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PGA Championship 2011-2019: A decade of dominance

By Bill Felber

FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK - MAY 19: Brooks Koepka of the United States celebrates with the Wanamaker Trophy during the Trophy Presentation Ceremony after winning the final round of the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 19, 2019 in Farmingdale, New York. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK - MAY 19: Brooks Koepka of the United States celebrates with the Wanamaker Trophy during the Trophy Presentation Ceremony after winning the final round of the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 19, 2019 in Farmingdale, New York. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland holds up the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 94th PGA Championship at the Ocean Course on August 12, 2012 in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland holds up the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 94th PGA Championship at the Ocean Course on August 12, 2012 in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /

1.       Rory McIlroy, 2012, -3.28

McIlroy’s week-long dominance of  the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island ranks statistically as the third best performance in PGA Championship history, behind only Davis Love III’s 1997 win at Winged Foot (-3.54) and Jack Nicklaus’s 1980 victory at Oak Hill (-3.34).

McIlroy came into the championship with something to prove. Noting his generally lackluster performances in majors to that date – a missed cut and no finishes better than  T25 since winning the 2011 U.S. Open – critics wondered whether McIlroy was really the major figure he had appeared to be during the 2011 U.S. Open run.

“It motivated me,” he said of the talk. “I don’t think I could have answered it any better way.”

McIlroy was in contention from the start, posting a first round 67 that tied him for second, one stroke behind Carl Pettersson.  He trailed by two after 36 holes, but persevered through a rain-delayed third round with a 67 that gave him a three-stroke advantage entering the final 18 holes.

That lead expanded to five when Pettersson double bogeyed his first hole of the final round, and McIlroy birdies at the second and third put him on cruise control. He held the lead at seven through the front nine, birdied the 12th  to extend his lead – over David Lynn — to eight, and finished with that margin.

That eight-stroke difference set a championship record, bettering Nicklaus’s seven-stroke win at Baltusrol in 1980.

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