The player in professional golf to have the most play-off defeats is Kathy Whitworth.
A six-time Major winner, she won 88 LPGA tournaments between 1962 and 1985, and was runner up 93 times. Eight of her victories came via a play-off. But she was also defeated 20 times in a play-off. Her record in head-to-head play-offs stands at won 8, lost 14; but she lost all six of her three-way play-offs.
She also lost both her play-offs in a Major: the LPGA Championships of 1968 and 1970, both of which were played as a further round, losing 68-75 to Sandra Post in 1968 and 74-78 to Shirley Engelton in 1970.
In men’s professional golf, the most play-off defeats is by Ben Hogan. He lost 12 of his 20 play-offs, including three out of four in Majors. He won nine Majors, including the 1950 US Open, where he shot 69 to overcome Lloyd Mangrum (73) and George Fazio (75) in play-off.
All of Hogan’s play-offs were played over 18 holes, so he spent a long time playing-off. He even once had to wait a week to contest a play-off, only to lose it. That was at the 1950 Los Angeles Open, after rain and another tournament had delayed it.
Hogan thus has the presumed record for most play-off holes played across a career. But others have contested more play-offs – as well as Whitworth, there is Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, who both took part in 24 play-offs on the PGA Tour.
Nicklaus won 14 and lost 10, but went 3-1 in Majors. He also went 2-1 on the Champions Tour. Palmer also had a 14-10 winning record on the PGA Tour, but was 1-3 in Majors.
Palmer and Nicklaus share the record for most play-off wins on the PGA Tour. They only went up against each other three times in a play-off, most notably at the 1962 US Open, which Nicklaus won 71-74.
Tiger Woods has the most impressive PGA Tour play-off stats, winning 11 of the 12 he has been involved in, including all three in Majors. Only Billy Mayfair, at the 1998 Nissan Open, has beaten Tiger in extra holes on PGA Tour, although Padraig Harrington has done so on the Japan Tour.
Worst percentages
All the worst, in terms of numbers, of course also won several play-offs. Hogan has a 40% win record, Whitworth 28.5%. But two-time Major champion Ben Crenshaw lost all eight of his play-offs, including at the 1979 US PGA Championship, which he lost to a David Graham birdie on the third extra hole.
Greg Norman won two Majors, The Open Championships of 1986 and 1993, but lost all four of his play-offs in Majors, one in each Major. In this, he equalled Craig Wood, who had also lost a play-off in all four of the Majors between 1933 and 1939. Wood eventually won two Majors in 1941: the Masters and US Open.
