Golf: Ranking The Top Golfer From All 50 States

Missourian Tom Watson played well to fans on both sides of the pond during his lengthy career

Massachusetts

Francis Ouimet

Ouimet earns the honor of the most ancient golfer to make the list. The Brookline native is occasionally referred to as the “father of amateur golf” after he pulled off one of the biggest upsets in golf and sports history. Ouimet, then just a 20-year-old, won the 1913 US Open over elite professional golfers of the day, Brits Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. Ouimet lived just blocks from The Country Club in Brookline where the Open was staged. He almost didn’t compete due to work complications, but the five-time Massachusetts Amateur champ teed it up in Brookline, and the rest is history. After reaching a playoff with Vardon and Ray, he came back for the 18-hole Monday playoff and won on his home track by five strokes in a miraculous victory, inspiring the 2005 film, The Greatest Game Ever Played, that reenacted his feat.

Michigan

Leo Diegel

The Gratiot Township native was getting it done nearly 100 years ago, capturing 30 PGA Tour wins between 1920 and 1934. He won back-to-back PGA Championships in ’28 and ’29 and was also as much of an international player as they came back in his day. He tied for runner-up honors at the Open Championship in ’30 and played on the first four Ryder Cup teams. Gene Sarazan described Diegel as a devotee to the game: “In all my years of golf, I have never seen anyone whose devotion to the game could match Leo’s. “It was his religion. Between courses at the table, Leo used to get up and practice swings,” Sarazen said of the 2003 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee. “Every night he went to bed dreaming theory and every morning he awakened with some hot idea that was going to revolutionize the game.”

Minnesota

Tom Lehman

Hailing from the Twin Cities suburb of Alexandria, Lehman owns the distinct honor as the only golfer to be named Player of the Year on the Web.com Tour, the PGA Tour and the PGA Champions. What he’s likely most proud of in a career with 35 worldwide wins (five on the PGA Tour) is his lone major win at the 1996 Open Championship. Lehman, now 57, also reached No.1 in the world for exactly one week and competed on seven international teams (four Ryder Cups). Lehman didn’t win on Tour until 1994 at the age of 35, but his consistency throughout the duration of the ’90s was nearly unmatched.

Mississippi

Pete Brown

Polio couldn’t stop the Port Gibson native from achieving his dreams of becoming one of the first African-Americans to play on the PGA Tour. Brown recovered from near paralysis in the 1950s as a teen and turned pro at 19 in ’54 and earned his Tour card in ’63. He won 14 times as a professional, including twice on the PGA Tour. His crowning achievement was becoming the first African-American winner on the PGA Tour when he won the Waco Turner Open in 1964.

Missouri

Tom Watson

Watson’s Midwestern humility and his steely focus allowed his game to translate well across the world, as his five Open Championship wins ties him for second most. That only scrapes the surface of a Hall of Fame career resulting in 39 PGA Tour wins (11th all time), eight majors with three legs of the career grand slam and six Ryder Cup appearances between player (four) and captain (two). Big moments like the 1977 Duel in the Sun at the British Open against Jack Nicklaus, his chip-in at the 71st hole of the 1982 US Open and his near-miss at the 2009 Open Championship at 59 years old are just a few that have built the legend of the Kansas City, Missouri, native.