The PGA Championship ended on this date in 1920 with Scotsman Jock Hutchison defeating Douglas Edgar, 1 up, in a 36-hole battle at Flossmoor Country Club in Chicago. On this date in 1914, Walter Hagen, just 21, won the U.S. Open at Midlothian Country Club near Chicago by just one stroke over amateur star Chick Evans. The victory was Hagen’s first major victory; he would win another U.S. Open in 1919.

On this date in 1962, after having lost a U.S. Open playoff to Jack Nicklaus in June of 1962, Arnold Palmer defeated Jack, 67-68, at a Norwood Hills C.C. exhibition. And on this date in 1944, the PGA Championship was won in an upset. Bob Hamilton won the 36-hole finale, 1 up, at Manito Golf & Country Club over the overwhelming favorite and 1940 winner Byron Nelson. The match was tied after the first 18. Nelson would win the following year.

On this date in 1984, Lee Trevino won his second PGA Championship after shooting four rounds in the 60s and winning in sensational fashion by four shots at Shoal Creek over Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins. The victory capped off Trevino’s major victories at six, two U.S. Opens, two Open Championships and two PGAs. His best Masters finish was a tie for 10th. Also, on this date in 1961, Arnold Palmer lost to Gary Player, 68-69, at an Emeis Park exhibition, but in 1962, Arnold beat Jack Nicklaus, 67-68, in a Norwood Hills C.C. exhibition and won a two-man team match.

Two times Tiger Woods finished second to a journeyman type player in the PGA Championship at Hazeltine Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, and the first time was on this date in 2002 by one shot to Rich Beem. The second occasion was in 2009 on August 16 to Y.E. Yang by three shots. Beem bucked the odds and won over Woods with a 10-under 278 total. In 1950 on this date, Arnold Palmer won the West Penn Amateur and in 1962, he shot a 68 in an Emeis Park exhibition, Davenport, Iowa.

A few PGA championships ended on this date, including in 1969 when Raymond Floyd won at NCR Country Club’s South Course in Dayton, Ohio. Floyd shot eight-under 276 to win by one shot over Gary Player of South Africa, who infamously had to deal with apartheid protestors. On this date in 1951, Arnold Palmer won the West Penn Amateur and in 1952 he won the Western Penn & Eastern Ohio Amateur.

On this date, Arnold Palmer had another frustrating close call in the PGA Championship. One of his runner-up finishes in the PGA was a tied in 1970 for second two strokes behind winner Dave Stockton at Southern Hills. Stockton won with 279, with Palmer and Bob Murphy two strokes back. It was the first of two Stockton PGA victories, the second coming in 1976. Speaking of Palmer, on this date in 1953 he won the Greensburg Country Club Invitational. And in 1966, he shot a 70 in an exhibition at Locust Hill C.C. to Jack Nicklaus’ 71, Bruce Devlin 72, Doug Sanders 75.

A PGA Championship that was believed tailor made for Arnold Palmer to win instead went to affable Dave Marr on this date in 1965. Held at a course Palmer played out of his home in nearby Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the PGA at Laurel Valley was supposed to ensure an Arnie victory. But he was a nonfactor, busy as unofficial host so much that he was 14 behind Marr and tied for 33rd.

Before the gold medal Olympic performances of Xander Schauffele (2020) and Scottie Scheffler (2024), it is noted that on this date in 2016 Justin Rose of Great Britain was the gold medal winner at 16 under par in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, which marked the return of golf to the Olympics. And on this day in 1988, Jeff Sluman finished off a dream week at the PGA Championship at Oak Tree Golf Club in Oklahoma, shooting 12-under 272 to win by three over Paul Azinger.

Nine-time major champion and stoic icon Ben Hogan was born on this date in 1912 in Stephenville, Texas, destined to be a member of the second great trio of golfers in history with Sam Snead and Byron Nelson. The first was Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor; the modern-day three was Palmer, Nicklaus and Player. And on this date in 1933, Gene Sarazen put down claims his game was slipping by winning the PGA Championship at age 32 at Blue Mound Country Club in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He beat Willie Goggin, 5 and 4, in the final, culminating a week where his closest of five matches was a 4-and-3 victory over Harry Cooper in the second round.

On this date in 1973, Jack Nicklaus won the PGA Championship at Canterbury GC near Cleveland and passed Bobby Jones with 14 majors to take the all-time lead. Nicklaus won his third of five PGAs by four strokes over Bruce Crampton of Australia. On this date in 1949, Arnold Palmer won the West Penn Amateur at Oakmont, and in 1962, he won the American Golf Classic. This was also the date, in 1994, that Palmer played his final PGA Championship after playing 37 straight. He missed the cut by eight.

On this date, the golf gods gave and they took away from Lee Trevino in the PGA Championship. In 1974, Trevino won the first of his two PGAs, at Tanglewood Park in North Carolina, winning a battle with defending champion Jack Nicklaus. Trevino won by a shot with a four-under-par total of 276. But in 1985 at Cherry Hills, Trevino finished two shots in back of Hubert Green.

On this date in 1975, Jack Nicklaus won a fourth PGA Championship, this time at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Nicklaus had a four-under-par total of 276 and won by two shots over Bruce Crampton, the solemn Australian who had a few runner-up finishes to Nicklaus in the majors. Nicklaus led by four with a round to go and held on with a 71 to Crampton’s 69.

On this date in 1981, Larry Nelson won the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. Nelson won by four strokes over Fuzzy Zoeller with a seven-under 273 total. It was his first of three major victories. Nelson has reason to really love August 9 since in 1987 he also won the PGA Championship, this time at PGA National in Palm Beach, Florida, in a playoff with Lanny Wadkins. And in 1953, Arnold Palmer was the low amateur at the Rubber City Open.

On this date in 1982, steely-eyed Raymond Floyd won his second PGA Championship, surviving at sultry Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a 272 total to beat Lanny Wadkins by three. Floyd was 39 and took charge with a seven-under 63 in Round 1. And on this date in 1954, Arnold Palmer finished as low amateur at the George May All-American Open at Tam O’Shanter in the Chicago area. Also, in 1966, the first East Coast Arnold Palmer Indoor Golf School opened in Florham Park, N.J.

On this date in 1960, emerging golf superstar Arnold Palmer won the Insurance City Open via a playoff with Bill Collins and Jack Fleck. It was Palmer’s 20th PGA Tour title; 1960 was his watershed year when he emerged as the main superstar in golf. At the Insurance City Open, he finished four rounds of 70-68-66-66—270 to tie for first with Collins and Fleck and then win in a three-hole, sudden-death playoff. First place was worth $3,500.

Like Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson didn’t win the PGA Championship, which if they had would have given them each a career Grand Slam. On this date in 1978 at Oakmont C.C., site of this year’s U.S. Open won by J.J. Spaun, John Mahaffey rallied from seven shots back with 14 holes to play to tie Watson and Jerry Pate, and then won on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Watson had been in control during regulation, but his perfect drive on 10 finished in a sand-filled divot hole and he ended up making double bogey, and lost control of the outcome. Also, the 1972 PGA Championship concluded on this date with Gary Player winning at Oakland Hills near Detroit by two shots over Jim Jamieson and Tommy Aaron. The miracle clincher took place on the 16th hole in the final round when Player drove into the right rough behind a large weeping willow. But the South African lofted a 9-iron over the tree and made a four-foot birdie putt to maintain a cushion.

Miyu Yamashita won the Women’s Open Championship. over the weekend at Royal Porthcawl in Wales, but on this date in 2007 Lorena Ochoa won the event at the Old Course at St. Andrews, leading start to finish and finishing four strokes ahead of Maria Hjorth and Jee Young Lee with a 72-hole five-under score of 287. And on this date in 1979, stoic Australian David Graham held off sentimental favorite Ben Crenshaw in a three-hole playoff at Oakland Hills Country Club to win the PGA Championship. Also on this date in 1965, Arnold Palmer shot a first-round 69 in the Philadelphia Golf Classic but withdrew the next day due to fatigue.

On this day in 1945, the great gentleman champion golfer Byron Nelson won the Canadian Open at Thornhill Golf Club. It was his 11th of a record 18 straight victories that year on the PGA circuit. On this date in 1963, Arnold Palmer shot a course-record 61 at a Twin Oaks C.C. exhibition, Springfield, Mo., and in 1997, Palmer shot a first-round 63 with partner Peter Jacobsen at the 12th Fred Meyer Challenge (finishing 4th). On an Arnie personal note, Happy Birthday to his second daughter, Amy, born on this date in 1958.

Sam Snead, the ageless one who played the greatest golf of anyone in history the latest in life, was 67 years, 2 months and 7 days when he set the record on this date in the 1979 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Michigan, to be the oldest player to make the cut in a major. Snead had won the PGA in 1942, 1949 and 1951. iSam Snead made the cut at the PGA Championship. He had rounds of 73-71 to make the cut by two strokes, and shot 71-73 on the weekend to tie for 42nd.

On this date in 1912, the year the Titanic sank and one year before Francis Ouimet shocked the world with his U.S. Open victory, John McDermott won the U.S. Open for the second straight year. He won by two shots over Tom McNamara at the Country Club of Buffalo. McDermott shot two under par for 72 holes. On this date in 1959, the PGA Championship went to Bob Rosburg at Minneapolis Golf Club by just one shot over Doug Sanders and Jerry Barber. Six strokes back at the start of Round 4, Rosburg had a 66 to finish at three-under 277.