On Sunday at the PGA, golfers face their last opportunity to win a major each year, and the whole world is watching. Begun in 1916 with a mere 31 players, the Championship annually attracts a quarter of a million spectators and has been won by the biggest names in golf--Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Lee Trevino, Nick Price, and Tiger Woods.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
When Tom Kerrigan stepped up to the first tee at Siwanoy Country Club for the inaugural PGA Championship in 1916, he never could have imagined that it would become one of the most coveted titles in the history of the game. Jim Barnes, the first Champion, won $500 and a diamond medal. In 2004, 156 players will compete for over $6 million in prize money. Nearly a quarter of a million spectators will attend the event on site, and the Championship will be broadcast to over 370 million viewers in 160 territories and countries.
Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Lee Trevino, Nick Price, Tiger Woods, and dozens of others have their names engraved on the Wanamaker Trophy, named in honor of department store manager Rodman Wanamaker who helped start The PGA of America, the host of the event. On Sunday at The PGA, golfers face their last opportunity to make history in a major championship each year.
This is the first book to tell the story of the event. Six men dominated the first 13 years of The PGA Championship. In the next 13, there were 11 different champions. The early winners were journeymen, mainly club professionals who balanced tournament careers with their responsibilities at golf courses. Only a handful of players, namely Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, gained enough prominence to negotiate time off to play in exhibition and tournaments.
This changes in the 1940s with the arrival of Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and Byron Nelson. These three men, who won a combined 21 majors during their careers, ushered in the modern era of American golf. Already deemed golf’s fourth major—along with the Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open—The PGA Championship was transformed from a match-play to a stroke-play event in 1958 and enjoyed a period of explosive growth.
Like Walter Hagen before him, Jack Nicklaus dominated The PGA Championship and the world of golf. His 1973 win over Bruce Crampton gave him 14 major championship titles, surpassing Bobby Jones’ record set in 1930. When he won in 1980, he tied the record of five victories set by Hagen in The PGA over a half a century earlier. In the Foreword, Nicklaus explains that some of the toughest tests in his career came at The PGA.
Recently, the PGA Championship has boasted some of the best finishes in the majors. From Bob Tway’s bunker shop on the 18th in 1986 to the epic duels between Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia in 1999 and Bob May in 2000, to the surprise wins of John Daly, David Toms, Rich Beem, and Shaun Micheel, The PGA remains “glory’s last shop” for players and fans each year.
From the Back Cover
Advance Praise For
The PGA Championship: The Season’s Final Major
The PGA Championship: The Season’s Final Major
“Dozens of books have been written about the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the British Open, but this is the first comprehensive history of The PGA Championship. I feel privileged to have been part of this history and am grateful to my family and my fans for many years of support. The PGA Championship: The Season’s Final Major tells the story of a great Championship—a legacy that will last as long as the game is played.”
—Jack Nicklaus
“The PGA Championship has been one of the most coveted titles in golf since the first playing of the event in 1916. Now it has a book that does justice to the accomplishments of the championships and some of the disappointments of those who didn’t win. This ia a worthy account of one of golf’s most interesting events.”
—Thomas Bonk, Los Angeles Times
“Having won nine majors, I am extremely proud that two of these came in The PGA Championship. This book recounts the history from the founding in 1916 through today. It is funny, poignant, and, most importantly, celebratory of all that is good in the game.”
—Gary Player
“All you have to say is Tiger at Valhalla, Daly at Crooked Stick, Micheel at Oak Hill and today’s golf fans know what you mean because they saw it. The PGA Championship: The Season’s Final Major provides a complete panorama of the event where Sarazen, Hagen, Snead, Nelson, Hogan, and Nicklaus reigned supreme. It is a journey through time.”
&mdas;Jim Nantz, CBS Sports
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully done book on the history of the PGA Championship,
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This review is from: The PGA Championship: The Season's Final Major (Hardcover)
What a beautifully done book! For those of us who care about golf and its major championships it is very nice to have this one for the final major of each season. This book provides a solid history of the tournament since it was first conducted in 1916. From its inception through 1957 it was a grueling match play event that at times required the victor to play more than 200 holes in five days! This book does a great job in telling us about the formation of the PGA and the championship tournament. We also learn about the Wanamaker Trophy, who Wanamaker was, and the importance of his early support to the tournament.
The book tells us about the interesting characters that have won the championship over the decades, when it was not held because of war, the issue of race in the tournament, and the eventual inclusion of African-American and other minorities in the championship. The book rightly focuses more attention on those champions who were multiple winners. Therefore the book gives us wonderful portraits of Walter Hagen, who won five times and was one of the original members of the PGA, and Jack Nicklaus, who also won this tournament five times and provides the foreword for this book. There are many pages of fabulous pictures of the champions we know and love, but many more on past champions we should get to know. There are also pictures of the courses, programs, fans, and equipment. It is quite interesting to see how things have changed over the years and how surprising things can sometimes be. Who can forget John Daly driving all night and starting the 1991 PGA Championship without even a warm-up round and then going on to win the tournament. What you might not know is that one of the fans was killed during the event on the first day. John Daly gave the family $30,000 for an endowment for his daughters' education. The book is full of great stories, great information, and wonderful images. It concludes with a list of all the champions, their score, the runner-up, the course, its yardage, the dates and total purse (you will be shocked at how little the pros won even twenty-five years ago). Great gift for your golf-addicted friends.
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