PGA Championship: A look back at 100 years of tournament history
By Bill Felber
1994: Nick Price wins his second PGA Championship
There was never much doubt about Price’s 1994 victory at Southern Hills. Price’s 67 gave him a share of the opening round lead with Colin Montgomerie. He backed it up with a Friday 64 that left him five strokes ahead of Ben Crenshaw, Jay Haas and Corey Pavin, and he retained a three-stroke lead over Haas through three rounds.
Then while the rest of the field wrested with Southern’s brutal final round conditions, Price fashioned a closing 67 to pull away for a six-stroke victory over Pavin.
His margin of victory was the second-largest since the event’s switch to stroke play, trailing only Jack Nicklaus’ seven-stroke margin in 1980. (Both have since been surpassed by Rory McIlroy’s eight-stroke win in 2012.) His winning total of 269 was the lowest in the stroke play history of the PGA at the time.
The 1992 champion at Bellerive, Price had also won the previous month’s British Open. His victory at Southern made him the first player to win both the Open and PGA Championship titles in the same season since Walter Hagen had done so 70 years earlier.
The victory also elevated Price to the world’s No. 1 ranking.
The tournament contained one melancholy moment. It marked the 37th and final competitive appearance in the event for Arnold Palmer. Approaching his 65th birthday, Palmer shot 79-74 and missed the cut.