Who is, or was, the youngest golfer, male or female, to win a major championship?

Nowadays, the term ‘major championships’ is used to describe the Masters Tournament, the US Open Championship, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship. Exactly when the modern definition was adopted is unclear, but it can certainly be traced back to 1960, the year in which Arnold Palmer won the Masters Tournament and the US Open Championship, finished runner-up, by a single stroke, in the Open Championship and held the first-round lead in the PGA Championship before eventually finishing tied for seventh.

The Open Championship was founded in 1860 and the US Open Championship in 1895, but the PGA Championship did not come in existence until 1916 and the Masters Tournament not until 1934. Thus, it can be argued that major championships did not really exist, at least not in the modern sense, when Tom Morris Jr., a.k.a. Young Tom Morris, won the 1868 Open Championship at Prestwick Golf Club in South Ayrshire, Scotland at the tender age of 17 years, 5 months and 8 days. A similar argument can applied to John McDermott, who was 19 months, 10 months and 14 days old when he won the 1911 US Open at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois.

Ultimately, the answer to the question comes down to semantics, but Tiger Woods was 21 years, 3 months and 14 days old when he won the 1997 Masters Tournament, making him the youngest male golf to win a major championship once all four ‘modern’ majors actually existed. For the record, and rather more straightforwardly, the youngest female golfer to win a major championship was Lydia Ko, who was 18 years, 4 months, 20 days old when she won the 2015 Evian Championship at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains, France. She was, of course, younger than Woods or McDermott, but older than Morris Jnr. so, ladies and gentlemen, take your pick!