Golfers with most European Tour wins

Categories: Golf records | Golfers

This is a list of golfers who have won ten or more events on the PGA European Tour since it was established in 1972. There are some complications in preparing such a list, and different publications have produced different numbers. This list is based on the following criteria:

  • Only members of the European Tour are counted. As all elite golfers enter the four major championships and the three individual World Golf Championships each season it is possible for a player to accumulate ten wins in European Tour sanctioned events without ever joining the European Tour. Tiger Woods has already done so, but he is not included in the table below.
  • The three U.S. based majors were not designated as European Tour events until 1998, so victories in them before that date are excluded. Counting all major victories would promote Nick Faldo to third place on the list and cause some minor changes further down.
  • The same applies to wins in the Wentworth World Match Play Championship before 2003, and once again the main effect of counting all wins in this event would be to promote Faldo to third postition
  • The win lists in the player profiles on the European Tour's official site include some miscellaneous items which are not regular individual tour wins and are therefore excluded: wins in 18 hole pro-ams associated with PGA Tour events; wins in the Volvo Bonus Pool; team wins in the Seve Trophy; wins on the Challenge Tour and European Seniors Tour.

There are additional players who won ten or more tournaments in Europe in the period straddling 1972 who are not included on the list.

The number of wins a player can accumulate on the European Tour depends in part on how much of his time he devotes to the tour. There have always been some leading European players or European Tour members from outside Europe who have gone on to play part or full time on the PGA Tour and cut back their commitments in Europe, and this seems to be an increasing trend.

Many of the players on the list have won many events on other tours and unofficial events. The numbers in the "Majors" column are total major victories before before and after 1998 and regardless of whether or not the player was a member of the European Tour at the time.

This list is up to date at 11 September 2005.

NameCountryWinsMajorsWinning span
Seve BallesterosSpain4951976-1995
Bernhard LangerGermany4021980-2002
Colin MontgomerieScotland2901989-2005
Ian WoosnamWales2811982-1997
Nick FaldoEngland2761977-1994
Jose Maria OlazabalSpain2221986-2005
Sam TorranceScotland2101976-1998
Ernie ElsSouth Africa1931994-2005
Mark JamesEngland1801978-1997
Sandy LyleScotland1721979-1992
Greg NormanAustralia1621977-1994
Mark McNultyZimbabwe1601979-2001
Miguel Angel JiménezSpain1301992-2005
Vijay SinghFiji1231989-2004
Retief GoosenSouth Africa1221996-2004
Howard ClarkEngland1101978-1988
Bernard GallacherScotland1001972-1984

Notes:

  • Bernard Gallacher also won an event in 1971. This is included in his win list on the European Tour's official site, giving him eleven wins, even though it is stated elsewhere on the site that the tour officially began in 1972.
  • Tiger Woods has won more than twenty events sanctioned by the European Tour, most of which were major championships and World Golf Championships events staged in the United States.
  • Graham Marsh of Australia won eleven events on the European Tour between 1972 and 1985, but never played in Europe more than seven times in a season.