The PGA Championship had several memorable winners on this date. John Daly burst onto the scene in 1991 and Bob Tway holed out from a bunker on the final hole in 1986 to beat Greg Norman at Inverness. But Lee Trevino also had a pair of results, one good and one bad. In 1985 at Cherry Hills Country Club, Hubert Green beat Trevino by two shots, but in 1974 at Tanglewood Park in North Carolina, Trevino won by one stroke over Jack Nicklaus. The 2013 and 1996 PGA Championships all ended on August 11 of their year, won by, in order, Jason Dufner and Mark Brooks. Of the five PGA winners, Daly was the most obscure and unexpected, only getting into the field at the last moment and completely shocking the golf world with his prodigious drives and composure.
In a date coincidence, the final two PGA Championships Jack Nicklaus won were on this date, August 10. In 1975, he won his fourth PGA overall on the South Course of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, two strokes ahead of Bruce Crampton. Nicklaus won at four-under 276. And in 1980 on the East Course at Oak Hill Country Club, Nicklaus won his fifth and final PGA by seven shots over Andy Bean.
Larry Nelson has an easy time remembering what August 9 means to him in the world of golf. On this date he won both of his PGA victories. In 1981 he won by four strokes over Fuzzy Zoeller at the Atlanta Athletic Club. He won his second major at the 1983 U.S. Open, then in 1987 on this date won the PGA Championship at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, beating Lanny Wadkins in a sudden-death playoff. Playing the par-4 10th hole first, both players missed the green. Nelson chipped to six feet, Wadkins four. After Nelson made his putt for par, Wadkins failed on his to extend the match and Nelson had won. And the first time in its history that the PGA began on an August 9 was in 1973 at a Midwest spot, Canterbury Golf Club in Cleveland. It ended in a milestone result: Jack Nicklaus won by four shots, and it was his 14th major, moving him ahead of Bobby Jones' total, which had been the record for 43 years.
In the 108 playings of the PGA Championship, the PGA of America's showcase event began on this date, August 8, six times: 1933, 1974, 1985, 1991, 1996 and 2013. But it ended on this date just once: in 1982 when Raymond Floyd won by three at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 64th playing. He won by three shots over Lanny Wadkins. It was Floyd’s second PGA victory.
On this date in 1983, Jack Nicklaus had one of his record 19 second-place finishes in a major at the PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club. Hal Sutton shot a par final round to hold off Nicklaus who was six behind with a round to go and shot 66 to fall one shot short. Also, Amy Alcott was the qualifying medalist on this date in 1972 at the U.S. Girls' Junior at Jefferson City Country Club in Missouri. She had a leading 151 total for two rounds. But she didn't make it past the second round of match play, and the eventual winner was Nancy Lopez, who had shot a qualifying score eight shots higher.
Tom Watson had his closest chance of winning the PGA Championship on this date in 1978 at historic Oakmont C.C. in Pennsylvania. He led by five shots with one round to go, but a double-bogey 6 on the 10th hole, the result of his drive going in a divot hole, began the erosion of his lead and he would go on to shoot 73 and lose a sudden-death playoff on the second hole to John Mahaffey. Jerry Pate was also in the playoff. Gary Player memorably hit a 9-iron out of wet rough on the 408-yard par-4 16th hole in winning the PGA Championship on this date in 1972. The 150-yard blind shot over a weeping willow came to rest four feet from the hole. Player made the birdie putt to increase his lead to two, and he won with a one-over-par total of 281 over Jim Jamieson and Tommy Aaron.
On this date in 1979, the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club was won by Australian David Graham in a three-hole, sudden-death playoff with Ben Crenshaw. Also, Chick Evans won the Chicago City Amateur on this date in 1944, decades after he had won in 1907, 1908 and 1911.
On this date in 1945, the incomparable American golfer "Lord" Byron Nelson won the Canadian Open at Uplands & Thornhill CC. It was his 11th straight win in a season where he set a record for winning 18 tournaments overall for the year.
On this date in 1979, Sam Snead set the record for the oldest player to make a cut in a major championship when he did so at age 67 years, 2 months and 7 days at the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club. And Omar Uresti was born on this date in 1968, making him 58, if you can count your decades easily. Uresti typifies the journeyman aspect of PGA Tour life and now the Champions Tour, never a regular tour winner but somehow able to make a living by getting into as many tour events as possible. I got to see him first hand in July 2018 when I marshaled at the John Deere Classic on the 17th tee. He has a somewhat exaggerated backswing motion prior to hitting the ball, but it is obviously effective for him.
The second PGA Championship to be played at stroke play ended on this date in 1959. Bob Rosburg scorched Minneapolis Golf Club with a final-round 66, allowing him a one-shot victory over Doug Sanders and Jerry Barber, who would win the title two years later.
On this date in 2004, Peter Jacobson won the U.S. Senior Open at Bellerive Golf Club, west of St. Louis, by one shot over Hale Irwin, a Missouri native. And on this date in 1914, Lloyd Mangrum was born in Trenton, Texas. A decorated World War II Army veteran, Mangrum won 36 tour events including the 1946 U.S. Open. He finished second twice at the Masters. His distinguished appearance, which made him look like the image of a riverboat gambler, made Mangrum quite notable. He was made a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1998.
The 1961 PGA Championship was due to conclude on July 30 at Olympia Fields C.C. in Illinois, but Don January and Jerry Barber tied at 277, just three under par. January was four shots ahead with three to play in regulation but Barber was a putting fiend, making 120 feet of putts on those holes, for a par and two birdies, to force the playoff. Twice Barber trailed by two shots in the playoff, but he came on to shoot 67 and win by one stroke on this date.
On this date in 1995 the Senior Open Championship was won by Scottish free spirit Brian Barnes in a playoff over Bob Murphy of the U.S., at Royal Portrush G.C. And today's date marks the 2006 Senior Open victory by American Loren Roberts in a playoff over Eduardo Romero of Argentina.
On this date in 2007, Tom Watson made a double bogey on the final hole but still won the Senior Open for the third time in five years, by one shot over Stewart Ginn and Mark O’Meara at Muirfield. And diminutive Paul Runyan won his first of two PGA Championships on this date in 1934 when he defeated Craig Wood in 38 holes in the final at the Park Club of Buffalo, Williamsville, N.Y. At just 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds, Runyan gave up great length off the tee, but his prowess with fairway woods and his short game combined to be a great equalizer. And in another Senior Open result, this one at St. Andrews, Miguel Angel Jimenez won in 2018.
On this date in 1991, Jack Nicklaus shot a 65 to win an 18-hole playoff with Chi Chi Rodriguez in the 12th U.S. Senior Open at Oakland Hills Country Club’s South Course, winning by four shots. Nicklaus tied with Rodriguez at two-over-par 282 in regulation.
Jordan Spieth, the not-so-splendid wunderkind of golf, was born on this date in 1993 in Dallas, Texas. He won the U.S. Open and Masters in 2015, was second in the PGA that year, and won the 2017 Open Championship but hasn’t won a major since then. He has 13 PGA Tour victories in all but nothing since April 2022. Also, the 1954 PGA Championship, the 36th playing, ended on this date when Chick Harbert beat Walter Burkemo, 4 and 3, at Keller Golf Club in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The 1981 U.S. Women's Open was held at LaGrange Country Club, in a suburb of Chicago. It is noted for the great final-day battle between Pat Bradley and Beth Daniel, and for the ultimately failed effort by legendary Kathy Whitworth to win the major she never was able to win. Bradley birdied the final hole on this date after Daniel nearly eagled it, and that secured a nine-under-par total of 279 to win by one shot. Whitworth was third with 284 after taking a three-shot lead after 54 holes. But she shot 74 in the final round to Bradley's 66. Also, on this date in 1955, Doug Ford won the PGA Championship at Meadowbrook Country Club when he defeated Cary Middlecoff, 4 & 3, in the final. Ford won the other major of his career at the 1957 Masters.
The 1982 U.S. Women's Open was completed on this date at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, California. Janet Alex (Anderson) shot a final-round 68 for 283 (−5) to finish six shots ahead of four runners-up, including Beth Daniel, Donna White, JoAnne Carner and Sandra Haynie. Carner led after 36 holes but shot 75-75 afterward to lose her advantage.
On this date, back-to-back PGA Championships concluded. In 1966 Al Geiberger won by four shots at Firestone Country Club, and in 1967, Don January won an 18 hole playoff with Don Massengale at Columbine Country Club, 69 to 71. January won the 49th PGA, played at Columbine in a suburb south of Denver. January won his lone major in an 18-hole playoff with Massengale, on the par-72 course; they had shot 281, seven under par, to finish regulation one shot ahead of Dan Sikes and Jack Nicklaus.
On this date in 1995, John Daly won the Open Championship at the Old Course in St. Andrews, beating Costantino Rocca in a four-hole playoff. It was his second major victory. Two days earlier, two-time winner Arnold Palmer missed the cut in a final Open appearance. Also, Mark Calcavecchia won a playoff with Australians Greg Norman and Wayne Grady on this date in the 1989 Open Championship at Troon. It was the first time the championship used a four-hole aggregate playoff to determine the winner. The three had tied at 13-under 275. Calcavecchia handily won the playoff at two under; Grady was one over and Norman's score was an X.