More consistently than any major championship in golf, the PGA delivers.
Sunday’s final-round at Whistling Straits was must-see TV. The back-nine shootout was so full of drama, that the three-hole aggregate playoff between winner Martin Kaymer and runner-up Bubba Watson was anti-climactic.
Here’s a quick reminder of some of the great tournaments the PGA has produced over the last dozen years.
2009 (Y.E. Yang) – After going 14-for-14 in majors when leading after three rounds, Tiger Woods finally was beaten. Yang took the lead on the 14th hole at Hazeltine, chipping in for an eagle from 80 feet, then holding on against the world’s greatest player to become the first player from Asia to win a major.
2008 (Padraig Harrington) – The Irishman had a brilliant back nine at Oakland Hills, making birdies on three of four holes to wipe out a three-stroke deficit. Then on the final three holes, he made clutch putts, including a 12-footer for par on the 72nd hole that clinched. It was his third victory in a span of six majors as he became the first European since 1930 to win the PGA.
2007 (Tiger Woods) – Woods led from the second round on. But Woody Austin made it interesting, whittling the lead to a stroke, before Woods reasserted his control on his way to a two-stroke win, his fourth PGA title, and 13th major.
2006 (Tiger Woods) – In each of the majors, Woods has had a final-round waltz. His PGA version came at Medinah where he entered the final round tied with Luke Donald, but took control early and went on to win by five shots.
2005 (Phil Mickelson) – At Baltusrol, Mickelson broke his major championship curse, making a clutch flop shot for a tap-in birdie on the final hole that clinched the one-stroke win. The moment lacked some drama, only because it came on a Monday morning – with just six players on the course and a small group of fans in attendance — after a rain delay prevented a Sunday finish.
2004 (Vijay Singh) – The star of the 2004 PGA might have been the course as fans got their first look at a true original – beautifully contrived and unique Whistling Straits. And the 2004 edition had much in common with 2010, as eight players finished within two strokes of a playoff, won by Singh over Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco.
2003 (Shaun Micheel) — The journeyman made one of the greatest clutch shots in golf history – a 7-iron from the rough, from 172 yards out, on the 72nd hole at Oak Hill, which nearly rolled into the cup. The tap-in birdie gave Micheel a two-stroke win, his only one in 330 PGA Tour starts to date.
2002 (Rich Beem) – Tiger Woods made a spectacular closing charge at Hazeltine, with birdies at the final four holes. But Beem, who overtook Justin Leonard in the final round, made a 35-footer for birdie at No. 16 on his way to a one-stroke win over Woods. Then Beem punctuated his lone major title with a wonderfully awkward Beemer Shuffle on the 18th green.
2001 (Davis Toms) — Phil Mickelson was the people’s choice at Atlanta Athletic Club. But Toms, protected a one-shot lead on the final hole, a long par 4, where he laid up from 209 yards out. Fans groaned when Toms hit a short iron short of the pond and 88 yards short of the pin. But Toms made the strategy work, sinking a 12-foot putt for par to win his lone major and do it with the lowest four-round score in major championship history (265).
2000 (Tiger Woods) – Woods and Bob May squared off at Valhalla in a back-nine duel in which neither player flinched. When May hit a spectacular pitch for a tap-in par on the first playoff hole, Woods answered with one of his most memorable putts — a 30-footer for birdie that he pointed into the hole – en route to victory and the third leg of the Tiger Slam.
1999 (Tiger Woods) – At Medinah, Sergio Garcia scissor-kicked his way, at age 19, to golf stardom. But Woods outlasted the Spaniard to win his second major and kick-start a spectacular run of success, as he would win five of the next six majors.
