PGA Championship: A look back at 100 years of tournament history
By Bill Felber
The PGA Championship turns 101 years old in 2019 as it returns to Bethpage’s famed Black Course. Here, we take a look back at some of the biggest landmark victories in a century of professional championships.
The PGA Championship enters its second century this week at Bethpage State Park in New York. That tournament renews one of the most celebrated competitions in golf with an all-pro field.
The PGA Championship was created in 1916 to be the culminating event among golf professionals. Since then, numerous developments that expanded the Tour’s scope – notably creation of the Tour Championship Series — have altered the PGA’s Championship’s role.
Its format has also changed. From its inception through the mid 1950s, the PGA was a match play event in which entrants played one or two qualifying rounds and then squared off head to head. In 1958, however, that was changed. Dow Finsterwald won the initial medal play version, beating Billy Casper by two strokes.
In any format, however, the PGA has been viewed as a Major competition and its champion celebrated as the king of the professional tour. Two men have dominated the event. Walter Hagen won five PGA titles, in 1921 and then four years in succession from 1924 through 1927. Jack Nicklaus matched Hagen’s total with his fifth win in 1980; Nicklaus had previously won in 1963, 1971, 1973 and 1975. Nicklaus was also runner-up four times, in 1964, 1965, 1974 and 1983.
Because the PGA was not played due to war in 1917 or 1918, and was skipped again in 1943, the 2018 event marked the tournament’s 100th playing. That makes this an appropriate time to look back at some of the landmark competitions.