Valhalla is the home of slain heroes in Norse mythology, the name meaning “hall of the fallen” in old Norse. However, to golf fans, at least ones who aren’t Vikings, Valhalla means Kentucky. More specifically, it conjures up images of the lush green grass of Valhalla Golf Club, the Jack Nicklaus-designed course in Louisville, Kentucky.
The private course has hosted a number of huge events, including majors, senior majors and massive team events. However, our focus in this article is not the 2008 Ryder Cup, nor the 2004 or 2011 Senior PGA Championship. Instead, we take a closer look at the four times this esteemed golf club has hosted the US PGA Championship.
Valhalla is relatively new, having been conceived in the early 1980s and opening in 1986. Compared to many of the most famous courses around the world (in particular in the UK), that makes it a real baby. It was a near-perfect parcel of land on which to build a course, with almost 500 acres of mixed terrain, including natural water features and hardwood trees.
Nicklaus certainly did a fine job, and although the course is not necessarily one of the very best, or most interesting around, it was always destined to host majors. There is plenty of space and this has allowed for a suitably lengthy challenge and, perhaps more importantly, lots of room for huge crowds to watch and move around.
Hosts First Major Decade After Opening
10 years after the first ball was hit at Valhalla, the course welcomed the best players in the world to Kentucky for the 1996 US PGA Championship. It was the 78th edition of the event and if you can remember much about it, all credit to you because it was not a major at which the big names soared.
It was decided by an all-American play-off between Mark Brooks and Kenny Perry, with the former winning at the first extra hole. The two had played the final round together and heading down the 18th Perry, a Kentucky native, had a two-shot advantage. However, he could only manage a bogey six, Brooks making birdie four.
Brooks made another birdie when they replayed the 18th as the first play-off hole and that was enough for him to land the $430,000 first prize. It was Brooks’ only win in a major and he only made the top 10 on four other occasions. After his victory at Valhalla, he went on to miss the cut in 16 of the next 18 appearances at the US PGA Championship.
2000 Sees Tiger Flying High
Tiger Woods had so many incredible seasons during his amazing career but the year 2000 certainly has to up there with the very best 12 months of his golfing life. He won his first US PGA title in 1999 and was then fifth at the Masters the following year. Then came the Tiger Slam!
The man from Cypress, California, proceeded to win the next four majors, completing the so-called Tiger Slam in 2001 when he won the US Masters to hold all four of the sport’s biggest titles simultaneously. The third of those wins brought his second US PGA title and he put in an imperious performance at Valhalla, shooting 270, 18 under par.
Even that incredible score was not enough to land him victory after 72 holes though, as once again Valhalla delivered an exciting final round and a play-off. Woods shot 66-67-70 to lead by one heading into the final round and closed with 67, one worse than Bob May, who took the tournament to extra holes.
It was a three-hole shootout, which Woods effectively won with a birdie at the first of the extra holes (the 16th hole of the course), both men then parring the 17th and 18th. Woods landed a cool $900,000 for his four days’ work, at a time when his caddy, Steve Williams, was one of the best-paid men in golf.
Rory Magnificent to Land Second US PGA Title
2014 must seem like a lifetime ago to Rory McIlroy and this major win was his last in one of the big four events of the sport. It was his fourth major overall and second in succession after victory at the Open Championship just a few weeks prior. He seemed to have the world at his feet and almost completed the career Grand Slam at Augusta the following year. A decade later, having recently blown up in the final holes of the 2024 US Open, his next major looks as far away as ever.
But let’s go back to happier times for the Northern Irishman and his stupendous performance at Valhalla. He opened with a 66 and then backed that up with a 67 to move to the top of the leaderboard heading into the weekend. Another 67 kept him where he wanted to be, though there were 13 players within five shots of him. However, Rory then was a different beast and he kept his cool to fire another round in the 60s (68) to secure a win by a single shot from Phil Mickelson. Major number four, $1.8m banked, and a future with many more majors to come…
Valhalla Hosts Fourth US PGA in 2024
Welcome to Valhalla Golf Club. It’s PGA Championship week. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/DnaAQMak1f
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) May 13, 2024
Like Rory, Valhalla has had to wait for its next major, but in 2024 it was once again honoured. Once again, scoring at the course was low, with Xander Schauffele claiming his first major championship with an incredible score of 21 under par. Once more, the prize money had increased again, jumping to $3.3m, a world away from the “mere” $430,000 won by Brooks back in 1996.
Schauffele opened with an incredible score of 62 and produced three more rounds in the 60s, including a 65 on Sunday. Such was the quality of the opposition, that was only enough for a win by a single shot, as Valhalla once again delivered the goods in terms of final-day tension. After 10 holes on the Sunday, the eventual champion led but Bryson DeChambeau (who finished second) and Viktor Hovland (third) were just a shot back, whilst Collin Morikawa was a further two adrift. Schauffele made birdies on 11 and 12 and then parred his way home to get the job done.