Who Is The Youngest Winner In PGA Tour History?

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth are all on the list of youngest winners in PGA Tour history, but none of them take top spot

Some of the youngest winners on the PGA Tour
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Higham
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We often say that pro golf is becoming more of a young man's game every year, with hotshots coming straight out of college and performing from the get-go on the PGA Tour.

However, although there's a lot of famous recent names on the list of the youngest ever winners on the PGA Tour, the very top is dominated by a few from way back.

The likes of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson all won on the PGA Tour before they turned 21, which in itself is a superb achievement.

Of what you'd class as the modern-day crop, only Jordan Spieth has managed to win a PGA Tour event while still a teenager - although only just as his 2013 John Deere Classic success came just a couple of weeks before his 20th birthday.

But it was the old guard who managed to claim wins at an even younger age - four of them in fact won a PGA Tour event while younger than Spieth was.

Charles Kocsis has the honor of being the youngest PGA Tour winner as he won the first of his three Michigan Open titles in 1931 while still only 18.

Harry 'Light Horse' Cooper was long considered to be the youngest winner on the PGA Tour from his 1923 Galveston Open Championship victory four days after his 19th birthday.

However, a PGA Tour researcher unearthed the record of Kocsis - an amateur playing in the Michigan Open alongside the pros - for him to take top spot.

Woods appears on the list twice thanks to the first two wins of his PGA Tour career coming just a couple of weeks apart - but this is one list where Mickelson beats his old nemesis as he captured a first title at a slightly younger age.

Tom Kim is the only other player to get two wins onto the list thanks to a pair of victories in 2022 just a couple of months apart, and they sandwich Matt Wolff who made his breakthrough in 2019.

Youngest PGA Tour winners

Charles Kocsis is the youngest winner in PGA Tour history

(Image credit: Getty Images)
  • 18 years, 6 months, 9 days: Charles Kocsis - 1931 Michigan Open
  • 19 years, 4 days: Harry Cooper - 1923 Galveston Open Championship
  • 19 years, 2 months, 3 days: Ralph Guldahl - 1931 Santa Monica Open
  • 19 years, 10 months, 14 days: John McDermott - 1911 U.S. Open
  • 19 years, 11 months, 17 days: Jordan Spieth - 2013 John Deere Classic
  • 20 years, five days: Gene Sarazen - 1922 Southern Open
  • 20 years, 29 days: Nick Dunlap - 2024 American Express
  • 20 years, 1 month, 15 days: Charles Evens - 1910 Western Open
  • 20 years, 1 months, 17 days: Tom Kim - 2022 Wyndham Championship
  • 20 years, 2 months, 23 days: Matthew Wolff - 2019 3M Open
  • 20 years, 3 months, 18 days: Tom Kim - 2022 Shriners Children's Open
  • 20 years, 6 months, 28 days: Phil Mickelson - 1991 Northern Telecom Open
  • 20 years, 9 months, 6 days: Tiger Woods - 1996 Shriners Children's Open
  • 20 years, 9 months, 20 days: Tiger Woods - 1996 Walt Disney World Classic
  • 20 years, 10 months, 8 days: Joaquin Niemann - 2019 Greenbrier Classic
  • 20 years, 11 months, 28 days: Rory McIlroy - 2010 Wells Fargo Championship
Paul Higham
Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush. 

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