6)
Tom Kim became the youngest player to win twice on the PGA TOUR in 90 years. When Tom Kim won the Wyndham Championship in August, he became the youngest winner from outside the United States to win on TOUR since Harry Cooper in 1923. When he won the Shriners Children’s Open two months later, he became the youngest multiple TOUR winner since three-time major champ Ralph Guldahl 90 years ago. Kim was the first since Tiger Woods to reach two wins before age 21—beating Tiger to the punch by about six months.
That might not even be the most impressive aspect of his win in Vegas, though. Kim didn’t make a single bogey, becoming just the second player since 1974 to win an individual PGA TOUR event without dropping a shot.
7)
Will Zalatoris had six top-eight finishes in his first nine career majors—something no player had done since 1957.
In recent years, no player has knocked on the door in major championships without barging into the winner’s circle quite as often as Will Zalatoris. Since the beginning of 2021, Zalatoris has averaged 2.51 Strokes Gained: Total per round in the majors, the best of any player in that span. At this year’s U.S. Open at Brookline, Zalatoris finished tied for second, already his third career runner-up finish in a major.
It was also his sixth top-eight finish in just his ninth career major championship start. The American, now 26, was the first player to have six top-eight finishes in his first nine majors since Antonio Cerda of Argentina in 1957.
8)
Cameron Young had seven top-three finishes in the 2021-22 season, but no wins—a first on the PGA TOUR since 1993. Cameron Young seemingly did everything in his rookie PGA TOUR season except get into the winner’s circle. His consistently great performance netted him $6.5 million in official earnings, the most all-time by a player in his rookie season, and the most by any player in a season without a win. Buoyed by a powerful driver (No. 2 on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee), Young finished the season sixth in birdie rate and in the top-20 in both Strokes Gained: Total and scoring average.
In 2022, Young became the first player to have a season with seven top-three finishes and zero victories since Hall of Famer Payne Stewart in 1993.
9)
Sebastián Muñoz became the first player in TOUR history with two rounds of 60 or lower in the same season.
On a TOUR with such rich history, it’s difficult to etch your name into the record books. It’s exceedingly rare to do something no player has ever done. When Sebastián Muñoz finished an opening-round 60 at the AT&T Byron Nelson, he became the only player in TOUR history to record multiple rounds of 60 or lower in the same season.
How rare is it to go that low? Only seven players in TOUR history have recorded multiple rounds of 60 or lower in their careers. Some of the greatest champions in TOUR history have never carded 60 or lower in an official event—among them Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods. Muñoz capped off his historic season with his first Presidents Cup appearance at Quail Hollow.
10)
Russell Henley posted the lowest 72-hole total in PGA TOUR history by a player to not win.
For most of the 2022 Sony Open in Hawaii, it looked like Russell Henley was going to pick up his second Waialae win, site of his maiden title nine years prior. His opening 36-hole total of 125 (62-63) gave him a three-stroke lead entering the weekend. That advantage was two strokes with one round to play after Hideki Matsuyama’s Saturday 63.
Henley shot 65 in the final round, but he was defeated by Matsuyama in a playoff. In the history of the PGA TOUR, there have been 23 instances of a player recording a 72-hole score of 258 or lower. Henley—who finished regulation with 257—is the only one of those players not to win.