| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | July 30 – August 2, 1959 |
| Location | St. Louis Park, Minnesota |
| Course(s) | Minneapolis Golf Club |
| Organized by | PGA of America |
| Tour(s) | PGA Tour |
| Format | Stroke play |
| Statistics | |
| Par | 70 |
| Length | 6,850 yards (6,264 m) |
| Field | 174 players, 100 after 1st cut 64 after 2nd cut |
| Cut | 150 (+10) (1st cut) 221 (+11) (2nd cut) |
| Prize fund | $51,175[1] |
| Winner's share | $8,250 |
| Champion | |
 Bob Rosburg | |
| 277 (−3) | |
The 1959 PGA Championship was the 41st PGA Championship played from July 30 to August 2 at Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb west of Minneapolis.
Six strokes back at the start of the final round, Bob Rosburg shot a 66 (−4) to win his only major championship at 277 (−3), one stroke ahead of runners-up Jerry Barber and Doug Sanders.[2][3][4] Rosburg had managed only five birdies in the first three rounds,[5] but had five in the first nine on Sunday to go out in 30, then a record.[2] Barber shot a 65 on Friday and was the 36-hole and 54-hole leader at 205 (−5), with Sanders a stroke back.[6] Barber won the title two years later, in a Monday playoff in 1961. Tied for fourteenth at 286 (+6) was Arnold Palmer.[3]
This was the second year of stroke play at the PGA Championship, a match play event through 1957. Daily admission was three dollars on Thursday and Friday, and five dollars per day on the weekend.[7] The winner's share was increased fifty per cent to $8,250; two years earlier, it was $8,000 for the final match play competition.
The Open Championship was played several weeks earlier in Scotland at Muirfield; only four Americans (two amateurs) were in the field and none made the cut.
- ^ "Tournament Info for: 1959 PGA Championship". PGA.com. Archived from the original on October 23, 2006. Retrieved December 29, 2012.
- ^ a b Bartlett, Charles (August 3, 1959). "Rosburg wins P.G.A. title with 277". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1, part 4.
- ^ a b "Rosburg Rallies to Win PGA". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. August 3, 1959. pp. 18, 21.
- ^ Brown, Gwilym (August 10, 1959). "Drama at Minneapolis in wind and rain". Sports Illustrated. p. 42.
- ^ Bartlett, Charles (August 2, 1959). "Barber keeps P.G.A. lead by stroke with 205". Chicago Sunday Tribune. p. 1, part 2.
- ^ "Barber keeps lead". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. August 2, 1959. p. 1C.
- ^ Bartlett, Charles (July 30, 1959). "Old timer laments match play passing as 41st PGA meet opens". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 3, part 6.