The modern game of golf is generally accepted as having been created in Scotland, but unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long to make the short journey south to England. It was not until 1890 that an Englishman first won a major, though: John Ball ended the Scottish dominance of The Open Championship that had begun in 1860.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the tide turned, and golfers from south of the border enjoyed far more success than those from Scotland. This has been true both in general, in terms of wins in majors, and also as judged by success at The Open. That said, ahead of the 2026 Open Championship, no English golfer has won the game’s oldest major since Nick Faldo, all the way back in 1992, while Scot Paul Lawrie claimed the title in 1999 at Carnoustie.
Despite England’s best golfers struggling to win The Open over the past three decades, English golf is in a very strong place right now. Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Tyrrell Hatton have consistently been in and around the top 20 for many years now, while other English youngsters are also progressing nicely.
Do any of the four Englishmen who are currently flying high in the world rankings make our list of the best English golfers of all time, though?
Faldo the Clear Number One
There are two English players who have won more Open Championships than the last Englishman to lift the Claret Jug, and one to have won more majors, but Nick Faldo is the clear number one in our eyes. Faldo is joint-12th in terms of the number of all-time majors won, having claimed six wins in the sport’s biggest four events.
Rory McIlroy has claimed his sixth title too and could add more. But while the title of greatest UK golfer ever is open to debate, when we restrict the choice just to players from England, it has to be Faldo.
His six majors alone are enough to secure him that status, with the only other English golfers to have landed more than two all having plied their trade well over 70 years ago and more than a century ago in some cases. The game was so different back then and less competitive, with fewer players travelling to compete in Britain, especially in the cases of some of the leading English major winners, who won their titles over 100 years ago.
Faldo, in contrast, was up against the best players from all over the world and had a huge rivalry with Australia’s Greg Norman, among others. He won a trio of Opens, in 1987, 1990 and 1992, as well as a hat-trick of Masters, winning at Augusta in 1989, 1990 and 1996. He also boasted runner-up finishes in the other two majors and in all finished inside the top 10 on 26 occasions in majors.
| Major | Best Result |
|---|---|
| Masters Tournament | Winner 1989, 1990, 1996 |
| U.S. Open | Runner-up 1988 |
| Open Championship | Winner 1987, 1990, 1992 |
| PGA Championship | Runner-up 1992 |
On top of that, Faldo enjoyed four separate stints as the number-one-ranked player in the world. He first hit the top of the rankings in September 1990, but his final spell there, between July 1992 and February 1994, accounted for 81 of his total of 97 weeks at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR).
Only five men, none of them English, have been number one for longer, and of that quintet, only Jack Nicklaus has won more majors. Faldo also boasts 43 pro wins in total, including two in the prestigious (now defunct) World Match Play Championship. On top of all that, he has been a Ryder Cup legend for Europe, with no European (and only Phil Mickelson from either side) having played in more than his 11 Ryder Cups. He is also third overall in terms of most Ryder Cup matches played.
The Golden Oldies
The Englishman with the most major championships to his name is actually from Jersey. However, the legendary Harry Vardon, who has a grip named after him, moved to England when he was just 19 in 1890, and won all of his majors while living in England. He moved to Ripon initially, then Bury, then back to Yorkshire to be the pro at Ganton. He died in London in 1937, and while Jersey will claim him, we think he merits mention here, not least because his father was English too.
Vardon won seven majors in all, with six of those coming at The Open. He won his first at Muirfield in 1896, before further victories in 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911 and 1914. He also won the US Open in 1900 on his tournament debut, five years after it was inaugurated.
John Henry Taylor was a contemporary of Vardon, and along with James Braid (a Scot) was part of the so-called Great Triumvirate. Taylor won The Open Championship five times, in 1894, 1895, 1900, 1909 and 1913 and was second to Vardon at the 1900 US Open. Taylor helped found the PGA and also worked as a golf course architect. A Devon man through and through, he died in Northam in 1963, 91 years after he was born in the same market town.
Jim Barnes was born in Cornwall in 1886 but moved to the US in his youth, although he never became an American citizen. He played his golf a little after the duo named above but won four majors: the US PGA Championship in 1916 and 1919, the US Open in 1921 and The Open in 1925. He died in New Jersey in 1966.
Moving closer to the modern era, we have Henry Cotton, a man who won The Open three times. Born in Cheshire in 1907, his first major came in 1934, his second in 1937 and his last after the war, in 1948. His record at The Open was outstanding, with nine consecutive top 10s in the 1930s. Had it not been for the Second World War, he would surely have won more majors.
Modern Greats
Englishman Harold Hilton won two majors (The Open in 1892 and 1897), but the two that Tony Jacklin won are far more historic and represent a greater accomplishment. Jacklin, from Scunthorpe, is known to many for his feats as Ryder Cup captain in the 1980s. However, before that, he won The Open in 1969 and then the US Open the following year. He was the first, and for many years only, player from Europe to win an American major aside from the Masters in the modern era.
No English golfer since then has won more than a single major. Justin Rose won the US Open in 2013 and has gone so close at other majors, most notably at the Masters. He has also spent 13 weeks at the top of the OWGR. Danny Willett won at Augusta in 2016 but has not had anything like the career of Rose. Matt Fitzpatrick won the US Open in 2022 and still possibly has his peak years ahead of him.
However, we should also mention two players who seem certain to end their careers without a major to their name. Both have been ranked number one in the world, and both are bona fide Ryder Cup legends. Worksop native Lee Westwood spent 22 weeks as number one and has played a record 47 Ryder Cup matches.
Only seven men have been number one for more weeks than Luke Donald’s 56. Born in Hertfordshire in 1977, Donald excelled away from the majors but has written his name into Ryder Cup history in recent years. He won all four Ryder Cups he competed in as a player and captained the team to victory in 2023 and 2025. He bids for an unprecedented Ryder Cup hat-trick on home soil in 2027.