PGA Championship 2021

The 2021 PGA Championship saw American golfer Phil Mickelson score his sixth major. 

The PGA Championship is now the second major golfing championship held annually in May*, on the weekend leading up to Memorial Day, having been moved up from its previous mid-August position from 2019 on.  Chronologically on the major golf championships calendar, the PGA Championship – often called the US PGA – follows on from The US Masters in March.

*Note: The 2020 PGA Championship was moved to August and was the first of the majors to take place for the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Running at various golf courses around America, the PGA Championship offers an $11 million prize fund and is it is known for its exclusivity as the field features an almost completing pro-player line-up. It is the only one of the four golf majors not to definitively allow the Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings into the field. That said, the Top 100 players are usually invited if not already qualified.

Established in 1916, the PGA Championships traditionally runs in the eastern half of the US with the west of the country only hosting 10 previous editions of the time-honoured tournament.

US PGA CHAMPIONSHIP 2021

• US PGA Championship Tournament Dates: May 21 – 24, 2021 (Aust. dates)
• Location: Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Ocean Course, South Carolina
• Edition: 13rd
• Field: 156 maximum
• Winner’s Prize Fund: $1.98 million
• 2021 PGA Championship Winner: Phil Mickelson
• Winning 2021 PGA Championship Score: 282 (-6)

The 103rd edition of the PGA Championship took place in late May at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Ocean Course, South California. It was be the second time the tournament takes place at that location following on from the 2012 event won by Rory McIlroy and saw American pro golfer Phil “Lefty” Mickelson secure his sixth major and second PGA Championship.

Mickelson won by two strokes ahead of runners-up Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen, the nearly 51-year-old (50 years, 11 months) veteran golfer making history as the oldest major winner. He broke the previous record for oldest PGA Championship winner replacing Julius Boros – 48 years (1968).

That record came just a year after Collin Morikawa made his PGA Championship debut in 2021 going on to become the third youngest winner of the tournament (since WWII) at 23-years-old that year.

• Venue: Various locations across the US
• Date: May
• Inauguration: 1916
• Par: 72 (in 2021)
• Length: 7,848 yards (7,176 m)
• Format: Stroke Play (1958 – present)
• Tours: European Tour, PGA Tour, Japan Golf Tour
• Prize Money: US $11 million (in 2021)
• Current PGA Championship Champion: Phil Mickelson (2021)

The PGA Championship is often known outside its home country as the US PGA Championship and from 1958 – the present day is a Stroke Play formatted golfing major. Prior to 1958, the PGA Championship took place as a Match Play scoring system before the format change saw it fall into line with the other golf majors.

Future sites for the PGA Championship have been announced right up until the 2034 (116th) edition.

Each year the PGA Champion is invited to attend all three other golf majors, along with The Players Championship, for the next five years. The PGA Championship winner is also awarded a replica of the Wanamaker Trophy, named in honour of the late Lewis Rodman Wanamaker (1863 – 1928) who was a department store tycoon and golfing enthusiast. Wanamaker donated the very first PGA Championship gold medal awarded to inaugural champ Jim Barnes who also received a $500 cash prize!

Future PGA Championship Venues

PGA Championship Records

PGA Championship Winners