The 11 Most Difficult PGA Championship Tournaments And The Golfers Who Managed To Win Them

The PGA Championship has historically been a fairly low-scoring affair more often than not, as most people who end up winning the Wanamaker Trophy have managed to finish firmly under par. However, there are more than a few notable exceptions to that general rule.

In 2024, Xander Schauffele won the PGA Championship with the lowest score ever recorded at the tournament by finishing at -21, which was one stroke better than the -20 Jason Day finished at while earning a victory of his own in 2015.

However, that major has also produced some winning scores that fall firmly on the other end of the spectrum thanks to the iterations that stand out as the most challenging four-day stretches in its history.

1960: Jay Hebert, +1

2025 marks the 68th year the PGA Championship has been decided via stroke play (it went with a match-based format upon its inception in 1916 before switching over in 1958), and there have been four different instances where the winner finished over par.

You may not be shocked to learn they all transpired at a time when golfers were using woods that were actually made out of wood, and while I’m using “difficult” to describe these tournaments, I should acknowledge that technological limitations also played a factor.

Jay Hebert is the first man on the list, and the fact that the 54-hol  cut was set at +14 (the one after 36 was “only” +11) really tells you all you need to know about how Firestone was playing in 1960—there were only 13 rounds under par, which is still a PGA Championship record.

Arnold Palmer was one of four golfers who managed to finish the first round under par (he was the leader at -3), but Hebert was the only person with that distinction heading into the weekend after shooting a three-under 67 on Friday.

He headed into the final round in a tie for second and one of three golfers back of leader Doug Sanders after shooting a 72 but bounced back with a 70 to beat Jim Ferrier by a stroke.

1968: Julius Boros, +1

There were four golfers under par after the first round of the PGA Championship wrapped up at Pecan Valley Golf Club in San Antonio in 1968 (Marty Fleckman had a two-stroke lead at -4).

There were three under that line heading into the weekend after the cut was set at +9, and Fleckman and Frank Beard both had an “E” next to their name when they entered Sunday as co-leaders.

Julian Boros was two strokes back but was just one of a handful of players who got under par in the final round, and the +1 finish was enough to make him the oldest PGA Championship winner in history at the time at the age of 48 (a record that would stand until Phil Mickelson broke it in 2021).

1972: Gary Player, +1

The two golfers in first place after the first round of the 1972 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills were sitting at -2, and it was pretty obvious which way things were trending after Jerry Heard took the lead at -1 on Friday (the cut was +10).

Gary Player entered the weekend three shots behind the lead after shooting back-to-back 71s, but he vaulted into first with a 67 and was at -1 (one ahead of Bill Casper) ahead of his last 18 holes.

He ended up losing a couple of strokes, but Sam Snead was the only man who ended up near the top of the leaderboard to shoot under par on Sunday as Player won the PGA Championship for the second time to earn the sixth of his nine major victories.

1976: Dave Stockton, +1

The 1976 PGA Tournament is a bit of a strange one at first glance compared to the first three on this list; the cut was set at +9, but 11 golfers were -1 or better after the first round (Tom Weiskopf led at -5) and 13 were at even or lower when Gil Morgan took a four-stroke lead into the Saturday at -6.

However, inclement weather threw a very interesting twist into the equation.

Saturday’s rounds were only partially completed due to rain before wrapping up the next morning, and the powers that be at Congressional Country Club tried to squeeze the final 18 into Sunday before waiving the white flag due to the conditions (the players who’d already started were forced to start over).

Charles Coody was at -3 when the last round of the PGA Championship was held on a Monday for the first time, but Dave Stockton was able to erase a four-shot deficit by shooting an even 70 to edge out Raymond Floyd and Don January for his second win at the tournament.

1966: Al Geiberger, E

1960 wasn’t the only time Firestone gave golfers at the PGA Championship a run for their money, as it was a similarly fickle mistress when the event returned six years later.

Sam Snead was the only golfer under par after play ended on Friday with the cut set at +11, but he shot a 75 on Saturday to help Al Geiberger leap into the lead at -2 and take a four-stroke advantage over Dudley Wysong into Sunday.

He did falter a bit by shooting a 72, but Wysong did the same as Geiberger coasted to a fairly comfortable victory to win his first and only major.

1970: Dave Stockton, -1

Remember when I said Dave Stockton’s victory in 1976 was his second? Well, here’s the first one.

Stockton and the rest of the field fared a bit better at Southern Hills, although it is worth noting there wasn’t a single player under par when the cut was finalized at +10 on Friday (he and Larry Hinson were tied for the lead at even).

The 66 Stockton shot on Thursday brought him down to -4 to give him a three-stroke lead over Raymond Floyd, and while he did hit a rough patch with a 73 on Sunday, he already had enough of a cushion to get the win by a couple of strokes over Bob Murphy and Arnold Palmer.

1987: Larry Nelson, -1

The Champions Course at PGA National was fairly manageable in 1987. There were at least nine players sitting at even or better over the course of the first three days of the tournament, and the cut was +7 after two.

The weather was also a bit of a factor for reasons that had nothing to do with rain—although players probably would have liked some to help deal with the scorching Florida summer sun that caused temperatures to peak at 93°F during the first three days before hitting 97 on Sunday.

It seems like those conditions eventually caught up to the field based on how much scores ended up dipping during the final round that ended with  Larry Nelson and Larry Wadkins facing off in a sudden-death playoff.

Nelson only needed a single hole to settle things, as he sank a six-foot putt for par before Wadkins missed the four-footer that would have extended the showdown.

1962: Gary Player, -2

We’ve got another golfer making his second appearance courtesy of Gary Player, who’d won his first major with a victory at The Masters in 1961 a year before the PGA Championship descended upon Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania.

The South African was one of just four guys under par when the initial cut was set at +11 on Friday and the only, um, player in the red when the second was established at +12 ahead of the final round.

Player had a two stroke lead at -2 when play kicked off on Sunday, and while Bob Goalby did what he could to challenge him with a 67, it was too little, too late against the man who beat him by a stroke.

1959: Bob Rosburg, -3

We’re closing things out with the three different golfers who’ve won the PGA Championship by finishing at -3, and Bob Rosburg was the first one to do so at Minneapolis Golf Club two years after the start of its Stroke Play Era.

He took a fairly unlikely path to get there, as Jerry Barber seemed like the man to beat and had the chance to go wire-to-wire after finishing in a tie for first on Friday before ending up alone at the top of the leaderboard on Friday and Saturday (where the cuts were set at +10 and +11, respectively).

Rosburg was at +1 and six shots off the lead heading into Sunday after recording a two-under 68 following a 71-72 showing to kick things off, and he outdid himself with the 66 that helped him beat Barber and Doug Sanders by a stroke.

1961: Jerry Barber, -3

Speaking of Jerry Barber…

The golfer may have choked away a golden opportunity in 1959, but he got some redemption when the PGA Championship was held at Olympia Fields a couple of years later.

The event (which boasted a cut line of +8) was also marred by rain that primarily impacted the second round, and the tournament was defined by a battle between Barber and Don January at the top of the leaderboard that needed to be settled in a playoff when they both finished at -3 after 72 holes.

Barber technically finished at -6 if you take Monday’s round into consideration, as the 45-year-old edged out January by a stroke and set the PGA Championship age record Boros would eventually break.

2008: Padraig Harrington, -3

This is far and away the most recent entry on this list and a pretty big anomaly when you look at some of the other scores that have been recorded at the PGA Championship since the start of the millennium.

The players who headed to Oakland Hills in 2008 had to deal with windy conditions linked to the thunderstorms that repeatedly threatened play, and J. B. Holmes was the only player under par when the field was narrowed down for the weekend with the +8 cut.

Padraig Harrington was at +5 at that point and seemed firmly out of contention, but he was just three strokes out of the lead after shooting a four-under 66 on Saturday.

He posted the same number on Sunday, and it turned out to be enough to get the win by two strokes over Ben Curtis and Sergio Garcia.