Xander Schauffele and Jack Nicklaus

Xander Schauffele won the PGA Championship on Sunday by one stroke over fellow American Bryson DeChambeau to earn his first major title. Schauffele, ranked third in the world, birdied the eighteenth hole at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. to triumph. Moreover, Schauffele set a record for the lowest score ever in winning a major—263 strokes for four rounds. By winning, Schauffele shed the undesirable title as one of history’s most accomplished golfers to never win any of golf’s four signature events. The 30-year-old Schauffele has won thirteen professional golf titles and a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics. At the majors, he had previously finished as the runner-up twice and twelve times has been in the top 10.

 Jack Nicklaus designed the Valhalla Golf Club, which opened in 1986. Valhalla hosted the 1996 PGA Championship in which the golf legend participated. Nicklaus, hoping to play all four rounds in all four of the year’s majors, was deeply disappointed with his 77 in the opening round. In the second round, however, the fifty-six-year-old superstar made several early birdies, giving him a chance to make the cut. Battling 100-degree heat and displaying the ferocious competitive spirit that had enabled him to win five previous PGA championships and a total of eighteen majors, Nicklaus repeatedly hit superb shots, but inconsistent putting kept him one birdie short of playing the final two rounds.

For the first time, Nicklaus, considered by many to be the GOAT of men’s golf, met Muhammad Ali, widely acclaimed as the GOAT of boxing, near the ninth green at Valhalla before teeing off for the first round of the tournament.  “We’re not going to have to fight, are we?” Nicklaus jokingly asked Ali as several hundred spectators watched. In 2015, Nicklaus received the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, which celebrates individuals who have exhibited the ideals of sportsmanship for decades and whose athletic careers have significantly impacted the world.

 For more about the achievements and lives of Nicklaus and Ali, see my The Greatest of All-Time: Fifteen Fantastic Athletes (2024).