5	Michael Bonallack (England)	1961	1970
4	Harold Hilton (England)	1900	1913
3	Joe Carr (Ireland)	1953	1960
2	Horace Hutchinson (England)	1886	1887
2	Johnny Laidlay (Scotland)	1889	1891
2	Freddie Tait (Scotland	1896	1898
2	Robert Maxwell (Scotland)	1903	1909
2	Ernest Holderness (England)	1922	1924
2	Cyril Tolley (England)	1920	1929
2	Lawson Little (USA)	1934	1935
2	Frank Stranahan (USA)	1948	1950
2	Trevor Homer (England)	1972	1974
2	Dick Siderowf (USA	1973	1976
2	Peter McEvoy (England)	1977	1978
2	Gary Wolstenholme (England)	1991	2003

Famous Winners of the British Amateur Championship include: Bobby Jones (USA) 1930, José María Olazábal (Spain) 1984, Sergio García (Spain) 1998

Biggest Win *

Margin	Golfer (Country)	Year	Runner-up (Country)
14 & 13	Lawson Little (USA)	1934	James Wallace (Scotland)
13 & 12	Robert Harris (Scotland)	1927	Kenneth Fradgley (England)
12 & 11	Willie Hunter (Scotland)	1921	Allan Graham (Scotland)
11 & 9	David Curry (England)	1986	Geoff Birtwell (England)
10 & 9	John Ball (England)	1910	Colin Aylmer (England)
8 &7	Freddie Tait (Scotland)	1896	Harold Hilton (England)
8 &7	Harold Hilton (England)	1900	James Robb (Scotland)
8 &7	Joe Carr (Ireland)	1960	Bob Cochran (USA)
8 &7	Michael Bonallack (England)	1970	Bill Hyndman (USA)
8 &7	Vinny Giles (USA)	1975	Mark James (England)
8 &7	Garth McGimpsey (England)	1985	Graham Homewood (England)
8 & 6	Frank Stranahan (USA)	1950	Dick Chapman (USA)
8 & 6	Gary Wolstenholme (England)	1991	Bob May (USA)

* In the final

The lowest score in the 36-hole stroke play element is 132 achieved on three occasions by David Horsey (England) 2007), Caolan Rafferty (Ireland) 2017, and Ben Van Wyk (South Africa) 2023.

United States Amateur Championship
The first official United States Amateur Championship was inaugurated following the formation of the Amateur Golf Association of the United States in December 1894. The first Championship took place in the same week as the US Open in October 1895 and won by Charles Macdonald who beat Charles Sands 12 & 11 in the final at Newport, Rhode Island. It remains the biggest win the final in the event’s history.

The Championship currently consists of two days of stroke play followed by a an 18-hole match-play knockout competition involving the leading 64 players. The final is over 36 holes

All the following information is correct up to and including 2025

Most Wins

Wins	Golfer (Country)	First Win	Last Win
5	Bobby Jones	1924	1930
4	Jerome Travers	1907	1913
3	Walter Travis	1900	1903
3	Tiger Woods	1994	1996

All winners from the USA.

Many golfers have won the title on two occasions. The first was Scotland’s Henry James “H. J.” Whigham who won back-to-back titles in 1896 and 1897.

Woods is the only golfer to win three consecutive titles.

Apart from those mentioned above, the following famous gofers have all won the US Amateur:Gene Littler (1953), Arnold Palmer (1954), Jack Nicklaus (1959 & 1971), Lanny Wadkins (1970), Craig Stadler (1973), Jerry Pate (1974), Mark O’Meara (1979), Hal Sutton (1980), Phil Mickelson (1990), Justin Leonard (1992)

Biggest Wins *

Margin	Golfer (Country)	Year	Runner-up (Country)
12 & 11	Charles B. Macdonald	1895	Charles Sands
11 & 10	Charles R. Coe	1949	Rufus King
11 & 9	Dick Chapman	1940	Duff McCullough
10 & 9	Bobby Jones	1928	Phillip Perkins (England)
9 & 8	Bobby Jones	1924	George Von Elm
9 & 8	Harvie Ward	1955	Bill Hyndman
9 & 8	John Fought	1977	Doug Fischesser
9 & 8	Hal Sutton	1980	Bob Lewis
9 & 8	David Gossett	1999	Sung Yoon Kim (South Korea)

* In the final | All golfers from the USA uness otherwuse stated
The lowest score in the 36-hole stroke play element is 131 by Hayden Wood in 2017

Winners of the US and British Amateur Championships

Golfer (Country)	US Amateur	British Amateur
Walter J. Travis	1900-01, 1903	1904
Harold Hilton (England) *	1911	1900-01, 1911, 1913
Jess Sweetser	1922	1926
Bobby Jones *	1924-25, 1927-28, 1930	1930
Lawson Little *	1934-35	1934-35
Willie Turnesa	1938, 1948	1947
Dick Chapman	1940	1951
Harvie Ward	1955-56	1952
Deane Beman	1960, 1963	1959
Bob Dickson *	1967	1967
Steve Melnyk	1969	1971
Vinny Giles	1972	1975
Jay Sigel	1982-83	1979

* Indicaes won both in same year | All golfers from the USA unless otherwise stated.

In 1930 Bobby Jones won the US and British Opens, as well as the Amateur Championships of both countries

European Amateur Championship
Inaugurated in 1986, the first winner was Sweden’s Anders Haglund who won by three strokes from England’s David Gilford at Eindhoven Golf Club , Netherlands, in 1986

Of the 37 editions of the Championship, only two golfers have won the title twice; Ashley Chesters (England) in 2013-14, and Matthias Schmid (Germany) in 2019-20.

England has produced the most winners (5): Ashley Chesters (as above), Jim Payne (1991), Matthew Richardson (2004), and Alfie Plant (2017).

Former Champions include Major winners Sergio García (Spain) 1995, and Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) 2006

Lowest 72-Hole Totals

Wins	Golfer (Country)	First Win
263	Carl Petterson (Sweden)	2000
264	Christoffer Bring (Denmark)	2021
266	Ludvig Aberg (Sweden) *	2021
267	Jose Luis Ballester Barrio (Spain)	2023
268	Panu Kyliainen (Finland) *	2000
268	Grame McDowell (Northern Ireland) *	2000
269	Stefano Mazzoli (Italy)	2015
269	David Puig (Spain) *	2021
269	Mads Laage (Denmark) *	2023
269	James Ashfield (Wales) *	2023

Up to and including 2025 | *Indictaes finshed seod or third

The Biggest Winning Margin is 5 strokes achieved on four occasions by: Klas Eriksson (Sweden) 1990, Carl Pettersson (Sweden) 2000, Stephen Browne (Ireland) 2001, Raphaël Pellicioli (France) 2002.

President's Putter
Held since 1920, the President’s Putter is open to present and former Oxford and Cambridge Unversity golfing Blues who are members of the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society.

A match-play competition, the event is held over the Rye Golf Course, East Sussex each January and the trophy is unique one in the golf world. The last ball used by the winner is handed over to the society who hang it on a putter, along with balls used by other winners. In return for giving the Society his winning ball, the winner is given a silver medal. Because there have been so many winners, the current putter used is the third one since the launch of the competition in 1920.

Most Wins

Wins	Golfer	Years
5	Roger Wethered	1926-28, 1935-36
5	Ernest Holderness	1920-23, 1929
3	Alan Holmes (Northern Ireland)	1968, 1977, 1981
3	Donald Steel	1964, 1970, 1982
3	Charlie Rotheroe	1996-97, 2008
3	Claudio Consul (Germany)	2015, 2018, 2024
3	Tom Etridge	2002, 2016, 2025

Up to and including 2026 | All golfers from England uness otherwise stated

A further 17 golfers have won the title on two occasions, including the former England Test cricket captain Ted Dexter in 1983 and 1985.

The 2026 event was cancelled due to adverse weather condtions. Other than due to World War II, it was only the second time the event was cancelled when the Coronavirus pendemic caused the cancellation in 2021..

NCAA Championship
The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Championship is an annual competition between all Division One winners of the Conference Championships. It is predominantly a team competition but does also intercorporate an individual competition.

The Championship was first held in 1897 under the auspices of the National Intercollegiate Golf Association, but since 1939 all events have been organised by the NCAA.

Since 2009 the competition has been a 54-hole stroke play event with the top eight tams then taking part in a match-play knockout.

All records are up to and including 2025

Most Team Titles

Wins	University	First Win	Last Win
21	Yale	1897	1943
16	Houston	1956	1985
12	Oklahoma State	1963	2025
12	Princeton	1914	1940
9	Stanford	1938	2019
6	Harvard	1898	1904
5	Louisiana State	1950	2015
5	Florida	1968	2023

The last team to win the title for the first time was Auburn in 2024.

Most Winners of the Individul Title

Wins	Golfer (University)	Years
3	Ben Crenshaw (Texas)	1971-73 *
3	Phil Mickelson (Arizona State)	1989-90. 1992
2	Dexter Cummings (Yale)	1923-24
2	Fred Lamprecht (Tulane)	1925-26
2	George Dunlap (Princeton)	1930-31
2	Richard Crawford (Houston)	1959-60
2	Scott Simpson (USC )	1976-77

All winners from the USA | * Shared with Tom Kite in 1972

Well-known winners of the NCAA individual title include: Jack Nicklaus 1961, Hale Irwin 1967, Tom Kite 1972, Curtis Strange 1974, Scott Simpson 1976, Scott Verplank 1986, Justin Leonard 1994, Tiger Woods 1996, Luke Donakd (England) 1999, and Bryson DeChambeau 2015

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