From Tiger to Serena, the greatest American golf legends and tennis stars of all time

While golf has its origins in Scotland, its popularity in the United States gained momentum with the formation of the United States Golf Association in 1894. Within the next two decades the U.S. Open (1895) and the PGA Championship (1916) were established, and perhaps the sport’s crown jewel, the Masters, began play at Augusta National in 1934.

Tennis, too, was popularized in the United Kingdom and features four major Grand Slams, with prize money seemingly rising every year thanks to American pioneers such as Billie Jean King and Venus Williams, who fought for decades to have women on the same playing field as men.

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, we look back at the best American athletes to play golf and tennis, so let the arguments begin.

About USA TODAY’s ‘250 for 250’ series

Now through July 4, USA TODAY Sports is releasing our “250 for 250” list of America’s top homegrown athletes of all time. Each week, we’ll bring you all-time standouts from across the sports world and give readers a chance to vote on who should be featured. Athletes are recognized along with the high schools they graduated from, or their hometowns for nongraduates.

Now, on to the list of our nation’s top golf and tennis players:

Top American golfers of all time

Tiger Woods, Western High School, Anaheim, California

A literal child prodigy, Woods was well on his way to becoming the greatest golfer of all time until personal struggles, rehab stints, debilitating injuries, and car accidents derailed his place in history. Still, his 15 major victories and his status as the only golfer to hold all four major titles simultaneously cement his legacy, no matter what his future entails.

Jack Nicklaus, Upper Arlington High School, Ohio

“The Golden Bear” set the standard for championship wins, racking up 18 major titles over his career. He could have put the record well out of reach: He finished second 19 times in majors, including four in extra-hole playoffs. The ultimate clutch player, Nicklaus is the only player to win each of the four majors at least once in two different decades.

Arnold Palmer, Greater Latrobe Senior High School, Pennsylvania

Not only is he known for a popular iced tea and lemonade drink, but Palmer also won six major titles in a seven-year span, missing only the PGA Championship. He helped popularize the PGA Tour and turn it into a must-see television event, along with Nicklaus and South African star Gary Player. “The King” was also an influence when not competing, designing golf courses, and helping launch the popular Golf Network. 

Sam Snead, Valley High School, Hot Springs, Virginia

The stats don’t lie, and don’t let the straw hat fool you: 82 PGA Tour victories, seven major titles (except the U.S. Open), and even becoming the oldest golfer ever to make the cut in a men’s major championship at age 67, playing the weekend at the 1979 PGA Championship.

Phil Mickelson, University of San Diego High School

Now known for being associated with the Saudi-backed LIV Tour, “Lefty,” like Palmer, has six major championships and is also missing one big hole in his resume, the U.S. Open, where he has finished second six times. Mickelson has 29 top-five finishes in majors, and his 2021 PGA Championship victory made him the oldest player at 50 to win a major.

Nancy Lopez, Goddard High School, Roswell, New Mexico

Lopez almost single-handedly popularized the women’s tour, starting in 1978 as a 21-year-old rookie, winning five straight tournaments, Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, the only player to win all three awards in the same year.  Lopez won 48 times on tour, took three LPGA Championships, and was a four-time Player of the Year.

Michelle Wie West, Punahou High School, Honolulu

Wie West was a child prodigy, entering an amateur event at 10 and making the cut at the 2003 US Women’s Open at age 13. She earned her only major victory at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open. She officially retired from professional golf in 2023 but announced she will compete in the indoor WTGL and the U.S. Women’s Open.

Ben Hogan, Fort Worth, Texas

Hogan, known for his meticulous ball-striking and fierce competitiveness, is one of six male golfers to have completed the career Grand Slam and remains the only player to win the Masters, U.S. Open, and Open Championship in the same year. He won six of his nine majors after a major head-on car crash in 1949, including the U.S. Open just two years after the accident.

Bobby Jones, Woodbury School and Tech High School, Atlanta

Jones was the first dominant golfer, retired before the age of 30, but not before winning 13 majors (some entities recognize only seven), all while never turning professional, including the Grand Slam in 1930 after his triumphs at the United States and British Open and Amateur Tournaments. Jones went on to co-found and help design Augusta National Golf Club, while earning his living as an attorney and playing golf part-time.

Margaret Abbott, Chicago

Abbott’s claim to fame is becoming the first woman to win an Olympic event, taking home the gold medal at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. According to some historians, participants didn’t know they were competing in the Olympics, and winners didn’t receive medals. She died in 1955, never realizing she had made history.

Charlie Sifford, Charlotte

Sifford’s impact on the sport can’t be understated: he broke the color barrier in 1961, making the arrival of Tiger Woods three decades later even more significant, as Woods seldom faced the racial discrimination that Stafford did, especially when Woods started to win. Thanks to Sifford’s contributions, he was the first African American inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Beaumont High School, Texas

Zaharias didn’t even start playing competitive golf until she was nearly in her mid-20s, yet she won 10 major championships in just 16 years on the women’s tour. Golf probably wasn’t even her greatest sport: she won gold medals in the javelin and 80-meter hurdles and a silver medal in the high jump at the 1932 Olympics.

Kathy Whitworth, Jal High School, New Mexico

No golfer – man or woman – has as many tour victories (88) as Whitworth. The Hall of Famer was the first women’s pro golfer to earn more than $1 million in a career, winning at least one tournament for 17 straight years. Along with six major titles, Whitworth was named LPGA Player of the Year seven times, and the Female Athlete of the Year in 1965 and 1966 by the Associated Press.

Greatest American tennis players of all time

Serena Williams, Driftwood Academy, Lake Park, Florida

Unlike in other sports, there is no debate over who the greatest of all time is. Williams’ accomplishments could fill a novel, and her 23 Grand Slam titles are second in the Open Era. She is the only player, man or woman, to earn a career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles, and she has also won four Olympic gold medals. With 73 career titles and a record 365 major match wins, Williams’ style, power, and fierceness remain unmatched.

Venus Williams, Driftwood Academy, Lake Park, Florida

Competing in an era when her younger sister mostly mopped up the competition, she more than held her own. The simple fact is that Venus made tennis look different, showcasing a power game seldom seen before she arrived on the scene. She was also the first African American woman in the Open Era to be ranked No. 1; her seven Grand Slam titles are nothing to sneeze at.

Billie Jean King, Long Beach Polytechnic High School, California

There is no telling where tennis would be without King’s efforts. A staunch advocate for equal rights and just as formidable (39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles) on the court, King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” forced the masses to put women’s sports in the forefront and proved that King was not to be played with. Those who tried did so at their own peril.

Chris Evert, St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Brilliant and ridiculously consistent, especially on clay, where she won seven of her 18 Grand Slam titles, Evert’s rivalry with Martina Navratilova featured some of the greatest matches the sport has ever seen. But winning is synonymous with Evert, as she won at least one Grand Slam singles title for 13 years in a row and is the only player to reach five consecutive finals in each major.

Pete Sampras, Palos Verdes High School, California

Although Andy Roddick was the last American male to win a tennis Grand Slam title in the Open Era in 2003, when Sampras retired that same year, he may have taken the country’s hopes of future dominance with him. Bursting on the scene with his U.S. Open title at 19, Sampras continued his winning ways and ended up with 14 Grand Slams. That was the record until a trio of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer came along.

Andre Agassi, Las Vegas

“Image is Everything,” a 19-year-old Agassi, then with a head full of hair, proclaimed during a camera commercial early in his career, celebrating the style and flash that came to be a bookmark in his career. That image didn’t win him any favors on the tour or tournaments, for that matter, and it was another three years before he broke through with a triumph at Wimbledon in 1992. He would go on to win seven more Grand Slams and is one of only three men in tennis history to have completed the Career Golden Slam.

Bill Tilden, Germantown Academy, Pennsylvania

Considered one of the all-time greats, Tilden’s amateur record is virtually unmatched, and he still holds more than a dozen all-time records, including a 42-match win streak at Forest Hills, a 95-match win streak (1924-1925), and, in 1925, compiled the best win-loss record in a single season, going an absurd 78-1. After retiring, Tilden’s legacy took a major hit when he was arrested and served time for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Althea Gibson, Williston High School, Wilmington, North Carolina

The first African American woman to win both the United States Tennis Championships (now the U.S. Open) and Wimbledon. Gibson’s barrier-breaking performances gave hope to people of color who wanted to compete at the highest level. Gibson didn’t stop there; she went on to win five Grand Slams in tennis and, after retiring, became the first Black player to compete on the women’s golf tour.

Jimmy Connors, Rexford High School, Beverly Hills, California

Connors is the only player to win the U.S. Open on three different surfaces before the tournament permanently switched to a hardcourt surface in 1978. His 109 career titles are still an Open Era record. If anyone wants to question his heart and grit, just look up his 1991 US Open run, when, at age 39, he made it all the way to the semifinals as a wildcard entry. 

John McEnroe, Trinity High School, New York

Brilliant at best, temperamental and a nuisance at worst, McEnroe was unpredictable no matter who he faced on or off the court. When it came to his tennis, Johnny Mac served, volleyed, and backhanded his way to seven Grand Slam singles and nine doubles titles, even when he wasn’t smashing rackets or whining and yelling at chair umpires.

Arthur Ashe, Sumner High School, St. Louis

Ashe was far more than the first African-American to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open. He was a human rights, civil rights, and political activist who fought against injustice and racism. In his later years, he advocated for AIDS awareness and, with bravery and grace, fought the disease he contracted through a blood transfusion until he died in 1993 at the age of 49. Perhaps Ashe’s greatest legacy is the people who continue to fight for the same causes today that were so dear to him more than three decades after his passing.

Lindsay Davenport, Palos Verdes, California

An imposing figure at almost 6 feet 3, Davenport used her almost unreturnable serve to win an Olympic gold medal and three Grand Slam singles titles, and she spent 98 weeks as the world’s top-ranked player. She was equally dominant in doubles, winning an additional three Grand Slams. Her 55 career titles earned her accolades and significant earnings: when she retired in 2010, she was the sport’s all-time earnings leader, with more than $22 million in prize money.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tiger Woods, Serena Williams lead list of greatest US golf, tennis stars