The 9 Most Unlikely PGA Championship Winners Of All Time

The PGA Championship has been won by plenty of incredibly accomplished golfers who cemented their legacy with a victory at the major. However, there have also been more than a few unexpected names who came out of nowhere to win the Wanamaker Trophy.

The list of PGA Championship winners is filled with legendary golfers, but there are also a significant number of people who would have been largely forgotten if they hadn’t been able to secure their place in history with a win at the tournament.

They’re joined by some others who hadn’t managed to make a name for themself before emerging from the major with a surprising victory to join the list of the most unlikely golfers to come out on top.

John Daly

I’m not ranking these guys in any particular order, but if I were, John Daly would probably be at the top of the list.

Daly joined the PGA Tour in 1987 but was still in search of his first win on the circuit when the PGA Championship headed to Crooked Stick in 1991.

He was initially the ninth alternate and only earned a spot in the field after Nick Price withdrew due to the birth of his child, and it’s safe to say he took full advantage of the opportunity.

The 25-year-old finished the first round in a tie for eighth at -3 before ending up at the top of the leaderboard on Friday at -8 with a one-stroke lead heading into the weekend.

He never looked back and was able to extend the margin to three by the time he got his first PGA Tour victory and the first of the two majors he’d end up winning.

Keegan Bradley

Only five golfers had won the first major they ever competed in ahead of the 2011 PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club, and Keegan Bradley managed to become the sixth member of that exclusive group by the time it wrapped up.

2011 marked Bradley’s debut on the PGA Tour, and he had a string of impressive finishes while securing his first victory at the HP Byron Nelson Championship in May.

With that said, he was still viewed as a dark horse when he played in his first major a few months later and was eight shots off the lead after recording a one-over 71 during his first round.

He ended up in a tie for first with Jason Dufner at -5 after bouncing back with a 64, and the two men ultimately ended up in a three-hole playoff by posting a -8 over 72 holes.

Bradley got the win by a single stroke and is still in search of his second major victory close to 15 years later.

Shaun Micheel

Shaun Micheel turned pro in 1992 to kick off a career that spanned decades but only resulted in one win on the PGA Tour, which just so happened to be the one at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in 2003.

Micheel was ranked 169th in the world when he entered his 169th PGA Tour event, and it goes without saying he wasn’t expected to be a threat in a field that boasted the likes of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Phil Mickelson.

However, he was three strokes behind Lefty in a tie for sixth after Thursday’s round and found himself with a two-stroke lead at -3 when the cut was finalized.

Micheel and Chad Campbell were tied for first at -4 when  play began on Sunday, but the latter lost a couple of strokes as his co-leader shot even par to seal the deal.

Y.E. Yang

Micheel is the first of a few guys on this list whose win is particularly notable because it transpired during a time when Tiger Woods was firmly in his prime and widely viewed as the man to beat in every single tournament he competed in.

He may have been a non-factor when Micheel won (he finished in a tie for 39th), but that was certainly not the case when it comes to the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine.

Tiger had already won the major four times and seemed prime for his fifth victory after finishing Thursday in first at -5 and extended a one-stroke lead to four by improving to -7 heading into the weekend.

He entered Sunday at -8 and had a two-stroke lead over Y.E. Yang and Padraig Harrington, and history suggested he wouldn’t lose it when you consider he’d won every single major where he led after 54 holes up to that point.

However, the three-over 75 he shot opened up the door for Yang, who recorded a 70 to finish at -8 while getting his second PGA Tour victory and only major win.

Rich Beem

Hazeltine was also the site of the PGA Championship in 2002, which saw Rich Beem pull off a similarly stunning victory over Tiger in a decidedly more dramatic fashion than Yang.

Both men got off to a quiet start but surged toward the top of the leaderboard on Friday; Beem ended up as one of the five golfers tied for first at -6, while Woods was a couple of strokes behind.

Justin Leonard was the man to beat heading into Sunday at -9 after Beem and Woods shot even, but he collapsed with a 77 to set up a battle between the two of them on the back nine.

Tiger, who was in the pairing ahead of Beem, went into the clubhouse at -9. His opponent arrived at the 18th hole knowing he only needed a bogey to win, and he clinched his only major by a stroke by doing exactly that.

Jeff Sluman

Jeff Sluman had a fairly baffling career after turning pro in 1980.

He ended up with six wins on the PGA Tour, but five of them came during or after the year where he celebrated his 40th birthday.

There was also a nine-year gap between his first victory and his second one, with the inaugural win coming at the 1988 PGA Championship at Oak Tree.

Sluman quietly worked his way into contention after shooting a 69 on Thursday and a 70 on Friday before kicking things into high gear once the weekend rolled around.

The 68 he shot on Saturday put him in third place at -6, three strokes behind leader Paul Azinger, and he outdid himself with a 65 on Sunday to catapult to -12 and win the tournament by the same difference.

John Mahaffey

John Mahaffey won the only major of his career at the 1978 PGA Championship, which was unlikely for a couple of reasons.

The first was that his first and most recent victory on the PGA Tour had come five years prior, and there wasn’t much evidence to suggest the drought was going to come to an end at Oakmont.

That was especially true after he shot a 75 on Thursday, and while he did eventually improve to the -3 that was good enough for fifth place before Sunday’s round, he was still seven strokes back of Tom Watson.

However, Watson hit a setback with a 73 that helped Jerry Pate and Mahaffey tie him at -8 by the time they all finished their last 18 holes.

They subsequently headed to a sudden-death playoff where all three men parred the first hole before Mahaffey got a birdie on the second to put things away.

Al Geiberger

Al Geiberger ended up with a respectable 11 wins on the PGA Tour and had four of them under his belt when the PGA Championship arrived at Firestone in 1966.

He was more than a year removed from his most recent victory and had never won a major. However, he was in contention from the very start after finishing Thursday tied with Sam Snead for first at -2 and was up by four on Dudley Wysong when play began on Sunday.

That lead remained intact as Geiberger held on to win one of the highest-scoring tournaments in PGA Championship history and secure his only major.

Dave Marr

We’re closing things out with Dave Marr, who only had three wins on the PGA Tour and got his last one by winning his first and only major at the 1965 PGA Championship at Laurel Valley.

Marr was three years removed from his most recent win and ended up four strokes back of Tommy Aaron’s lead at -1 on Thursday.

He went into the weekend at -3 and in a tie with Jack Nicklaus for second, and while Aaron was still in sole possession of first at that point, he and Marr were tied atop the leaderboard at -4 when Saturday wrapped up.

He ended up imploding with a 78 on Sunday while Marr notched an even-par 71, which was good enough to edge Nicklaus and Billy Casper by a couple of strokes.