PGA Championship 2026: The story behind of the 'other' champions dinner

Q: What is the history of the PGA Championship champions dinner?

The champions dinner was inspired by the Masters and initiated in 1965 by Bobby Nichols at the request of PGA President Warren Cantrell.

Q: Who hosted the first PGA Championship champions dinner?

Bobby Nichols hosted the first champions dinner in 1965 at Laurel Valley Golf Club.

Q: How many past winners attended the first champions dinner?

Nineteen past winners attended the inaugural champions dinner in 1965.

Q: What is the significance of the champions dinner in golf?

The champions dinner serves as a celebration of past winners, similar to the prestigious Masters Champions Dinner.

It’s not like there hasn’t been a plethora of examples in which certain aspects of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament have inspired duplication over nearly a century. Some have been more successful than others.

More than 60 years ago, the PGA of America might have been one of the first golf entities to borrow an idea from the Masters. In this case, PGA President Warren Cantrell took a page out of a relatively young but increasingly popular Masters tradition to celebrate its winners of the PGA Championship. In 1952, Ben Hogan had hosted the first Masters Club dinner, more commonly known today as the Masters Champions Dinner, and it quickly became the most coveted supper soirée in the game.

In the fall of 1964, Cantrell approached reigning PGA champion Bobby Nichols about plans to start a similar dinner at the ’65 championship at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, Pa.

“He [Cantrell] wanted to establish an annual champions dinner like the Masters, and he asked me to host. I was honored of course,” Nichols said via email.

At the time, there were 30 past winners of the championship that began in 1916. Nichols was delighted to find out that he wouldn’t be expected to pick up the dinner tab, unlike the Masters, where the newest winner of the green jacket settles the check at the end of the evening. Nineteen men attended (see photograph), including legends Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen—each whom already was a recipient of a Masters dinner invitation, as well.

/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2026/5/original-pga-championship-champions-dinenr-photo-1965.jpg

A photo from the first PGA champions dinner held in 1965. Front row: Bobby Nichols, Gary Player, Jerry Barber, Jay Hebert, Bob Rosburg, Dow Finsterwald, Jackie Burke. Middle row: Doug Ford, Chick Harbert, Jim Turnesa, Sam Snead, Chandler Harper, Jim Ferrier. Back row: Vic Ghezzi, Byron Nelson, Denny Shute, Paul Runyan, Gene Sarazen, Tom Creavy

Hogan, though he made his final appearance in the championship that year, was not among the attendees, perhaps having figured that starting one dinner tradition was enough. Also missing was Jack Nicklaus, winner in 1963 and runner-up with Arnold Palmer to Nichols in ’64 at Columbus (Ohio) Country Club.

Nichols loves to tell the story of how he pranked Snead at that inaugural edition.

“During my remarks thanking everyone for attending, I said it's now time to decide how we're going to pay for the dinner,” Nichols said. “I jokingly mentioned as a tradition we were going to have a past champion pay for the dinner each year starting with the 1942 champion. Sam stood up, had a colorful response and headed for the door. We had to call him back, and we all laughed.”

The irony there is that Snead was notorious for breaking up the Masters dinner with one of his raunchy jokes. This time, the joke was on him.

Apparently, a little bit of verbal shenanigans became a tradition. At the 2006 dinner at Medinah Country Club near Chicago, Paul Azinger roasted defending champion Phil Mickelson. On the morning of the final round of the 2002 Ryder Cup at The Belfry, in England, Azinger watched in astonishment as Mickelson downed a pile of waffles before his match against Phillip Price.

“First of all, the food was just out of this world that night,” said Azinger, who won his PGA title in 1993. “Some of the old guys that were there, I think Dow Finsterwald and Bob Rosburg, they were just in awe; they had never seen food like that in their lives. There was this huge seafood tower that was spectacular. Next wave of food came out, and it was so decadent, and I think we were eating well past 10 o’clock.

“Now, eventually they ask a few guys to come up and speak, and Phil asked me if I would say a few words,” Azinger continued. “I started out with high praise for Phil and the dinner. And then I said, ‘Let me tell you about Phil and food.’ I was telling the audience how nervous I was the final day of the Ryder Cup in 2002. I’m eating, like, one corn flake at a time. Meanwhile, Phil is grabbing those Euro waffles with the seam in the middle, and he has three of them. So he’s got six waffles stacked up and butter and syrup on each layer, and then he has two fried eggs on top. He sits next to me, and a server comes over and asks if he’d like something to drink, and he says, ‘I’ll take a diet Coke.’ I mean, at that point I tell him, ‘Just go all in with regular Coke. I don’t know why you’re holding back.’”

'You know, there may be this thought from some guys that our dinner isn’t all that and a box of Oreos. … But the PGA champions dinner is a very cool deal, and I hope that the younger guys really appreciate it and embrace it because it’s become fun and we get to celebrate the players who share a bond as PGA champions.'

—Rich Beem, 2002 PGA champion

It wasn’t always so light-hearted, though. Rich Beem, the 2002 champion, remembers his turn in ’03 being more than a little uncomfortable when Rosburg stood up and instead of telling a story launched into a diatribe against PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem for not supporting more strongly the senior tour. “I wanted to crawl under the table,” Beem said.

By that time, the PGA dinner had become something more than just the past champions. And something less, too.

Starting with that 2003 dinner, players’ wives were invited to join their husbands along with PGA officials and other guests. The dinner turned into a gala. And the gala turned into “a dog and pony show where we were signing autographs all night,” said one past winner who no longer attends and didn’t want to be quoted on the record. “One year, they even had on the invitations not to bring things for players to sign … and everyone still brought flags and stuff anyways.”

It should be noted that for a long time, and no one remembers exactly when it started, wives were included in the schedule of events before the event brought in hundreds. A joint cocktail hour preceded the official festivities, and the wives broke off into another room to have their own dinner. Apparently, this worked out quite well, especially when Barbara Nicklaus was in attendance with her husband Jack, winner of a record-tying five PGA titles.

“All the wives looked forward to Barbara hosting their deal, because she was just so incredibly gracious,” Dave Stockton said.

“It was special because it really was the only occasion where we could all get together and sit and visit with each other,” Barbara said.

“For those of us that like having our wives around, the ride home from it was always fun,” Stockton said. “My wife [Catherine] was telling me all the stories the girls would tell and she'd be getting me to tell her what the guys were talking about. So it worked both ways, and we got a lot of gossip.”

More PGA Championship preview stories

Golf Digest Logo PGA Championship 2026: The real story behind the Philadelphia School of Design

Golf Digest Logo PGA Championship 2026: Bryson DeChambeau's Big Choice

On to Philly PGA Championship 2026: Here's every player in the field (so far) at Aronimink

Stockton, champion in 1970 and ’76, was one of the more vocal past winners who expressed a desire to return to a simpler rendition. “I remember one year when I was at one end of a table of 20 and Davis Love was at the other end and we sat there with 18 of our closest friends—and I didn’t know any of them,” Stockton said sardonically.

“It finally got to where, when the dinner was over, they told everyone but the players to stay seated so we could leave,” David Graham remembered. “That was the year [2018] when Justin Thomas was the host. Of course, we knew why they did that, to discourage autograph signing, but it was our dinner and we were dismissed first. I went because it was the 100th PGA. I haven’t been back since.”

Graham plans to attend the dinner in 2027 when the PGA makes its debut at PGA Frisco near Dallas, where Graham now lives. He’ll find the past champions dinner quite different. The invitation list has been shorn of everyone but the former champs, a few PGA officials, the host club professional and, likely, the winner of the PGA Professional Championship.

Not everyone was against the big-dinner scene.

“I think some guys thought it had become a spectacle. I always enjoyed it, getting to meet new people and PGA officials, but it seems more tailored now to what the Masters dinner is, and probably what they did envision when they started it,” said 2003 champion Shaun Micheel. “I think behind the scenes there were a few players who made comments that listen, this is really about the champions. I didn’t know any differently. It’s definitely more special to have just the champions getting together.”

1004388442

Gary Player and Byron Nelson chat during the 1969 PGA Champions Dinner. (Photo by PGA of America via Getty Images)

PGA of America

The switch was made for the 2021 dinner after the 2020 championship at Harding Park was conducted without spectators in attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic. Only players and a few others convened at Kiawah Island, S.C. There was some irony to that, Stockton said.

“It had gotten too big. It's like the celebration that we had at Kiawah during the [1991] Ryder Cup,” Stockton said. “We had to go to Charleston to attend a big dinner, and that’s when we had the limo wreck that injured Steve Pate. It was just a big party for everyone else but the players, and we go to enough parties. They don't even have that dinner anymore. Because that’s not what you need when you're getting ready for a Ryder Cup or a major championship.”

150039400

Champions dinner 2012 — (1st Row L-R) Dave Stockton, Doug Ford, Martin Kaymer, Keegan Bradley, David Toms, Don January, (2nd row) Shaun Micheel, Al Geiberger, Y.E. Yang, Rich Beem, Hubert Green, Padraig Harrington, Bobby Nichols, (3rd row) Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and Davis Love III.