More Texans have won the PGA Championship than there have been PGA Championships played in Texas.
A total of 10 golfers with ties to the Lone Star State have captured this major tournament. It’s 11 if you count Bobby Nichols (1964), who played his college golf at Texas A&M.
The PGA Championship is slated for May 16-19 at the Valhalla Club in Louisville. That’s where Mark Brooks of Fort Worth won the 1996 title.
The PGA Championship has been held three times in Texas. Julius Boros won at San Antonio’s Pecan Valley GC in 1968, while Jack Nicklaus took the title on the Blue Course at the Dallas Athletic Club in 1963. Walter Hagen was the winner at Cedar Crest in Dallas in 1927. The PGA Championship returns to the Lone Star State in 2027 at the PGA Frisco.
Plano’s Will Zalatoris, back after missing most of last year following back surgery, will be among the top golfers contending in PGA Championship 2024 betting. He’s set at odds of +3000. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is the favorite in golf’s second major of the year at +400.
Rich Beem (2002)
Born in Phoenix, Beem now makes his home in Austin. In the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in suburban Minneapolis, Beem held off the legend that is Tiger Woods to win the tournament and his first career major by one stroke.
Woods would birdie the final four holes to put the pressure on Beem. However, Beem would respond with a birdie on the 16th hole to gain a two-shot lead. He parred the 17th. Reaching the green in regulation on the par-four 18th hole, Beem causally three-putted to win by a shot.
Mark Brooks (1996)
Born in Fort Worth, Brooks still resides in the city. He was a three-time All-American at Texas, turning pro in 1983. He holds the record for the most career PGA Tour starts at 803.
Among his seven PGA Tour victories, the victory in the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville was his lone win in a major. Brooks beat Kenny Perry with a birdie on the first playoff hole.
John Mahaffey (1978)
Mahaffey attended the University of Houston, graduating with a degree in philosophy. He was born in Kerrville and today resides in The Woodlands.
After twice coming close to winning the U.S. Open – he lost a playoff in 1975 and squandered a two-shot lead in the final round in 1976 – Mahaffey was finally able to put his name on a major when he won the PGA Championship in 1978 at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.
In doing so, Mahaffey wrote the greatest comeback story in the history of golf’s majors. With 14 holes left to play, Mahaffey was trailing leader Tom Watson by seven shots. He shot a final-round of six-under par 66 to get into the three-way playoff with Watson and Jerry Pate. All three players would par the first hole of the playoff. On the second hole, Mahaffey sunk a 12-foot birdie putt to win his first major.
Lanny Wadkins (1977)
Dallas resident Wadkins won 21 PGA Tour titles during his career, including the 1977 PGA Championship. He was the runner-up in the tournament in 1982, 1984 and 1987. Wadkins was voted PGA Tour player of the year in 1985.
Wadkins beat veteran Gene Littler in the playoff to capture the 1977 PGA Championship at Pebble Beach. It was the first-ever playoff held in a stroke–play major tournament. The previous playoff in a major was in the 1941 PGA Championship, which was a match-play event.
Lee Trevino (1974, 1984)
Arguably the most colorful golfer ever to come out of the Lone Star State, Trevino was born in Garland. Growing up, he worked as a caddie at the Dallas Athletic Club and later as a club pro in El Paso.
Trevino was a two-time PGA Championship winner. His first title came at Tanglewood Park in North Carolina in 1974. He would finish one stroke ahead of Jack Nicklaus. It was the fourth time in a major that Nicklaus wound up as runner-up to Trevino. Trevino won the tournament using a putter he found in a friend’s attic only days before. He had only one three-putt and it came on the 71st hole.
A decade later in 1984 at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Alabama, Trevino would win his sixth and final major by capturing a second PGA Championship at the age of 44. Midway through the event, Trevino was tied for the lead with Wadkins and Gary Player. He carried a one-shot lead into the final round. Shooting a 69 over the final 18 holes, Trevino’s 15-under total set a new record for the PGA Championship.
Don January (1967)
Planview-born January was a member of the North Texas State golf team that won four successive NCAA titles from 1949-52. He attended Sunset High School in Dallas and is enshrined in that school’s hall of fame.
January won an 18-hole playoff against Don Massengale to capture the 1967 PGA Championship. Shooting a 69, January won by two shots. The tournament was played at Colorado’s Columbine Country Club.
Six years earlier, January lost the PGA Championship by one stroke to Jerry Barber in an 18-hole playoff, despite shooting a 68. It’s the lowest losing score ever recorded in a 18-hole playoff at a major event.
Dave Marr (1965)
Born and raised in Houston, Marr attended University at both Rice and Houston. He turned pro in 1953 at the age of 19.
His win in the 1965 PGA Championship came at Pennsylvania’s Laurel Valley Golf Club. He held off golfing legends Jack Nicklaus and Billy Casper to win the tournament by two shots. Just a few hours after his win, Marr’s third child, a son named Tony, was born.
Jack Burke Jr. (1956)
Fort Worth’s Burke’s father Jack Sr. was the head pro at River Oaks Country Club in Houston. While at Rice, Burke qualified for the 1941 U.S. Open in Texas as an amateur.
His 1956 PGA Championship win came at Blue Hill in Massachusetts when the event was a match-play format. Burke beat Ted Kroll 3&2 in the final. That same year, he also won the Masters.
Ben Hogan (1946, 1948)
Ben Hogan (Public Domain, Library of Congress).
Certainly the greatest golfer ever to hail from Texas, Stephenville’s Hogan won 64 PGA Tour titles, putting him fourth on the all-time list. That includes nine majors. Hogan won each of the four major events at least once, wearing a pair of PGA Championship crowns.
His first win in 1946 was at Portland Golf Club. Hogan beat Ed Oliver 6&4. Two years later at Northwood Hills in St. Louis, Hogan downed Mike Turnesa 7&6.
Byron Nelson (1940, 1945)
Sixth on the all-time PGA Tour win list with 52 victories is Waxahachie’s Nelson. He also would win all four majors once each, including PGA Championship titles in 1940 and 1945.
Nelson beat Sam Snead one up at Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1950. Five years later, he got the better of Sam Byrd one up at Moraine CC in Dayton, Ohio.