This Day in Golf History: August 17

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.