In golf, greatness is measured in Majors, so it should come as no surprise that the leading winner of the game's most prestigious tournaments is Jack Nicklaus - nor that he is being hunted down by fellow American Tiger Woods.

Nicklaus won his first Major in 1962, his first year as a professional, laying down a marker for the rest of his extraordinary career with an 18-hole play-off victory over Arnold Palmer in the US Open.

By the time the player nicknamed "The Golden Bear" was 26, he had completed the full set of Majors and he had 18 in the bag when he finished.

Tiger Woods turned professional in 1996 and won his first Major, the Masters, the following April. He completed the Career Slam at the age of 24 when winning the Open at St Andrews in 2000.

By the start of the 2009 season Woods' total had reached 14 and that included a 'Tiger Slam', when he held all four of the Majors titles at the same time, though not in the same year. It surely cannot be long before he overtakes Nicklaus himself.

The dashing Walter Hagen's 11 victories put him third in the all-time list and his achievement is all the more meritorious in that the Masters did not exist until the twilight of his career.

South African Gary Player is the most successful non-American, having won nine, the same as Ben Hogan and one ahead of Tom Watson.

Of those on seven - Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones and Harry Vardon - Jones also won six US or British Open amateur titles, at the time the equivalent of the Majors.