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John Daly, a last-minute entrant, won the 73rd PGA Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club, marking one of the most improbable victories in golf history. At just 25 years old, he finished with a 12-under-par total, defeating a strong field of competitors.
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The story of the 73rd PGA Championship at Pete Dyeâs Crooked Stick Golf Club still doesn't seem plausible. It's too improbable even to qualify as a long shot.
And yet John Daly â ninth on the alternate list just a week before the championship and the final player to squeeze into the field â authored one of the most unlikely victories in major championship history.
For four days, Daly played the best golf of his young life. When it ended, the 25âyearâold PGA Tour rookie walked off with the Wanamaker Trophy, having conquered one of the strongest fields of the season.
Playing in his first PGA Championship, Daly captivated crowds with thunderous tee shots and overwhelmed opponents who, according to the Sony World Rankings, constituted one of the deepest lineups of the year. His power shortened Crooked Stick, and by the time he signed for a 12âunderâpar total of 276, Daly had etched his name alongside the gameâs giants.
John Daly holds the trophy after winning the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana.
He became only the second player in more than 20 years to claim his first PGA Tour victory in the PGA Championship, joining Jeff Sluman in 1988. Daly finished three shots clear of 40âyearâold veteran Bruce Lietzke, a respected winner on Tour but still seeking his first major title.
More remarkably, Daly was just the sixth player in more than three decades to make a major championship his first professional win â a list that includes Nicklaus, Trevino and a small handful of others.
âThis is a dream come true,â Daly said, his expectations for the year having been modest enough to center on keeping his tour card.
That concern vanished instantly. Along with the $230,000 winnerâs check came a decade-long Tour exemption, lifetime access to the PGA Championship and five-year exemptions into the Masters and U.S. Open.
âYouâre kidding,â Daly said, marveling at the implications. âI just came here to play and try to make the cut.â
John Daly won the PGA Championship in 1991.
Daly was ninth on the alternate list just a week before the championship and was the final player to enter the field.
John Daly finished the tournament with a score of 12-under-par, totaling 276.
The 1991 PGA Championship took place at Pete Dyeâs Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana.
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John Daly reacts after putting out to win the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana.
Dalyâs Cinderella story felt pulled straight from Bill Murrayâs imagination in Caddyshack â only this version featured 285âyard drives and towering irons struck without irony or exaggeration. His length reshaped the course; while much of the field hit long irons into greens, Daly attacked with wedges and short irons, especially on Crooked Stickâs four parâ5 holes, which he played in 12âunder par for the week.
A week before the tournament, Dalyâs situation could not have been more uncertain. From his home in Memphis, he tracked withdrawals by phone. When Nick Price withdrew on Wednesday morning, Daly edged closer. When two more players bowed out, Daly found himself first alternate. At 5 p.m. the night before the championship, he gambled â loading his car and driving nearly eight hours through the night.
In the middle of the night, a blinking message light confirmed it: he was in.
âIt was 12:30 in the morning when I got in and the message light was on,â said Daly, who was the qualifying medalist at the first â and only â Ben Hogan Tour qualifying school in January 1990. âThatâs when I learned Bryant couldnât make it and I was in. I got to sleep at 2 oâclock. I was fortunate because it was Nick Priceâs spot and he had a 12:58 p.m. tee time on Thursday.â
Without ever seeing the course, Daly opened with rounds of 69â67â69â71. He trailed by two after Thursday, led by one at the halfway point and carried a threeâshot advantage into the final round.
On the second and third days, he was the pudgy character people started noticing as he smashed the ball, tearing up the course Jack Nicklaus said after three practice rounds was the most difficult he had ever played.
As that tournament unfolded, a growing legion of awestruck and flabbergasted supporters lined each hole like a parade route. They roared and gave Daly ovations at every green.
Who was this guy, who looked like he could be a used-car salesman, a bookie, a jovial uncle, who was taking over this competition of elite, seasoned pros?
John Daly at the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana.
"He's treating Pete Dye's 7,280-yard monster like a pitch and putt course with his booming tee ball," columnist Robin Miller wrote in the Indianapolis Star.
Daly's 5-under 67 in the second round shot him to the top of the leaderboard, 8 under par for the tournament. It included one eagle, seven birdies and long-distance drives that left his competitors shaking their heads.
"It's unbelievable. I've never seen anyone hit the ball like that," said Wayne Grady, who entered play that week as the defending PGA champion, and played ahead of Daly all day. "I mean, it's amazing. He's hitting 8- and 9-irons into holes where we are hitting 2- and 3-irons."
Jeff "Squeaky" Medlin, Price's caddie, had never seen Daly until the first tee on the first day of the championship.
"John has shown me a side of golf I don't normally see," Medlin said at the time. "He hits the ball in places nobody else does and he was a little hard to club at first."
After Saturdayâs round, television viewers called in alleging a rules violation involving Dalyâs caddie and the flagstick. PGA officials halted the scoring process while reviewing video. After careful examination, no infraction was found, and Dalyâs birdie stood.
The tournament was his to lose.
The night before the final round, Daly went to the Colts game versus Seattle at the Hoosier Dome, "and got a bigger cheer than did the Colts," according to the local paper.
On Sunday, Daly steadied himself. Birdies at Nos. 2, 5, 13 and 15 offset mistakes at 1 and 17. A late charge by Lietzke cut the margin, but Daly answered every challenge. Even a threeâputt double bogey on 17 wasnât enough to derail him.
With one hole to play, Dalyâs cushion held. Moments later, his place in history was secure.
A day after the championship had closed in Carmel, IndyStar's Wayne Fuson called Daly "perhaps the most unlikely winner of a major tournament since World War II."
Before Sunday's $230,000 payoff, Daly had made $166,000 on the tour for the entire year. Few had ever heard of him. And then they fell in love, Fuson wrote.
"John Daly is different. He's the kind of a kid gray-haired groupies want to adopt, the kind of a guy younger gals in the gallery want to take home for their own," said Fuson. "And, he's the kind of buddy guys down at the neighborhood watering hole would want to join for a few brewskies."
After he hoisted the trophy, Daly talked about his unlikely rise to golf's elite title.
"I can tell you one thing, I've done this my way," said Daly. "I don't have anybody to blame for this win but me, and I love it."
John Daly is all smiles after winning the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana.
Though no longer guaranteed a Ryder Cup spot, Daly acknowledged where his ambitions were headed.
âI would love to play in the Ryder Cup,â he said. âI think itâs time for Americans to start winning big tournaments again.â
At Crooked Stick, John Daly didnât just win a major. He announced himself â loudly, improbably and forever.
Golfweek alum Ron Balicki and Dana Hunsinger Benbow of the Indianapolis Star contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: John Daly's 1991 PGA Championship win