2. 1991 PGA Championship
Crooked Stick Golf Club
Carmel, Indiana
John Daly was a virtual unknown 25-year-old rookie – he’d only made 11 of 23 cuts as a professional – when he stole a place in our hearts by winning the first of his two major championships.
Daly’s storybook victory is almost too good to be true: he was the ninth alternate for the tournament so he didn’t even make the trip from his home in Memphis until driving through the night on Tuesday and getting in the field when major winner Nick Price withdrew due to the impending birth of his first child.
Having never seen the course before, Daly overpowered Crooked Stick with 300-yard drives triggered by what became his catchphrase: “Grip it and rip it.”
In one of the great underdog stories in golf, he cruised to a three-stroke victory over Bruce Lietzke to earn his first PGA Tour title.