Arnold Palmer is one of golf and, indeed, sport’s biggest legends.
His charisma and influence made the American one of the game’s biggest trailblazers and his legacy lives on.
Palmer racked up a mighty 62 PGA Tour wins in his storied career and, ahead of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill – the tournament named in his honour – we look at The King’s biggest victory margins.
12 strokes – 1962 Phoenix Open Invitational
It’s fair to say that Arnie was full of confidence when he blitzed the field by 12 in Phoenix. He’d won his first Open Championship (at Royal Birkdale) the previous summer and less than two months after this win, he captured a third Masters.
Palmer shot 64-68-71-66 to shoot 15-under and no-one got anywhere near him. Those in tied second included then tour rookie Jack Nicklaus. This was the middle one of three straight wins in Phoenix (1961, 1962, 1963) for Palmer.
7 strokes – 1960 Baton Rouge Open Invitational
Palmer was in his pomp in 1960, winning eight times, a haul that included his second Masters and first US Open, the latter coming at Cherry Hills in Colorado.
A week before Baton Rouge, Arnie had captured the Texas Open Invitational by two and, despite tough conditions, he rode that momentum to streak to a seven-shot triumph at Baton Rouge Country Club thanks to rounds of 71-71-69-68. A week later he made it three wins in three weeks after a one-shot success at the Pensacola Open.
7 strokes – 1961 Baton Rouge Open Invitational
A year after winning by seven at Baton Rouge Country Club, Arnie had to defend his title at a different venue – Sherwood Forest Country Club. Would that hamper his chances? Not a bit of it.
Remarkably, Palmer matched his feat of 12 months earlier and romped to another seven-shot win, this time shooting 14-under. He set the tone with a 65 and then kicked clear with laps of 67-68-66.
6 strokes – 1962 Open Championship
Major championships are usually tight affairs. Palmer had won his third Masters Green Jacket three months earlier but only after seeing off Gary Player and Dow Finsterwald in a playoff. Three of his other four major wins prior to 1962 had been achieved by one-shot margins and the other by two.
But in the 1962 Open at Royal Troon with the fairways running fast, Palmer sprinted away from the field to win by six after rounds of 71-69-67-69. With crowds flocking to see the defending champion after his one-shot win at Royal Birkdale a year earlier, Palmer turned on the magic, his all-out attacking style being rewarded with the then lowest Open score in history of 276.
6 strokes – 1964 Masters Tournament
Palmer won seven majors in total and four of those were achieved on the hallowed turf of Augusta National. After wins in 1958, 1960 and 1962, Arnie kept up the two-year sequence with his most dominant Masters win.
The then 34-year-old Palmer started with rounds of 69-68-69 to move five clear and a Sunday 70 wrapped up victory by six shots. Jack Nicklaus and Dave Marr finished distant runners-up. Surprisingly, it was to be the last of his seven major victories, all achieved in a heady burst between 1958 and 1964.
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Article Link: Arnold Palmer biggest wins: largest victory margins on the PGA Tour