10 youngest winners in PGA Tour history: Matthew Wolff joins list with 3M Open title

Matthew Wolff earned his first victory on the PGA Tour at the 2019 3M Open.

Wolff, at 20 years, 2 months and 23 days old, became the ninth-youngest winner on the pro tour and the youngest since Jordan Spieth won his first pro event at the age of 19 years, 11 months and 17 days at the 2013 John Deere Classic.

Below is the list of the 10 youngest winners in PGA Tour history since 1900, listed in reverse chronological order. The names are from the PGA Tour’s official list.

Several of the players won legacy events that existed before the manifestation of the current PGA Tour.

Of the nine different players on this list, five are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame and two, Wolff and Spieth, are still playing on the PGA Tour.

Wolff left Oklahoma State after his sophomore year and turned pro in June. His victory at the 3M Open gives him a 2-year exemption on the PGA Tour, once he officially signs on, and a spot in the 2020 Players Championship, Sony Tournament of Champions, PGA Championship and Masters.

10 Youngest Winners in PGA Tour History

10. Francis Ouimet

Age: 20 years, 4 months, 12 days
Tournament: 1913 U.S. Open
Buzz: Still an amateur, Ouimet earned what is considered by many to be the most important victory in the development of golf in the United States in the 1913 U.S. Open. The young Ouimet, who was both a former caddie and a “commoner,” stunned Harry Vardon and Ted Ray of Great Britain, along with the golf world, with a 5-shot victory at Brookline Country Club in an 18-hole playoff. Ouimet, inducted into World Golf Hall of Fame inaugural class in 1974, is one of only four golfers to have a stamp created in their honor.

9. Matthew Wolff

Age: 20 years, 2 months, 23 days
Tournament: 2019 3M Open
Buzz: In just his fourth start after turning pro, Wolff scored a thrilling victory at TPC Twin Cities thanks to a 26-foot eagle putt on the tournament’s final hole. He would defeat fellow 20-year-old Collin Morikawa and Bryson DeChambeau by 1 shot. DeChambeau had eagled 18 just ahead of Wolff to take a 1-shot lead. That lead would not last.

Ralph Guldahl back-to-back U.S. Open titles in 1937-38 and the 1939 Masters. (AP Photo)

8. Ralph Guldahl

Age: 20 years, 2 months, 9 days
Tournament: 1932 Arizona Open
Buzz: A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, Guldahl “stands alone in golf history as the best player ever to suddenly and completely lose his game.” But his victory at the 1932 Arizona Open – now known as the Waste Management Phoenix Open – was his first and began one of golf’s most unique pro careers. Guldahl was a contemporary of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead and grew up with Hogan and Nelson as a boy in Texas. From 1936-40, Guldahl dominated golf like no other but his story has long faded from golf’s forefront. He won three straight Western Opens, back-to-back U.S. Open titles in 1937-38 and the Masters in 1939 after being runner-up for the two previous years. He was best under pressure and got better as the pressure increased. “If Guldahl gave someone a blood transfusion, the patient would freeze to death,” Snead, Guldahl’s close friend, once said.

Charles “Chick” Evans . (AP Photo)

7. Charles (Chick) Evans, Jr.

Age: 20 years, 1 month, 15 days
Tournament: 1910 Western Open
Buzz: Evans is perhaps best known for being the founder of the Evans Scholarship Foundation. An amateur for his entire golf career, Evans won the Western Open at Beverly Country Club in Chicago as a 20-year-old. In 1916, he would become the first amateur to win the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in the same year. Evans led that 1916 U.S. Open at Minikahda wire-to-wire and did it while using seven hickory-shafted clubs. His record 286 stood for 20 years. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1975.

6. Gene Sarazen

Age: 20 years, 5 days

Tournament: 1922 Southern Open

Buzz: The self-taught Sarazen would remain associated with golf until his 90s. His Hall of Fame career spanned eight decades as a player, course/equipment designer and resident living legend. The first of his 39 PGA Tour victories came less than a week after his 20th birthday at the 1922 Southern Open in New Orleans. That event was played just once. “The Squire” won seven majors, including the PGA Championship three times, and won what is now considered Grand Slam before anyone else. Sarazen played on six Ryder Cup teams, including the first in 1927, and is credited with inventing the sand wedge.

Jordan Spieth needs to win the PGA Championship to complete his career Grand Slam. (Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports)

5. Jordan Spieth

Age: 19 years, 11 months, 17 days

Tournament: 2013 John Deere Classic
Buzz: Spieth became just the fifth player to win on the PGA Tour before the age of 20. Spieth was just shy of his 20th birthday when he won the 2013 John Deere Classic in a three-way playoff. He continued an amazing run in 2015 at age 21 by becoming the second-youngest player ever to win the Masters – behind Tiger Woods. He followed that with a U.S. Open triumph two months later. His third major title, the 2017 Open Championship, came just four days after he turned 24. He remains stuck on 14 career PGA Tour victories, having not won since he lifted the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale Golf Course nearly two years ago.

4. Johnny McDermott

Age: 19 years, 10 months, 14 days

Tournament: 1911 U.S. Open

Buzz: McDermott’s tale is perhaps golf’s greatest legend lost to history. He won the U.S. Open less than two months shy of his 20th birthday at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in 1911 after boldly predicting he would win. He became the first American to win our nation’s golf championship and remains the youngest U.S. Open winner in history. McDermott would win the U.S. Open a year later in Buffalo. McDermott’s abrasive speech ahead of the 1913 U.S. Open, won by fellow American Francis Ouimet, would be immortalized in the movie “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” His brash manner and erratic behavior clashed with golf’s elite. After arriving too late for his tee time in the 1914 British Open, McDermott headed for home but his ship collided with another in the English Channel, leaving McDermott stranded for hours in a lifeboat. That event changed him. McDermott suffered a mental breakdown and would be committed by his mother to what is now known as Norristown (Pa.) State Hospital outside Philadelphia in 1916. He would live there until his death in 1971.

3. Ralph Guldahl

Age: 19 years, 8 months, 3 days

Tournament: 1931 Santa Monica Open

Buzz: Guldahl holds two spots on this list. When he won the 1931 Santa Monica Open, he was more than three months shy of his 20th birthday. Guldahl had 16 pro victories and entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981. He held his own and won three majors while competing against the likes of Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. Guldahl won 16 pro events in a career that was interrupted by a self-imposed year-long hiatus in 1935 before he left the game for good after winning two more events in 1940.

Harry Cooper won 37 pro events but never a major.  (AP Photo)

2. Harry Cooper

Age: 19 years, 4 days
Tournament: 1923 Galveston Open
Notes: Harry “Light Horse” Cooper is golf’s original “greatest player never to win a major.” A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, Cooper had 31 pro victories during the 1920s and ’30s, but none came in major championships. “Something always happened that I had no control over,” he once said. “I still dwell on the big ones that got away.” Those “big ones” would be the the U.S. Open in 1927 and 1936; and the 1936 Masters. In the 1927 Open at Oakmont, Tommy Armour holed a 15-foot putt on the 18th green to catch Cooper in regulation and a 50-footer on the 15th hole of the playoff to tie the match. Cooper had the clubhouse lead at the 1936 Open after a then-record 72-hole score of 284. He led the 1936 Masters after 54 holes. But victory eluded him all three times. Cooper was a teaching pro until age 93. He died in 2000 at the age of 96. Hard luck followed Cooper even after his death. Long considered to be the youngest winner in PGA Tour history, that record was supplanted when a PGA Tour researcher recently discovered the No. 1 player on our list.

Chuck Kocsis is the youngest player to ever win on the PGA Tour, with his victory in the 1931 Michigan Open at age 18 years, 6 months, 9 days. His win was recently added to the all-time list by the PGA Tour. (University of Michigan)

1. Charles Kocsis

Age: 18 years, 6 months, 9 days
Tournament: 1931 Michigan Open
Notes: Long overlooked on this list, Kocsis grew up in Detroit and amassed a stellar amateur career. One of 14 children, he began his golf career as a caddie and he quickly learned the game. He won low amateur at the U.S. Open twice and Masters once. He enjoyed a successful college career at Michigan, leading the Wolverines to three consecutive Big Ten championships and the National Collegiate Championships in 1934 and ’35. He also won the collegiate individual title in 1936. An auto accident nearly ended his career in 1945, but Kocsis recovered and kept winning. He took low amateur honors at the 1952 Masters and played on the Walker Cup teams in 1938, ’49 and ’57. The first of his three Michigan Open (which featured pros and amateurs at the time) victories came in 1931, when Kocsis was still 18, making him No. 1 on our list.