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The Playoff King Is Dead

Long live the Playoff King.

The Playoff King is - make that was - Robert Allenby, who before Sunday was a remarkable 10-0 in playoffs in his career. Granted, only three of those playoff wins were on the PGA Tour, but 10 playoff wins without a loss is 10 playoffs without a loss. I don't care where they are coming. But then Allenby had to go low on Sunday and eke into a playoff, which he wound up losing to Justin Leonard at the Stanford St. Jude Championship.

Not even Tiger Woods can claim 10 playoff wins without a loss. In fact, Tiger is 10-1 in playoffs. Checking the PGA Tour media guide, the most playoff victories without a loss that I can find for any given player is three, by Phil Blackmar. Phil Blackmar, people! Phil won three times on Tour, and all of those wins were via playoffs. (It should be noted that the media guide only lists golfers who still have some kind of status on the PGA Tour, not all players throughout history who've been in playoffs.)

So, who has the best playoff record in PGA Tour history? Can't say for sure, because, as noted, the PGA Tour media guide doesn't list all players. It does have a chart for most wins via playoff, with six wins the cutoff, and the volume leaders are:

Arnold Palmer, 14
Jack Nicklaus, 14
Sam Snead, 12
Tiger Woods, 10
Tom Watson, 9
Billy Casper, 8
Ben Hogan, 8
Phil Mickelson, 7
Vijay Singh, 7
Cary Middlecoff, 7
Curtis Strange, 6
Tom Kite, 6
Bruce Lietzke, 6
Byron Nelson, 6

These are the only golfers with six or more playoff wins on the PGA Tour. As for winning percentage, among the group above the runaway winner is Tiger's 10-1 mark.

What about won-loss records? Here are the same players with both wins and losses listed:

Arnold Palmer, 14-10
Jack Nicklaus, 14-10
Sam Snead, 12-5
Tiger Woods, 10-1
Tom Watson, 9-4
Billy Casper, 8-8
Ben Hogan, 8-12
Phil Mickelson, 7-2
Vijay Singh, 7-3
Cary Middlecoff, 7-6-1 (yes, he had a tie - a shared title)
Curtis Strange, 6-3
Tom Kite, 6-4
Bruce Lietzke, 6-6
Byron Nelson, 6-6

Would you have guessed that Ben Hogan - considered one of the most intimidating players in golf history - had a losing record in playoffs? It's surprising how many good players have bad (sometimes even awful) playoff records. Here are a few of those:

Mark Calcavecchia, 1-4
Jim Furyk, 2-7
Davis Love, 2-7
Greg Norman, 4-8
Gary Player, 3-10

But the worst playoff golfer in PGA Tour history turns out to be a Hall of Famer, and someone noted for being among the greatest putters of all-time.

Ben Crenshaw was 0-8 in playoffs on the PGA Tour.

(On the LPGA Tour, the record for most playoff wins is 16 by Annika Sorenstam; the most playoff wins without a loss is five by Se Ri Pak.)

0 recs | Comment 6 comments

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how about...

...just consecutive playoff wins ? how many did Tiger win before and after the one he lost ?

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Jun 8, 2008 9:53 PM EDT   0 recs

Lost to ...

Billy Mayfair in his third playoff, so was 2-1 at that point and 8-0 since:

Defeated Davis Love III, 1996 Las Vegas Invitational; defeated Tom Lehman, 1997
Mercedes Championships; lost to Billy Mayfair, 1998 Nissan Open; defeated Miguel
Angel Jimenez, 1999 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship;
defeated Ernie Els, 2000 Mercedes Championships; defeated Bob May, 2000 PGA
Championship; defeated Jim Furyk, 2001 World Golf Championships-NEC
Invitational; defeated Chris DiMarco, 2005 Masters; defeated John Daly, 2005 World
Golf Championships-American Express Championship; defeated Jose Maria
Olazabal and Nathan Green, 2006 Buick Invitational; defeated Stewart Cink, 2006
World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.

by Mulligan Stu on Jun 8, 2008 11:18 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Rachel Teske/Hetherington

was the Annika killer—3 of her 8 wins came in playoffs against Sorenstam!

by The Constructivist on Jun 9, 2008 4:52 AM EDT   0 recs

should've guessed

I guess with those overall numbers, I should’ve guessed that Tiger would have the longest streak.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Jun 9, 2008 11:00 AM EDT   0 recs

4-0

The late George Knudson was perfect in playoffs.

by Bill Jempty on Jun 11, 2008 10:08 AM EDT   0 recs

Ed Fiori

If you believe everything Johnny Miller says or writes, ‘The Grip’ defeated Tiger Woods in Sudden Death at the 1996 Quad Cities Classic.

If you want and have access to Miller’s book ‘I call the shots’, you can verify what I said. It’s on page 115 in the hardcover addition, Chapter titled ‘For better For worse’ . That book has about 20 mistakes in it.

by Bill Jempty on Jun 11, 2008 10:25 AM EDT   0 recs

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