U.S. PGA Championship Match Play Rankings
The U.S. PGA Championship, known internationally as the USPGA, was a match play event from its inception in 1916 to 1957, after which it became a stroke play event.
The PGA of America ran the match play golf event as a singles match play format with most of the matches played over 36 holes. There were usually 5 or 6 rounds of matches after a 36 hole qualifying event so there could be up to 14 rounds of golf played by the winner in week.
Despite being a USA based event, the leading players of the day originated from the UK and the first two finals saw Englishman Jim Barnes beat two Scots in Jock Hutchison (0.739 points per match) and Fred McLeod (0.643). Hutchison went on to win in 1920 as a US citizen over another Englishman J. Douglas Edgar (0.750).
Also twice a runner-up to Walter Hagen, Jim Barnes (0.774) is the highest ranked non-American in the Match Play World USPGA rankings for players with more than 20 matches.
Between 1921 and 1927 Americans dominated and it was down to two men, Walter Hagen (0.800) and Gene Sarazen (0.691). Hagen played in six finals, winning five times including four in a row from 1924. During this time Hagen only lost one game out of 31 to Sarazen in the 1923 final. Hagen’s overall record in the USPGA of 40 wins from 50 matches ranks him fourth.
After Hagen’s 1927 win the impressive Rodman Wanamaker trophy went missing few a few years until it was ‘found’ in the cellar of L.A. Young & Company. Hagen said it had been lost when being transferred by taxi to his hotel, so it was some coincidence that L.A. Young’s factory was where Hagen’s clubs were built.
Through to the end of the 1930s there were several multiple winners such as Leo Diegel (0.633), Denny Shute (0.686) and Paul Runyan (0.714).
Moving into the next decade, Byron Nelson (0.822) made five finals in a six year period from 1939, but only won twice. However his consistency gives him the best record of anyone playing more than 20 games.
Three time winners include Sam Snead (0.781) who played in five finals and Gene Sarazen who won three times across four finals. Sarazen also played and won the most matches in the match play era of the U.S. PGA Championship, with 56 wins from 81 matches between 1924 and 1956.
However both players rank behind Ben Hogan (0.815) who places third thanks to wins in 1946 and 1948 and three quarter-finals. Special mention to Australia’s Jim Ferrier (0.720) who was champion in 1947 and the only non-American to reach the final in the 23 years after England’s Jim Barnes was runner-up in 1924.
Rounding out the top-10 of the Match Play World USPGA rankings are some less familiar names, such as second placed Walter Burkemo (0.818) who won in 1953 and was runner-up in 1951 and 1954.
The match play USPGAs in 1956 and 1957 saw the field expand to 128, so the champion had to win 7 games after 2 rounds of qualifying. Lionel Hebert (0.846) defeated Dow Finsterwald (0.847) to win the 39th PGA Championship in 1957 and the last major to be decided by match play. However Finsterwald did get his hands on the trophy the following year when he won the first stroke play version of the USPGA .
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