The 1997 PGA Championship was the 79th PGA Championship, held August 14–17 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York, a suburb northeast of New York City. Davis Love III won his only major championship, five strokes ahead of runner-up Justin Leonard, winner of the 1997 Open Championship.
The last few holes on Sunday were played in a steady rain. However, when Love reached the final green with the tournament wrapped up, the sun peeked through the clouds and a rainbow appeared in the sky. Many took it as a symbol of Love finally winning his first major after several close calls and of his late father, a PGA professional, approvingly looking down from above.
Love's performance is remembered as one of the best in modern major championship history. Only two players finished within 10 shots of him. The sports analytics expert Bill Barnwell statistically identified the victory as the second most dominant win of the modern era (1960–2011), only behind Tiger Woods' 15-shot triumph at the 2000 U.S. Open.
This was the first PGA Championship at the West Course and the fifth major; it previously hosted four U.S. Opens (1929, 1959, 1974, and 1984), which later returned in 2006 and 2020. The tournament was televised by TBS Sports and CBS Sports.
Course layout West Course HoleNameYardsPar HoleNameYardsPar1Genesis4464 10Pulpit19032Elm411411Billows39643Pinnacle216312Cape54054Sound View460413White Mule21235Long Lane515514Shamrock43246El324415Pyramid42347Babe-in-the-Woods161316Hells Bells45748Arena442417Well-Well44949Meadow467418Revelations4484Out3,44235In3,54535Source: Total6,98770 Lengths of the course for previous majors: 1984 U.S. Open: , par 70 1974 U.S. Open: , par 70 1959 U.S. Open: , par 70 1929 U.S. Open: , par 72
Round summaries First round Thursday, August 14, 1997 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 John Daly66−4 Davis Love III3 Robert Allenby67−3T4 Paul Azinger68−2 Tom Kite Justin Leonard Shigeki Maruyama Greg Norman Chris Perry Paul Stankowski Bob Tway
Second round Friday, August 15, 1997 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Lee Janzen69-67=136−42 Davis Love III66-71=137−3T3 Phil Blackmar70-68=138−2 Fred Couples 71-67=138 Justin Leonard68-70=138 Jeff Maggert 69-69=138 Shigeki Maruyama 68-70=138 Phil Mickelson 69-69=138 Costantino Rocca 69-69=138T10 John Daly66-73=139−1 Greg Norman 68-71=139 Chris Perry 68-71=139 Vijay Singh 73-66=139 Paul Stankowski 68-71=139
Third round Saturday, August 16, 1997 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Justin Leonard68-70-65=203−7 Davis Love III 66-71-66=203T3 Lee Janzen69-67-74=210E Tom Kite 68-71-71=210T5 Fred Couples71-67-73=211+1 David Duval 70-70-71=211 Scott Hoch 71-72-68=211 Jeff Maggert 69-69-73=211 Phil Mickelson 69-69-73=211 Tiger Woods 70-70-71=211
Final round Sunday, August 17, 1997 PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney ($)1 Davis Love III 66-71-66-66=269 −11 470,0002 Justin Leonard 68-70-65-71=274 −6 280,0003 Jeff Maggert 69-69-73-65=276 −4 175,0004 Lee Janzen 69-67-74-69=279 −1 125,0005 Tom Kite 68-71-71-70=280 E 105,000T6 Phil Blackmar 70-68-74-69=281 +1 85,000 Jim Furyk 69-72-72-68=281 Scott Hoch 71-72-68-70=2819 Tom Byrum 69-73-70-70=282 +2 70,000T10 Tom Lehman 69-72-72-70=283 +3 60,000 Scott McCarron 74-71-67-71=283 Joey Sindelar 72-71-71-69=283 Source:
References
External links Full results PGA.com – 1997 PGA Championship