Three of golf’s big four events are held in the USA, which rather gives American players an advantage. Not only do they gain entry more easily to the US Open, the Masters and the USPGA Championship, but they are, of course, more familiar with the likely conditions and types of courses used.
The Open Championship, played in the UK, is the only major hosted outside the US, and with three majors held in that location, it is little surprise that American golfers have dominated those tournaments. That supremacy is as marked at the USPGA Championship as it is at the other two majors in the States. However, in this article we are not looking at the many American winners of the USPGA. Instead, our focus is on the overseas golfers who have triumphed in what is generally considered to be the least prestigious of the big four tournaments.
Americans? What Americans?
Between its inception in 1916 and 1957, the USPGA was a match play event. Somewhat surprisingly, the first two editions of the tournament were both won by an English golfer, Jim Barnes. Due to the First World War, there was no event in 1917 or 1918, but Barnes triumphed in 1916 and 1919. As such, the first home win did not come until 1920, although to say that success by Jock Hutchinson (who you will not be overly shocked to hear was actually born in Scotland) opened the floodgates would be an understatement.
Aussie Ends Home Domination
Americans won every subsequent USPGA until 1947 and essentially provided every finalist too, with the odd exception here and there. However, in 1947 Jim Ferrier, who apparently was nicknamed the Undertaker and Wolf, managed to end that domination. Well, sort of. Ferrier was born in Sydney in 1915 but only turned pro in 1941, a year after moving to the States. He became a US citizen in 1944 but competed under the Aussie flag at the time of his success.
1947 – For the first time since 1937, a final match in the PGA Championship didn’t include Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson or Sam Snead. Instead, native Australian Jim Ferrier, a resident of San Francisco, stepped up to play outstanding golf.#PGA100 pic.twitter.com/2SUIXyVUdI
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 30, 2018
This was the only major he won, although he did triumph 18 times on the PGA Tour in total.
Legendary Player First Overseas Stroke Play Victor
Ferrier may have upset the hosts in 1947 but the next overseas winner at this tournament would not come until 1962. By now the Championship was a stroke play event, and South African legend Gary Player was the man to wrest the title away from the home team.
He won the first of his two USPGA titles in Pennsylvania, shooting two under par to beat nine Americans who made up the top 10, including Jack Nicklaus who was tied third at one over. Player claimed his second victory in this event in 1972, and this was also the next success by a non-US golfer. This time around the Championship was held at Oakland Hills in Michigan and again scoring was far from brilliant, with the South African claiming the Wanamaker Trophy with a score of one over.
The next foreign victor came at Oakland Hills once again and was another Aussie. In 1979 David Graham, from Melbourne, managed to get the better of the home favourite and putting maestro Ben Crenshaw in a play-off. The duo tied on eight under but the Aussie edged out Gentle Ben to claim the first of his two majors (he would add the 1981 US Open).
Into the 1990s and Still no European Glory
The next victory for the overseas raiders would not come until the 1990s and it was again an Australian who delivered the goods. Wayne Grady won the 1990 USPGA Championship at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Alabama. That was his only major and the Brisbane native only had three career top 10s in the big four, though he did win 10 pro tournaments in all.
The next overseas golfer to win this esteemed event was another African, in the shape of the brilliant 1990s ace Nick Price, from Zimbabwe. Price, who was the seventh man to reach world number one in the official rankings, doing so in 1994, won the 1992 USPGA Championship by three shots, with Nick Faldo one of a quartet to claim tied second.
Price won the title again in 1994, which helped him reach number one in the world, whilst 12 months on there was another Australian name on the trophy. Steve Elkington won the 1995 title, again his sole major, denying Colin Montgomerie in cruel fashion. Elkington shot a closing 64 to come from six back after 54 holes and then beat Monty in a play-off.
Montgomerie and Price are legendary names from 1990s golf and another was engraved on the Wanamaker Trophy in 1998 when Fiji’s Vijay Singh won at Sahalee Country Club. Elkington and Price both made the top four that year but it was Singh who won on 271, nine under. The Fijian powerhouse claimed a second USPGA title in 2004 at Whistling Straits too, with more US wins on either side of that extending the wait for a European name on the trophy.
New Millennium Finally Sees European Success
It was not until 2008 that a European golfer managed to win this event, with Ireland’s popular Padraig Harrington the man to deliver. The Dubliner was another to win at Oakland Hills and his score of three under left him two clear of Ben Curtis and Sergio Garcia.
Rather like busses, the non-US wins then came in a flurry, with South Korea’s Yang Yong-eun claiming the first win by an Asian in 2009. In 2010 Germany’s Martin Kaymer won the first of his two majors, a victory which played a part in him climbing to world number one in 2011. Kaymer came from four back on the Sunday to beat Bubba Watson in a play-off.
Rory McIlroy, major-winning machine, as he used to be, albeit briefly, then won two USPGA titles in three years, in 2012 and 2014. Rory tore Kiawah Island apart, shooting 275 to win by eight shots and claim his second major. It was a record margin for a win in the USPGA as the Northern Irishman dominated from start to finish. In 2014 he would win once again, this time by a single shot. Amazingly that win, a decade ago, remains his last major victory.
At the end of the 2024 season, the most recent non-American to win the USPGA is Jason Day. The Aussie won in 2015 at Whistling Straits with an incredible score of -20. That three-shot victory earned him a very tidy $1.8m, but since then we have seen nine consecutive American wins.