1964 PGA Championship

1964 PGA Championship
Tournament information
DatesJuly 16–19, 1964
LocationColumbus, Ohio
Course(s)Columbus Country Club
Organized byPGA of America
Tour(s)PGA Tour
Statistics
Par70
Length6,851 yards (6,265 m)
Field162 players,
93 after 1st cut
65 after 2nd cut
Cut150 (+10) (1st cut)
221 (+11) (2nd cut)
Prize fund$100,000[1]
Winner's share$18,000
Champion
United States Bobby Nichols
271 (−9)
← 1963
1965 →
Columbus CC is located in the United States
Columbus CC
Columbus CC

The 1964 PGA Championship was the 46th PGA Championship, played July 16–19 at Columbus Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. Bobby Nichols won his only major title, three strokes ahead of runners-up Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.[2][3] Nichols led wire-to-wire after a first round 64 in the hometown of Nicklaus, who shot a 64 in the final round to gain his third runner-up finish in majors in 1964.[4]

Ben Hogan, age 51, competed at the PGA Championship for the first time since 1960. Tied for fifth place after a third round 68, he finished tied for ninth for his penultimate top ten in a major. His final top ten came at the 1967 Masters.

Nichols' winning score of 271 was the lowest to date at the PGA Championship, the seventh as a 72-hole stroke play championship. It stood as the record for thirty years, until Nick Price's 269 in 1994.

Nichols' win marked the third time that all of the professional major championships were won by Americans in a calendar year.

The British Open was played the previous week in St Andrews, Scotland, one of five times in the 1960s that these two majors were played in consecutive weeks in July. The PGA Championship moved permanently to August in 1969 (except 1971, when it was played in late February).

  1. ^ "Tournament Info for: 1964 PGA Championship". PGA.com. Archived from the original on November 30, 2012. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  2. ^ Wright, Alfred (July 27, 1964). "'You Aren't Going To Believe This, But...'". Sports Illustrated. p. 48. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
  3. ^ Gundelfinger, Phil (July 20, 1964). "Nichols PGA Champ With Record 271". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. p. 19. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
  4. ^ "Nichols holds of Nicklaus in PGA". Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. July 20, 1964. p. 3B.