Top 10 Biggest Collapses in Major Golf History
Published on April 12th, 2026 4:54 pm ESTWritten By: Dave Manuel
Tiger Woods had an aura about him when he was in his prime.If he had the lead, you weren't going to catch him.
Not all golfers had that killer instinct. Some, unlike Tiger, wilt under the pressure of having an entire field chasing after them.
Here are the top 10 biggest blown leads in major golf history:
1. Greg Norman, 1996 Masters
Greg Norman is the greatest player to never win the Masters. He'll tell you that himself.
Heading into the final round in 1996, Norman had a six-shot lead over Nick Faldo - the largest 54-hole lead ever surrendered in a men's major. What followed was nothing short of a complete and utter psychological disintegration.
Norman shot 78. Faldo shot 67. An 11-stroke swing over 18 holes. Norman went from six ahead to five behind, and Faldo - who embraced him on the 18th green and whispered "I don't know what to say, I just want to give you a hug" - walked away with the Green Jacket.
Norman was still four clear after seven holes that Sunday. Then Amen Corner happened, a double bogey on 12, and the wheels came completely off. He never won another major. The 1996 Masters collapse is the gold standard of choking in golf, and honestly, in all of sport.
2. Jean Van de Velde, 1999 Open Championship
You almost have to laugh. Almost.
Jean Van de Velde stood on the 18th tee at Carnoustie with a three-shot lead. He needed nothing more than a double bogey to win The Open and become the first Frenchman to lift the Claret Jug since 1907. He was ranked 152nd in the world. This was his moment.
What followed is the most cartoonish collapse in the history of professional golf. His drive drifted onto the 17th fairway. His second shot hit a grandstand railing and ricocheted into deep rough. His third found the Barry Burn - the creek that snakes across the 18th hole. He then took his shoes and socks off and waded into the water to consider playing the ball before thinking better of it. His fifth shot found a bunker. He got up and down for a triple bogey 7.
He made the playoff. He lost the playoff. Paul Lawrie, who had started the day ten shots back, won The Open.
BBC commentator Peter Alliss, watching Van de Velde standing in the burn, summed it up perfectly: "This is so, so, so, so sad. And so unnecessary."
Van de Velde never won a major. He later said it never haunted him. Most of us don't believe him.
3. Jordan Spieth, 2016 Masters
Spieth was defending champion, five shots clear of the field with nine holes to play, and was about to complete a wire-to-wire Masters victory.
Then the 12th happened.
The 12th at Augusta is a 155-yard par 3 over Rae's Creek. It is the most dangerous short hole in major championship golf, and it has destroyed more dreams than any other hole on the planet. Spieth hit two balls into the water. He walked off with a quadruple bogey 7.
In the space of about ten minutes, a five-shot lead became a one-shot deficit. Danny Willett, a largely unknown Englishman who had almost skipped the tournament because his wife was due to give birth that week, won his first and only major. It was the first Masters win by an Englishman since Nick Faldo in 1996 - the same year Norman had his meltdown.
The golf gods have a dark sense of humour.
4. Rory McIlroy, 2011 Masters
Yes, McIlroy has appeared on this list before - and given what he went on to achieve, this one stings all the more in retrospect.
The 2011 version was a 21-year-old kid carrying a four-shot final-round lead and all the expectation in the world. He hung on through the front nine, reaching the turn just one ahead. Then the 10th tee happened - a wild drive into the trees, a triple bogey. A three-putt bogey on 11. A four-putt double bogey on 12.
He shot 80. It was the worst final-round score by a 54-hole leader in Masters history. He finished ten shots behind winner Charl Schwartzel, who birdied the last four holes.
McIlroy later called the collapse "the most important day" of his career. He said losing that badly taught him more than losing by one ever could have. He went on to win four majors and eventually, in 2025, he finally got his Masters.
Whether that makes the 2011 disaster a good story or a painful one probably depends on which end of it you were watching.
5. Arnold Palmer, 1966 US Open
Seven shots. Arnold Palmer had a seven-shot lead over Billy Casper with nine holes to play at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. You could have gone for a long lunch and come back expecting to see Arnie holding the trophy.
Casper shot 32 on the back nine. Palmer fell apart. They finished tied and headed into an 18-hole playoff the next day.
Palmer led by two with eight holes left in the playoff. Casper did it again. Won by four.
Palmer was chasing Ben Hogan's US Open scoring record and admitted he pushed too hard trying to go low when he should have just closed the tournament out. It was a catastrophic lapse in course management from one of the smartest players of his generation.
Palmer never won another major after 1964. The 1966 US Open was the door slamming shut.
6. Phil Mickelson, 2006 US Open
Phil Mickelson was one par away from winning three consecutive majors - a feat that would have put him in the conversation with the all-time greats. He was standing on the 18th tee at Winged Foot with the lead. All he needed was a par.
He hit driver. It went nowhere near the fairway, clipping a hospitality tent and bouncing into the rough. His next shot hit a tree. He eventually made double bogey and handed the title to Geoff Ogilvy, who won at five over par - the highest winning score at a US Open in nearly 30 years.
Before the press could even ask him a question, Mickelson leaned into the microphone and said: "I am such an idiot."
Hard to argue with that assessment, Phil.
7. Ed Sneed, 1979 Masters
Ed Sneed entered the final round of the 1979 Masters with a five-shot lead. He birdied the 13th and 15th holes on the back nine and held a three-shot cushion with just three holes to play.
He bogeyed 16. He bogeyed 17. He bogeyed 18.
Three closing bogeys - any one of which, converted to par, would have won him the tournament outright. Instead, he fell into a three-way playoff with Tom Watson and Fuzzy Zoeller, who won the whole thing in sudden death. It was Zoeller's first Masters appearance.
Sneed shot 76. He never won a major. He quietly went on to become a golf instructor and rarely spoke about that Sunday in Augusta again. You can't really blame him.
8. Ken Venturi, 1956 Masters
The cruelest part of this one? Venturi was an amateur. He couldn't even have taken the prize money if he had won.
The 24-year-old entered the final round with a four-shot lead and shot 80. Jack Burke Jr. started the day eight shots behind in fourth place, shot 71, and won by one. Burke's comeback from eight back remains the largest final-round deficit ever overcome to win the Masters.
Venturi's back nine was a disaster - a 42 that included seven bogeys over the final nine holes. Augusta National didn't invite him back for several years after the collapse, a slight he reportedly never forgot.
He eventually turned pro, and to his enormous credit, won the 1964 US Open in brutal, suffocating heat at Congressional - one of the most gutsy performances in major championship history. Augusta, though, was the one that got away.
9. Francesco Molinari, 2019 Masters
Molinari co-led entering the final round of the 2019 Masters and was the picture of composure through the first eleven holes of Sunday. He was the reigning Open champion. He was one of the best ball-strikers in the world. He looked, by every measure, like the man who was going to win.
Then Augusta's 12th hole - that cursed little par 3 over Rae's Creek - claimed another victim. Molinari found the water. Bogey. He steadied briefly, but hit the water again at the par-5 15th. By then it was over.
Tiger Woods, playing in the same group, watched the whole thing unfold with the patience of a man who had been waiting eleven years for this exact moment. He shot 70 and won his fifth Masters title - his fifteenth major overall, his first in eleven years, and one of the greatest sporting comebacks in modern history.
Molinari's collapse wasn't the story that day. Tiger winning was the story. In some ways, that made it worse.
10. Adam Scott, 2012 Open Championship
Adam Scott stood on the 15th tee at Royal Lytham and St Annes with a four-shot lead and four holes to play. The Claret Jug was his. The presentation ceremony was being arranged. Ernie Els, who had already finished his round and was sitting in the clubhouse at seven under, had mentally handed the trophy over.
Then Scott bogeyed 15. Then 16. Then 17. Then 18.
Four consecutive bogeys on the four final holes of a major championship. By the time Scott tapped in on the last, he had handed Els - who at 42 was playing what most expected to be the twilight of his major career - one of the most unlikely victories in Open history.
Els punched the air in the clubhouse. Scott, head bowed, could barely bring himself to look at the scoreboard. It was the kind of finish that defines a career in all the wrong ways.
To his enormous credit, Scott came back. He won the 2013 Masters - becoming the first Australian to win at Augusta - and that Green Jacket went a long way toward healing the wound that Royal Lytham left behind. But ask any golf fan what they remember about the 2012 Open, and they won't mention Els. They'll mention the last four holes.
