Golfers With the Most Holes in One: Ranked Career & Tour Records
On this page14
- 01Golf's career hole-in-one leaders at a glance
- 02Norman Manley — 59 (disputed)
- 03Mancil Davis — 51
- 04Art Wall Jr. — 45
- 05Arnold Palmer — 21
- 06Tiger Woods — 20
- 07Kathy Whitworth — 11
- 08Hal Sutton & Robert Allenby — 10
- 09Miguel Angel Jimenez — 10
- 10Hubert Green & Gil Morgan — 8
- 11Miller Barber, Graham Marsh & J.C. Snead — 6
- 12How we ranked the list
- 13Lifetime totals vs. verified tour records
- 14The record picture in 2026
We rank by the best-documented ace total, and we weigh how the number was verified: an independently tracked tour record counts more than a self-reported lifetime figure, so a discredited claim like Manley's 59 sits above the accepted mark with a caveat rather than being erased.
Golf's career hole-in-one leaders at a glance
| Rank | Golfer | Recorded aces |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norman Manley | 59 claimed; disputed |
| 2 | Mancil Davis | 51 documented |
| 3 | Art Wall Jr. | 45 career; five in competition |
| 4 | Arnold Palmer | 21 |
| 5 | Tiger Woods | 20; three on PGA Tour |
| 6 | Kathy Whitworth | 11 on LPGA Tour |
- Disputed all-time claim
Norman Manley — 59 (disputed)
A retired California engineer, Manley is said to have made 59 aces between September 1963 and April 1988, the highest number ever attributed to one golfer and the default answer to "who has the most holes in one" for decades. His most-repeated feat, acing two consecutive par-4 holes at Del Valle Country Club in 1964, still circulates today. That is why he sits at the top of this list on raw claimed count.
He ranks above Mancil Davis only on the number itself, not on credibility. Golf outlets have quietly stopped citing Manley because his witnesses were never systematically audited and, now in his late 90s, he has proven hard to locate to reconstruct the trail. Treat 59 as an unverified ceiling, not a settled record.
Status: Amateur · Window: 1963–1988 · Signature feat: aced two straight par-4s (1964) · Verification: unaudited
- Accepted record
Mancil Davis — 51
Davis, a Texas club professional nicknamed the "King of Aces," made his first hole in one in 1966 at age 11 and his 51st in 2007 — and had 20 aces before his 20th birthday. What separates him from Manley is documentation: nearly all 51 are recorded, one witnessed by future Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, and his career also includes 10 double eagles.
Because his total holds up to scrutiny where Manley's does not, Golf.com and most publications now cite Davis's 51 as the de facto world record. He ranks second here purely on count, but he is the name to trust as the real record holder.
Status: Club pro · First ace: 1966 (age 11) · 51st ace: 2007 · Also: 10 double eagles
- Longtime unofficial record
Art Wall Jr. — 45
The 1959 Masters champion tallied 45 career aces, held up as the unofficial world record for years before Davis and Manley entered the conversation. Five came in PGA Tour or Senior Tour competition, spanning the 1950 Texas Open to a 1986 Senior Tour round.
Wall ranks above the household names below him because a meaningful share of his total is tournament-verified rather than self-reported — the strongest professional credibility among the sport's high-volume acers. His lifetime figure has since been claimed as passed by Phil Mickelson's reported 47, but Wall's remains the better-documented benchmark.
Major: 1959 Masters · Career aces: 45 · In competition: 5 · Span: 1950–1986
- Longest ace career
Arnold Palmer — 21
Palmer's 21 aces ranged from 122 to 245 yards and were made across two countries and 11 U.S. states — a combined ace distance of roughly 1.8 miles. His first came in the 1940s at Latrobe Country Club, his hometown course, where he later added four more aces on the same hole.
His last arrived in 2011 at age 82, giving him one of the longest documented ace careers of any recognizable name in golf. He edges Tiger Woods here on total, and on longevity that few players of any era can match.
Career aces: 21 · Range: 122–245 yds · Last ace: 2011 (age 82) · Home hole: aced 5 times
- Modern icon
Tiger Woods — 20
Woods has 20 career holes in one, but only three came in official PGA Tour competition — a reminder of how much rarer aces are under tournament pressure than in casual or junior play. His first came at age six in 1982 at Heartwell Golf Course in Long Beach, and after his 19th in 1998 he went two full decades without another until 2018, again at Heartwell.
He sits just behind Palmer on count. His modest tour tally, despite ranking among the greatest golfers ever, is often cited as evidence that aces reward opportunity and course setup as much as skill.
Career aces: 20 · On PGA Tour: 3 · First ace: 1982 (age 6) · Gap: 1998–2018
- LPGA Tour record
Kathy Whitworth — 11
Whitworth holds the LPGA Tour hole-in-one record with 11 career aces — more than any player on any major professional tour, men's or women's, in official competition. Her 11th and final tour ace came at the 1983 Henredon Classic.
She ranks above the tied tour-record holders below her because 11 is the single highest verified official-tour total on record. It sits alongside her 88 LPGA Tour titles, the most career wins of any professional golfer, adding rare precision to an already dominant résumé.
Tour: LPGA · Tour aces: 11 (record) · Final ace: 1983 · Career titles: 88
- PGA Tour record (tied)
Hal Sutton & Robert Allenby — 10
Sutton and Allenby share the official PGA Tour record with 10 career aces in tournament play, per Guinness World Records. Allenby, an Australian pro, equalled Sutton's long-standing mark at the 2016 CareerBuilder Challenge, having made his first PGA Tour ace in 2001 and collecting all 10 within a 15-year window.
This pair ranks here rather than higher because 10 is a tour-specific record, not a lifetime figure. But it is one of the few hole-in-one totals in golf that is fully and independently verifiable, since ShotLink logs every competition shot.
Tour: PGA · Aces: 10 (record) · Allenby tied it: 2016 · Verified by: ShotLink
- European Tour record
Miguel Angel Jimenez — 10
Jimenez set the European Tour record with his 10th career ace at the 2015 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, holing his tee shot on the 158-yard par-3 second. He had equalled Colin Montgomerie's previous record of nine at the Spanish Open just eight days earlier.
He shares the raw number 10 with the PGA Tour holders above but is listed separately because it is a different tour's record. The Spaniard's late-career surge — adding aces well into his fifties — makes him the standout example of a veteran still building his tally deep into a decades-long career.
Tour: DP World (European) · Aces: 10 (record) · Set at: 2015 BMW PGA · Previous holder: Montgomerie (9)
- PGA Tour runners-up
Hubert Green & Gil Morgan — 8
One tier behind Sutton and Allenby, Green and Morgan share the next-highest PGA Tour hole-in-one total with eight apiece, according to Guinness World Records. Both were multiple tournament winners across the 1970s and 1980s.
They rank ninth because their eight trails the tour's leading 10, but the totals were built the durable way: long careers, high round counts, and enough tour longevity to keep drawing par-3 chances year after year.
Tour: PGA · Aces: 8 each · Era: 1970s–1980s · Position: 2nd on PGA Tour list
- Champions Tour record (tied)
Miller Barber, Graham Marsh & J.C. Snead — 6
The senior circuit's hole-in-one record is a three-way tie at six career aces, shared by Miller Barber, Graham Marsh, and J.C. Snead. All three were accomplished touring pros before moving to the Champions Tour.
They close the list because six is the lowest record total ranked here, but it is still a verified tour record. A lighter, more social senior schedule gave them enough rounds to add to totals built during their regular-tour careers.
Tour: PGA Tour Champions · Aces: 6 each (record) · Holders: 3-way tie
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- Norman Manley — 59 (disputed)
- Mancil Davis — 51
- Art Wall Jr. — 45
- Arnold Palmer — 21
- Tiger Woods — 20
- Kathy Whitworth — 11
- Hal Sutton & Robert Allenby — 10
- Miguel Angel Jimenez — 10
- Hubert Green & Gil Morgan — 8
- Miller Barber, Graham Marsh & J.C. Snead — 6
Audience ranking
How everyone ranked them
Built from reader rankings using position-based points.
There is no single governing body that tracks lifetime holes in one, so “the record” splits into two categories: best-documented career totals and independently verified official-tour totals. The ranking above keeps both in one list but weighs them differently — a self-reported lifetime figure is not the same kind of fact as a ShotLink-tracked tour record.
How we ranked the list
Golfers are ordered by their best-documented ace total, with lifetime figures (Manley, Davis, Wall, Palmer, Woods) kept distinct from official tour records (PGA, LPGA, European, Champions). Where a total is self-reported, we say so and cap its credibility rather than treating it as settled — that is why Manley’s disputed 59 leads on raw count but the write-up flags it as unverified, and why Davis’s documented 51 is the figure we call the real record. Tied verified records credit every holder instead of inventing a tiebreaker. Figures are drawn from Guinness World Records, ESPN, Golf.com, and LiveAbout.
Lifetime totals vs. verified tour records
| Category | Leader(s) | Aces | How it’s tracked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disputed all-time claim | Norman Manley | 59 | Self-reported, unaudited |
| Accepted lifetime record | Mancil Davis | 51 | Club/newspaper records, mostly documented |
| PGA Tour record | Hal Sutton, Robert Allenby | 10 | ShotLink competition tracking |
| LPGA Tour record | Kathy Whitworth | 11 | Official LPGA competition |
| European Tour record | Miguel Angel Jimenez | 10 | Official tour competition |
| Champions Tour record | Barber, Marsh, Snead | 6 | Official senior-tour competition |
Lifetime totals rest on club and newspaper records rather than a central registry; tour figures are independently logged and far more reliable. That is the whole reason a club pro can outrank a Hall of Famer on one list while a Hall of Famer owns the record that actually gets audited.
The record picture in 2026
As of the 2026 season, no active player realistically threatens Davis’s 51 or the disputed 59 attributed to Manley — both sit as history rather than a live chase. On tour, the real races are the PGA Tour’s 10 aces held by Sutton and Allenby since 2016 and the European Tour’s 10 held by Jimenez since 2015. ShotLink and its European equivalent now log every competition shot, so any future tour record will be cleanly documented, while a new lifetime claimant would still need the kind of witness trail that lifted Davis above Manley in the first place.
Golf’s other career leaderboards follow the same pattern of hard-to-verify totals settling around a few trusted names. See how the most PGA Tour wins and most majors in golf rankings compare, or browse the full golf category for more records coverage.
Frequently asked questions
Has any golfer made two holes in one in the same round?+
Yes, and it is rarer than a single ace. Norman Manley's most-cited feat was holing two consecutive par-4 tee shots at Del Valle Country Club in 1964, driving the green both times. Multiple aces in one round have happened at club level, but the odds are astronomical — one estimate puts two aces in a single round at roughly 67 million to one for an average amateur, which is why the feat still makes news.
How rare is a hole in one, and does skill change the odds?+
For an average amateur, the odds of acing a given par-3 are estimated at roughly 12,500 to 1. For a touring professional, they shorten to about 2,500 to 1. The gap reflects precision iron play more than raw power, and opportunity matters just as much: a club pro who plays thousands of par-3 rounds a year gets far more attempts than a tour player who competes about 25 weeks a season.
Why do club pros out-ace major champions on the lifetime list?+
Aces reward opportunity as much as skill. A club professional who plays or teaches on par-3s almost daily accumulates vastly more attempts over a lifetime than a tour star who competes a limited schedule and spends the offseason resting. That volume is how Mancil Davis and Norman Manley — neither a household name — sit above Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, and why precise iron players tend to out-ace power hitters across a career.
What is the difference between a lifetime total and an official tour record?+
A lifetime total counts every ace a golfer makes — tournament rounds, casual play, practice, junior golf — and usually rests on club records, newspaper clippings, or the player's own account. An official tour record counts only aces made in that tour's sanctioned competition, tracked by systems like ShotLink. That is why Davis's 51 lifetime aces and Sutton and Allenby's 10 PGA Tour aces are both 'records' but are not directly comparable.
Does Phil Mickelson hold a hole-in-one record?+
Mickelson has been reported to hold the highest lifetime ace total among modern PGA Tour players, with a figure often given as 47, which would edge Art Wall Jr.'s long-cited 45. But like most lifetime counts it mixes competition and casual rounds and is not independently audited. He does not hold the official PGA Tour record, which belongs to Hal Sutton and Robert Allenby at 10 aces each in sanctioned play.
Could a modern player break the all-time hole-in-one record?+
Realistically, no active player is close to Davis's 51 or the disputed 59 attributed to Manley — those totals reflect lifetimes of near-daily par-3 exposure that touring pros do not get. The live records to watch are the tour marks: the PGA Tour's 10, held since 2016, and the European Tour's 10, set in 2015. Because ShotLink and its equivalents log every shot, any new tour record will be cleanly documented.
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