English golfer Jack Whaley, 22, became only the third English player to win the U.S. Amateur, on August 16, when he defeated American Jay Leng, Jr., 4 and 3, to win the 126th championship in the 36-hole final at Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia. Whaley plays at Florida State and Leng at Stanford. On this date in 1997, Matt Kuchar won the U.S. Amateur, defeating Joel Kribel, 2 & 1, at Cog Hill's Dubsdread course in Lemont, III. Kuchar, 19 at the time, was from Lake Mary, Fla., and a golf team member at Georgia Tech. He was playing in the U.S. Amateur for the first time. And on this date in 1975, Al Geiberger won the second Tournament Players Championship, finishing three shots ahead of Dave Stockton at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
On this date in 2009, the Solheim Cup wrapped up at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The U.S. won a third straight match, 16-12, and won eight of the 12 singles matches held on the final day. Also, Beth Daniel won the World Championship of Women's Golf on this date in 1981, at Shaker Heights (Ohio) Country Club. She went home with the $50,000 first-place prize money.
On this date in 2010, The Senior Tradition, held at the Crosswater Club, was won by Fred Funk by one shot over Michael Allen and Taiwan's Lu Chien-soon. And two influential names in women’s golf history shared the stage on this date in 1976. Kathy Whitworth won the Patty Berg Classic at Keller Golf Course in St. Paul, Minnesota. Whitworth shot a seven-under-par score of 212 to win by two shots over Sandra Post. First prize was $8,000.
On this date in 1914, two of the prominent golfers of the time battled in Round 4 at the Midlothian Country Club in Illinois in the 20th U.S. Open. Walter Hagen, the third-round leader by two shots, shot 73 but held on when those closest to him fell back. Amateur star Chick Evans, who trailed by four, shot 70 to finish a shot back. Hagen shot two-over 290, Evans 291 and third place was back to 297. And the third PGA Championship ended on this date in 1920. Jock Hutchison--who golf writers forever have to fight copy editors that they don't change his name to Hutchinson--defeated Douglas Edgar, 1-up, at Flossmoor Country Club in Chicago in the 36-hole final.
On this date in 1944, Bob Hamilton pulled off one of golf’s greatest upsets at Manito Golf & Country Club in Spokane, Washington, when he defeated all-time great Byron Nelson, 1 up, in the PGA Championship 36-hole final. The much more heralded Nelson could not get the edge on Hamilton; the two finished the first 18 holes tied. Nelson would win the following year, 4&3, versus Sam Byrd.
On this date in 1984, Lee Trevino won his second PGA Championship and sixth and final major, at Shoal Creek, winning by four shots over Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins at 15 under par. At age 44, Trevino showed he could still win a major when he held off Player and Wadkins He shot 69 in the final round to get to 15 under par. The victory came 10 years after he'd won his first PGA.
The PGA Championship ended on this date in 2002 as a moment for the Everyman in all of us. Unheralded Rich Beem shot 278 to edge Tiger Woods by one shot at Hazeltine National. Beem could have faltered many times in the final round as Woods came charging at him with a 67, but he had a 68 of his own and won his first and only major. Also on this date, in 1946, the Golf Writers Association of America was begun.
Of the PGA Championships that ended on this date, two stand out. In 1969 at NCR Country Club, Raymond Floyd won his first major, one shot ahead of South Africa’s Gary Player, who was targeted by apartheid protesters. And in 1997, Davis Love III won his only major, at Winged Foot, by five strokes over Justin Leonard. The son of the late Davis Love Jr., a PGA club pro and teaching legend, Love III won by holing out on the final hole as a rainbow emerged from the sky, a heavenly confirmation of a popular victory.
Today’s date is a popular one in PGA Championship history. On this date, six were won by: 1970, Dave Stockton at Southern Hills; 1976, Stockton at Congressional; 1992, Nick Price at Bellerive; 1998, Vijay Singh at Sahalee; 2009, Y.E. Yang at Hazeltine, and 2015, Jason Day at Whistling Straits. Stockton’s victory marked the last good chance Arnold Palmer had of winning the only major he didn't win. Stockton finished two shots ahead of Palmer and Bob Murphy with a winning score of just one-under-par 279 at Southern Hills in Tulsa. Stockton shot 73 in the last round to hang on as Murphy shot 66 and Arnie 70.
Of the several PGA Championships that ended on this date, the one in 1965 was supposed to have been Arnold Palmer’s crowning moment. Held at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, in Arnie’s Latrobe backyard, the winner instead was the very worthy Dave Marr, who won by two shots over Billy Casper and Jack Nicklaus. Marr went on to be arguably the best TV golf analyst, mainly working for ABC. Palmer, who exerted a lot of energy serving as a championship host, only finished tied for 33rd, 14 shots behind, and never once broke par in four rounds. That PGA was the earliest year the PGA Championship ended on an August 15.
On this date in 2016, 112 years after the last time golf was competed in the Olympics, Justin Rose of Great Britain shot a score of 16 under par to win the gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, two ahead of Henrik Stenson. Getting the bronze medal was American Matt Kuchar. Also, one of the years the PGA Championship ended on an August 14 was in 1977, and it had a memorable element to it. Young tour gunslinger Lanny Wadkins, 27, and U.S. Amateur/U.S. Open winner and cancer survivor Gene Littler tied at six-under-par 282 at Pebble Beach at the end of regulation. The PGA had gone to sudden death that year, the first major to do so. Littler was by far the sentimental hope, having led from the start, but he ballooned to 76 in Round 4. Wadkins made a six-foot par putt on the third extra hole to win the playoff.
On this date in 1989, Payne Stewart outlasted Mike Reid at Kemper Lakes to win his first major championship in the PGA. Stewart finished one ahead of Reid, Andy Bean and Curtis Strange. The championship started with Arnold Palmer, nearly 60 years old, shooting 68 and Tom Watson 67; both needed a PGA to complete a career Grand Slam, but neither could keep close to the lead by the end. And on this date the PGA Championship was also won by Justin Thomas in 2017 at Quail Hollow, by Steve Elkington in 1995 at Riviera, and Gene Sarazen won in 1933 at Blue Mound.
August 12 has many special occurrences in the 108 playings of the PGA Championship. It was the first day of the event in 1922 (won by Gene Sarazen), 1965 (Dave Marr), 1976 (Dave Stockton), 1993 (Paul Azinger), 1999 (Tiger Woods), 2004 (Vijay Singh), and 2010 (Martin Kaymer). August 12 was the final day in 1973 (when Jack Nicklaus won a record-breaking 14th major), 1990 (Wayne Grady), 2007 (Woods) and 2012 (Rory McIlroy). For the foreseeable future, Brooks Koepka’s August 12 victory in 2018 will be the last time the PGA ends on an August 12 now that the championship has been moved to May. The Nicklaus victory in 1973 was at Canterbury Golf Club, a favorite course of Arnold Palmer’s while stationed at the Coast Guard in Cleveland. It was Jack’s third of five PGA victories, and he won by four shots over Bruce Crampton of Australia. In counting his two U.S. Amateur wins, the victory put Nicklaus one ahead of Bobby Jones for most major championship victories with 14.
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.