LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 2024 PGA Championship begins on Thursday morning with PGA club pro Michael Block hitting the opening tee shot at 7 a.m. ET at Valhalla Golf Club.
Before balls are in the air, let’s take a look at 15 stats you (probably) didn’t know from the stats geeks at the Elias Sports Bureau. They dug up some good ones here.
- This year marks the 10th anniversary of Rory McIlroy’s 2014 PGA Championship victory at Valhalla – his most recent major championship crown. Since then, he has finished among the top 10 in a major 20 times, which is the most by any player over that span, ahead of Brooks Koepka (17), Dustin Johnson (16) and Jordan Spieth (13).
- Each of the last three PGA Championship winners finished single digits under par for the championship: Phil Mickelson (6 under at Kiawah), Justin Thomas (5 under at Southern Hills) and Brooks Koepka (9 under at Oak Hill). There have not been four consecutive single-digit winning scores, relative to par, at this championship since the early 1980s.
- Michael Block captivated the golf world last year, finishing T-15 at Oak Hill. It was the best finish by a club pro at the PGA Championship since Tommy Aycock finished T-11 at Tanglewood GC in 1974.
- No club professional has made the cut at the PGA Championship in back-to-back years since Illinois club pro Tom Wargo did so in both 1992 and 1993.
- The only club professional to post more than one career top-20 finish at the PGA Championship was Sam Snead who competed in PGA Championships as a club professional during the early 1970s. Snead, then in his early 60s, finished T-4 and T-9 at the 1972 and 1973 PGA Championships, respectively.
- Block’s magical week reached a thunderous crescendo with a hole-in-one on the 15th hole on Sunday It was the first hole-in-one by a club professional at a PGA Championship since 1996, when George Bowman (a club pro from Michigan) made an ace on No. 3 at Valhalla during his first round.
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- Xander Schauffele is in the midst of one of the greatest streaks of consistency in recent major championship history. Dating back to the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, he has finished among the top-20 in each of the last eight majors, including an 8th-place showing at the Masters in April.
- The last player to appear in eight consecutive major championships and finish among the top 20 in each was Tiger Woods, who had an eight-major streak from the 2006 Open…
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