10 best moments in PGA Championship history

1. John Daly comes out of nowhere to win in 1991

Yep, that’s right. John Daly winning the 1991 PGA Championship leads the list of the best moments in this tournament’s storied history. That may not please everyone but the likelihood of something like this happening is something you just can’t make up.

After a short career at the University of Arkansas, including playing in the U.S. Open as an amateur in 1986, missing the cut following an opening-round 88, Daly turned pro in 1987 and picked up a few wins on the mini-tours leading into his rookie year on the PGA Tour in 1991 after finishing tied for 12th at qualifying school.

Exactly like Shaun Micheel was in 2003, Daly was ranked 169th in the world coming into the 1991 PGA Championship but he wasn’t even supposed to be there. There’s a big process of how these things go down but Daly was the ninth alternate to get into the field that week at Crooked Stick, meaning if somebody dropped out, there were eight others that would get a call before him to take that spot. Well, Nick Price, who would go on to win two of the next of the next three PGA Championship titles, dropped out late due to the birth of his first child and the eight others in front of Daly couldn’t make it to the course in time.

Daly was able to make it in time after driving all night and luckily had an afternoon tee time in the first round. Without being able to play a practice round, the 25-year-old with the mullet who had missed 11 of 24 cuts on the PGA Tour in 1991, hired Nick Price’s caddie for the week and went out and fired a three-under 69 and sat just two shots back of leaders Kenny Knox and Ian Woosnam, which is incredible enough in itself. To make things more interesting, he followed it up with a 67 to take a one-shot lead into the weekend, forcing people to take notice.

With fans in awe of his power, the real beauty of the week was watching him putt. He made every single putt he needed to make and just showed that he was more than a power guy, something that’s always gotten lost when talking about John Daly. He never relinquished the lead, extending it to three after 54 holes and closed out with a final-round 71 to win by that same margin, becoming the first rookie to win a major since Jerry Pate in 1976 and arguably the most improbable major champion in golf history, something he would duplicate nearly four years later in that epic duel with Costantino Rocca at The Open Championship at St. Andrews.

What people may not remember about the 1991 PGA Championship is that during a first-round weather delay, a spectator, 39-year-old Thomas Weaver, was killed by a lightning bolt. The first thing John Daly did when he accepted the Wanamaker Trophy was announce that he was setting up a $30,000 scholarship fund for that man’s two young daughters, which he did. Now that’s a real moment.

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