The 11 Youngest Winners In The History Of The PGA Tour

You can play golf for decades without even coming close to mastering the notoriously difficult game, and most people who’ve done exactly that can’t help but envy the talents of the guys who’ve earned the right to play on the PGA Tour. Plenty of tournament winners have defied age on both ends of the spectrum, including some victors who prevailed before they were old enough to buy a celebratory beer.

Age is a factor in virtually every sport thanks to both the advantages and disadvantages involving an equation that largely hinges on a combination of youthfulness and experience.

Golf is an interesting case, as there are plenty of players who’d be considered firmly over-the-hill in other sports who’ve nonetheless conquered the rest of the field in the tournament.

There have also been more than a few up-and-comers who’ve announced their grand arrival at an impressively early age, and they comprise the list of the youngest winners in PGA Tour history.

Aldrich Potgieter: 20 Years, Nine Months, and 16 Days

I’m going to go from oldest to youngest and start with the man who inspired this list: Aldrich Potgieter, who became the latest person to join it after getting his first PGA Tour victory at the 2025 Rocket Mortgage Classic by topping Max Greyserman and Chris Kirk in a five-hole playoff.

The South African already had a couple of notable wins under his belt, as he won the British Amateur Championship in 2022 and became the youngest winner in the history of the Korn Ferry Tour with a victory at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic in 2024.

It was his first win on the PGA Tour, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be his last.

Tiger Woods: 20 Years, Nine Months, and Six Days

You rarely encounter a list of rare golf achievements where Tiger Woods doesn’t make an appearance, and this one is no exception.

Tiger was expected to be The Next Big Thing when he made his debut on the PGA Tour, and it didn’t take him very long to get his first victory with a win over Davis Love III at the Las Vegas Invitational (now the Shriners Children’s Open) in 1996—less than a year before he’d really announced ushered in the era he dominated winning The Masters by 12 shots.

I’m only devoting a single spot on this list to each golfer, but if I weren’t, Tiger would also show up again for winning the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic a couple of weeks later.

Phil Mickelson: 20 Years, Six Months, and 28 Days

Phil Mickelson racked up 45 wins on the PGA Tour before defecting to LIV Golf, and he wasn’t even a member when he got his first one.

Lefty was still on the golf team at Arizona State when he competed as an amateur at the Northern Telecom Open in 1991 and got a stunning win by beating Tom Purtzer and Bob Tway by a stroke.

Matthew Wolff: 20 Years, Two Months, and 23 Days

Matthew Wolf turned pro in 2019 and didn’t exactly get off to a blazing start, as he finished in a tie for 50th, another for 80th, and missed the cut in his first three PGA Tour tournaments that year.

He subsequently wasn’t exactly a top candidate to win the 3M Open, but he managed to do exactly that by edging out Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa by a stroke.

Tom Kim: 20 Years, Three Months, and 18 Days

Tom Kim not only got the first win of his PGA Tour career by triumphing at the Wyndham Championship in 2022 but did so in resounding fashion by beating the two guys who finished in a tie for second by five strokes.

He also got his first of back-to-back wins at the Shriners Children’s Open a couple of months later, but he’s still in search of his first victory since then.

Nick Dunlap: 20 Years and 29 Days

There are only eight people who’ve won a PGA Tournament as an amateur, and Nick Dunlap became the latest member of that exclusive club when he won The American Express by a stroke with an “A” next to his name in 2024.

Dunlap also would have appeared twice when you consider he got his first win as a pro at the Barracuda Championship six months later.

Jordan Spieth: 19 Years, 11 Months, and 17 Days

Jordan Spieth got the chance to get his first PGA Tour win at the John Deere Classic in 2013 after ending up with a playoff with a couple of veterans in the form of David Hearn and Zach Johnson, and he did exactly that to earn the first of his 13 victories to date.

John McDermott: 19 Years, 10 Months, and 14 Days

Part of the reason I went from oldest to youngest is because the quartet of guys we’re capping things off with are relatively ancient history compared to the rest of the golfers I’ve mentioned so far.

That definitely includes John McDermott, who became the first American to win the U.S. Open after reigning supreme in an 18-hole playoff in 1911, a year before he defended his title at the tournament (those majors accounted for the only two wins of a career derailed by mental health issues).

Ralph Guldahl: 19 Years, Two Months, and Three Days

Ralph Guldahl had 16 PGA Tour victories (including two at the U.S. Open and another at The Masters), and his first came all the way back in 1931 with a win at the Santa Monica Open.

Harry Cooper: 19 Years and Four Days

Harry Cooper celebrated his birthday just a few days before the Galveston Open Championship kicked off in 1923, and he got himself quite the present by becoming the youngest person to win a PGA Tour event at the time—a record that was eventually beaten by…

Charles Kocsis: 18 Years, Six Months, and Nine Days

It’s been close to a century since Charles Kocsis set the mark to beat with a win at the 1931 Michigan Open around six months after he became a legal adult, and we’re still waiting for the day someone is able to top it.