Young golf prodigies are often placed on a lofty pedestal and are unable to meet expectations.
Sometimes, that still means they have long and successful careers on the PGA Tour. When Rory McIlroy burst onto the scene, many expected him to stack up major championships and win at a historic rate.
Many said Jordan Spieth could catch Jack Nicklaus’ record after he won two major championships at a young age. We’re so keen to find the next Nicklaus or Tiger Woods that young stars are swept away with the excitement of their success.
And sometimes, players peak before they even turn professional. Winning in the pros is hard, even for a player who was the youngest-ever to win the US Amateur, but is yet to win on the PGA Tour 16 years later.
The 17-year-old US Amateur champion who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour
In August 2009, at 17 years old, Byeong Hun An became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur, defeating Ben Martin 7 & 5. And one year later, at the 2010 U.S. Amateur, An became the first defending champion to advance to the semi-finals since Woods in 1996.
He arrived on the professional scene having put his name among esteemed company during his amateur career, but his PGA Tour career hasn’t worked out as anyone would have expected.
He had 226 starts on the tour in 14 years, but has yet to win an event. He’s come heartbreakingly close a number of times, losing three playoffs on the PGA Tour, but An’s major record shows that he does not have the ability to contend with the top names in the game.
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An has never recorded a top-10 finish at a major, with his best result coming at The Open in 2014, where he finished T13. However, he did make history in the UK ten years ago.
By winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, he became only the second player to win both the U.S. Amateur and the British PGA Championship, after Arnold Palmer. Again, he’s in the record books with a legend, but his career hasn’t worked out the way he’d have hoped at 17.
Tommy Fleetwood gave Byeong Hun An an unwanted record
When Tommy Fleetwood won the Tour Championship in 2025, he passed on an unwanted PGA Tour record to the South Korean.
He is now the all-time leader in PGA Tour prize money without a victory. An has earned $20,783,722 on the tour over 15 years.
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An has achieved five runner-up finishes, including three in a playoff loss, 15 top-five finishes, and 30 top 10s over the course of his PGA Tour career. That’s allowed him to stack up the most money without a win of anyone in history.
He’ll hope to follow in the footsteps of Fleetwood and win for the first time on the tour, passing this unwanted record to Denny McCarthy, who is $200,000 behind him.
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