The 10 Worst Collapses In Golf History

There is something particularly haunting about a golfer collapsing just moments away from achieving greatness.

For most professional golfers, being on the precipice of winning a major only comes around once or twice in an entire career—if it comes around at all. Having that kind of victory stripped away in heartbreaking fashion is something that sticks with that player forever.

And when a more established player kicks away a tournament that could have changed the trajectory of their career, that leaves a permanent stain on their resume.

Here are the 10 golf collapses that stand above the rest.

10. Scott Hoch (1989 Masters)

Collapses come in all shapes and sizes. For Scott Hoch, it was a simple two-foot putt.

Hoch came to the 71st hole of the 1989 Masters nursing a one-stroke lead over Nick Faldo. He hit a remarkable chip from right of the green to about four feet but missed the par putt, eventually getting into a playoff with Faldo.

The real collapse came on the first extra hole. Hoch had the advantage throughout the 10th hole as Faldo made a sloppy bogey. Hoch hit the green in regulation and then lagged his putt to about two feet.

It wasn’t a gimme, coming from above the hole, but Hoch took more than two minutes to line up the putt and then didn’t even hit the hole with his effort. He aimed well outside the left edge and never even gave it a chance. A hole later, Faldo made a long birdie putt to win one of his six major titles.

Hoch won 11 times on the PGA Tour and collected 15 top-10 major finishes throughout his career—but he never won a major and will always be best known for that miss.

You can also put Doug Sanders in this category. Sanders missed a similar length putt to win the 1970 Open Championship, ultimately falling to Jack Nicklaus in a playoff. I have Hoch ahead given that he missed two very short putts that would have won him his major.

9. Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie (2006 U.S. Open)

It’s a combo! Two for the price of one!

The 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot featured multiple train wrecks down the stretch—especially on the 72nd hole where three golfers, all having a chance to win, made bogey or worse.

The golf world remembers Phil Mickelson because of the circumstances. Mickelson, who would never win a U.S. Open, came to the 72nd hole needing a par to win, a bogey for a playoff. He blocked a driver way left and then got greedy with his second shot, hitting a tree. He made an ugly double bogey, losing by one stroke to Geoff Ogilvy.

But almost more heartbreaking is that Montgomerie, who never won a major, made a 72nd-hole double bogey ahead of Mickelson. He did hit the fairway but came up short with his approach and then made a mess from there. Had he salvaged just a bogey, he would have been in a playoff.

I don’t consider this on the level of other collapses because it was one extremely difficult hole—Jim Furyk also made a bogey when a par would have put him in a playoff—and the margins were very thin.

These were still historic blunders but more understandable than others here.

8. U.S. Ryder Cup team (2012)

There have been two comebacks in the Ryder Cup with a team trailing 10-6 heading into Sunday.

You could choose either of them but I think the 2012 match is more poignant for this list. While the Europeans lost the 1999 Ryder Cup in a similar fashion, that came on foreign soil to a deeper American squad. The 2012 match featured the Americans falling apart at home. The U.S. also led 10-4 at one point on Saturday, which makes this even worse.

Give all credit to the European side which played inspired golf to create the “Miracle at Medinah”—performances by Ian Poulter and Justin Rose stand out as they magically cut into what seemed like an insurmountable deficit.

But the American side only won 3.5 out of 12 points on the final afternoon. They were let down tremendously by Steve Stricker (0-4-0) and Tiger Woods (0-3-1) throughout that Ryder Cup but everyone could have done more to avoid losing like that at home.

7. Thomas Bjorn (2003 Open Championship)

One of the most visceral “oh no” moments on this list came when Thomas Bjorn had to play three consecutive bunker shots on the 70th hole of the 2003 Open Championship, costing him the title.

Bjorn had a three-stroke lead on the 15th hole but he made a bogey before heading to the par-3 16th. His tee shot found a greenside bunker and his first two attempts to get out rolled back to his feet.

After taking a double bogey, Bjorn was only tied for the lead. He took another bogey on the 17th and American Ben Curtis won the claret jug by one stroke.

It was particularly stunning given how well Bjorn was playing. He was 3-under for the day before that closing stretch.

It may not be as remembered as some of the others on this list but Bjorn never won a major and probably deserved that one more than Curtis.

6. Adam Scott (2012 Open Championship)

I think this one could be a little higher on the list but Scott did win the 2013 Masters to take some sting out of this heartbreak.

Scott led by four strokes heading into the final round at Royal Lytham and St Annes. By the time he reached the 15th tee on Sunday, all had gone according to plan—Scott still led by four strokes over Ernie Els and there were no other challengers in contention.

Some of the collapses on this list were gradual over the course of a round or they were sudden moments where the brain blacked out for one costly moment. Scott’s was neither. Everything looked perfect until it wasn’t.

He made bogey on the last four holes, leaving the door open for Els who made birdie on the 72nd hole to finish at 7-under. Scott didn’t even get the opportunity for a playoff.

Adding to the heartbreak was that Els came to the back nine at just 3-under and needed a nearly flawless performance of four birdies and five pars to even have a chance.

Thankfully for Scott, he bounced back eight months later and can call himself a major champion.

5. Jordan Spieth (2016 Masters)

While Rory McIlroy’s 2011 Masters meltdown could have made this list, I think Spieth’s collapse was worse.

Spieth came into the final round with a one-stroke lead but made five birdies on his opening nine to extend his lead to five strokes. He had already won the Masters the previous year and another green jacket seemed inevitable given the way he was playing.

Curiously, Spieth made bogeys at Nos. 10 and 11 to see his lead cut to three strokes. The concern exploded into a full-on breakdown on the 12th hole when he dumped two balls into the water and could not recover, ultimately losing to Danny Willett by three strokes.

Spieth’s struggles mostly came on one hole in the middle of the round rather than the slow bleed McIlroy had five years earlier. Had he made a bogey on No. 12, he probably still wins the tournament.

4. Ed Sneed (1979 Masters)

Perhaps the biggest collapse (which most golf fans seem to forget) is what happened to Ed Sneed in the 1979 Masters.

Sneed won four times on Tour but only got into contention at a major once in 31 appearances. This was his shot.

Leading by five strokes heading into Sunday, Sneed (unlike who is next on this list) actually played solid golf throughout the afternoon and came to the 16th hole holding a three-stroke advantage over Tom Watson.

What happened next is difficult to watch. Sneed missed a five-foot par attempt at the 16th and then a shorter par putt at the 17th. With his lead down to one stroke, Sneed hit the middle of the fairway on 18 knowing that he just needed a par to win. But he wiped his approach shot right, pitched up to about six feet and left that par attempt mere centimeters away, hanging on the lip.

That led to the first sudden-death playoff in Masters history. Fuzzy Zoeller, a Masters rookie, won on the second extra hole.

For Sneed, most fans only remember his name for the Masters he somehow threw away.

3. Greg Norman (1996 Masters)

When it comes to collapses where a golfer’s mental game was completely exposed over an entire afternoon, I’m not sure anything rivals Greg Norman imploding at the 1996 Masters.

Norman desperately wanted to win a green jacket after multiple heartbreaks, including losing to Jack Nicklaus in the 1986 Masters and Larry Mize (who famously beat him with a holed pitch shot) in the 1987 Masters.

The 1996 tournament appeared to be Norman’s time. He opened with a 9-under 63 and followed it up with solid rounds of 69 and 71 to take a six-stroke lead over Nick Faldo into the final day. He was in firm command of the tournament.

There wasn’t too much movement through the five first holes on Sunday but Faldo made birdies at 6 and 8 to apply some pressure. That is really when the collapse started in earnest. Norman made bogeys on his next three holes, falling back into a tie for the lead by the 12th tee. He rinsed that tee shot to fall two shots back and then completed the meltdown with another shot into the water on the 16th.

In the end, it wasn’t particularly close. Faldo played very well, shooting 67 to win by five strokes. It would have taken a 72 from Norman to win outright. He shot 78 instead. The theatrics of this collapse—how Norman went down in such an emotional blaze—makes it so memorable.

Norman’s legacy would have been wildly different if he won this Masters.

2. Arnold Palmer (1966 U.S. Open)

Leading Billy Casper by three strokes heading into the final round of the 1966 U.S. Open at Olympic Club, Arnold Palmer extended the margin to seven shots by the turn. It was all a formality at that point for the King to get his second U.S. Open title.

In fact, Palmer started focusing on Ben Hogan’s U.S. Open scoring record. He just needed to shoot a 1-over 36 on the back nine to break it. (That Hogan record was 276 which would have been 4-under at Olympic. Times have changed).

Instead, Palmer started to leak oil. By the 13th tee, his lead was six strokes. By the 15th tee, his lead was five strokes. Still fine, right? Nope. Casper made birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 while Palmer went on a run of three consecutive bogeys.

They finished tied and wound up in an 18-hole playoff against each other. Palmer also kicked that one away, making this a double collapse.

Leading by two strokes heading into the last seven holes, Palmer went bogey-par-bogey-bogey-double bogey. He would lose by four shots to Casper.

It doesn’t necessarily diminish Palmer’s legacy given that he won seven majors. However, in terms of pure collapses over the back nine, squandering a seven-shot lead is tough to match.

1. Jean Van de Velde (1999 Open Championship)

There is no choke in golf history that matches Van de Velde.

Leading by three strokes coming to the 72nd hole of the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie, Van de Velde only needed a double bogey to ensure victory.

It would have been a startling win for the journeyman who finished his career with just one top-15 major finish—this tournament—and never sniffed a big-time win outside of the 1999 Open.

Instead, Van de Velde made multiple confounding errors on his way to a triple bogey. He would then lose in a three-man playoff that was over before it started.

Van de Velde was an incredibly good sport about the collapse, even coming back years later to prove he could have made a double bogey only using his putter.

Even still, it hurts to watch this replay. Van de Velde got away with a poor tee shot and could have hit a couple of short irons from that point to easily secure victory. Instead he inexplicably forced a risky shot toward the green, then chopped his third into the Barry Burn. It actually took some heroics just to make triple from there.

It’s the equivalent of not taking a knee to close out a football game when the other team doesn’t have timeouts. No other collapse on this list was a total mental breakdown of this magnitude.

A few other honorable mentions include Rory McIlroy at the 2011 Masters and 2024 U.S. Open, Dustin Johnson at the 2010 PGA Championship and 2015 U.S. Open, Jason Dufner at the 2011 PGA Championship and Sam Snead in the 1947 U.S. Open.

So that is the list of the 10 worst collapses in golf history. Do you agree or disagree? As always, let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: Jordan Spieth’s collapse at the 2016 Masters is one of the most heartbreaking moments golf has seen. (GETTY IMAGES/Kevin C. Cox)