MUHAMMAD USMAN AWAN
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Counting them down to No. 1:
5. Gary Player
This was the toughest call on our list. Player has two PGA Championship wins, but so do many others. We could have picked Ben Hogan or Byron Nelson, who each won twice in limited appearances. We could have picked Nick Price, with two wins and five Top 5 finishes. Or Tiger Woods or Vijay Singh, either of whom will move onto this list with another win.
But ultimately, we chose Player for his long history with this tournament and his consistency over the years. Player won twice, but he also had five Top 3 finishes, 6 Top 5s and 8 Top 10s.
4. Gene Sarazen
Like Player, Sarazen is a career Grand Slam winner. "The Squire" burst onto the golf scene in 1922, winning both the U.S. Open and PGA Championship at age 20. He followed up with another PGA victory in 1923, and his third and final PGA win came in 1933. Sarazen also made it to the championship match in 1930, losing 1-down to Tommy Armour.
3. Sam Snead
Along with Sarazen, Snead is a 3-time winner of the PGA Championship. Snead joined the PGA in 1937, won his first PGA Championship in 1942, and didn't play his last PGA until 1981 at the age of 69.
Snead suffered two losses in the match-play finals (1938, 1940) of the PGA Championship before that first victory in 1942. His other two wins (1949, 1951) also came in the match play era, but Snead was very competitive in the stroke-play era, as well. In fact, from 1958 on Snead posted 8 Top 10 finishes.
Three of those came in consecutive years in the early 1970s, when Snead was in his 60s. In 1972 (age 60), he finished fourth; in 1973 (age 61), ninth; in 1974 (age 62), third.
2. Walter Hagen
Many people consider Hagen the greatest PGA Championship player. After all, he won five times (a shared record), including four in a row (a record all his own). But we have no doubt that Hagen, as great as he was, belongs at No. 2 on this list rather than No. 1. Hagen never faced his greatest rival, Bobby Jones, in the PGA because Jones never turned pro.
Still, five wins are five wins. And four in a row? Amazing.
Hagen's first PGA Championship came in 1921 when he defeated the great Jim Barnes in the match-play final. Gene Sarazen won the next two PGAs, but then in 1924 Hagen beat Barnes again for the title. "The Haig" went on to win the next three PGA Championships to make it four in a row.
1. Jack Nicklaus
And here is the other golfer with five career PGA Championship titles. Nicklaus won in 1963, 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1980; he was also runner-up in 1964, 1965, 1974 and 1983 (four times being the record). When he won in 1980, Nicklaus set the record for largest margin of victory (seven strokes).
But Nicklaus' greatness in this event is best illustrated by considering a few other records he holds:
• Most Top 3 finishes, 12 (seven more than the runner-up in this category)
• Most Top 5 finishes, 14 (eight more than second place)
• Most Top 10 finishes, 15 (five more than second place)
• Most Top 25 finishes, 23 (five more than second place)
Jack Nicklaus is the greatest PGA Championship player ever.
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