Drama at Darkness: An Oral History of the 2014 PGA Championship

A decade ago, the PGA Championship made its return to Valhalla Golf Club after a dramatic victory by the United States in the 2008 Ryder Cup and, of course, Tiger Woods’ playoff win at the 2000 PGA Championship – along with two KitchenAid Senior PGA Championships.

With Rory McIlroy having won his previous two starts – including The Open Championship – he was coming to Kentucky 10 years ago with all the momentum on his side.

McIlroy opened the 2014 PGA Championship with a 5-under 66 and was just one shot back of the lead before adding a 4-under 67 on Friday to hold the 36-hole lead.

“I think one of the big things for me, especially in Major Championships, is getting off to good starts and being right up there at the start,” McIlroy said.

He shot another 67 in the third round – after birding three of his final four holes – and headed into Sunday’s finale with a one-shot lead. He and Bernd Wiesberger would make up the final pairing of the day while Rickie Fowler (alone and third) and Phil Mickelson (tied for fourth) were the penultimate pairing.

“It has its stresses at some point, but at the same time it’s where you want to be,” McIlroy said of being in the final group. “It’s the position you want to be in. We don’t practice all these hours and grind on the range and put so much work into it to be teeing off in the middle of the pack on Sunday of a major. This is where you want to be.”

McIlroy made two early bogeys to open the tournament up to his challengers Sunday, with Fowler making three birdies in a row on the front nine to get to 13-under and Mickelson at 12-under and McIlroy at 11-under through six holes. The trio all made birdies on the par-5 7th (along with Henrik Stenson, who tied Mickelson at 13-under). Mickelson, Stenson and Fowler made the turn tied for the lead at 14-under while McIlroy was at 12-under.

But McIlroy eagled the par-5 10th to get to 14-under as well, one back of Fowler at 15-under.

Fowler made an ill-timed bogey on No. 14 to fall back to 14-under and, at that point, it was Mickelson and McIlroy tied for the lead at 15-under. Mickelson bogeyed No. 16, however, and after McIlroy – who had been down by as many as three shots at one point – birdied No. 17, he held a two-shot lead over Mickelson, Fowler, and Stenson, who was in the clubhouse at 14-under.

Play had been halted for nearly two hours earlier in the day due to rain – to the tune of nearly 1.5 inches that fell on Valhalla Golf Club – and with that, the final group did not tee off until 4:20 p.m. ET.

The race against darkness was on. Another storm was brewing in the distance.

By the time Fowler and Mickelson arrived on the tee on the final hole, McIlroy was not far behind. And so began one of the wildest finishes to a major ever.

Here’s how it all went down.

Peter Kostis (on CBS broadcast): “I’m down the fairway and I can’t see it taking off.”

Kerry Haigh (PGA of America’s Chief Championships Officer): “It was a really interesting, exciting dramatic day, obviously. Starting at lunchtime with the rain delay because a shower built up over top of us and it absolutely poured with rain. It turned an already-wet course to a saturated course. We had a decision to make about when or if we could resume. Ultimately, we went for it. It was still very wet still. We re-started knowing we were going to be really tight on time to finish.”

Derek Sprague (PGA of America VP in 2014, now the GM at TPC Sawgrass): “There are so many great holes at Valhalla . . . just great risk-reward holes especially on the back nine. It lends itself to determining the best players in the world. And then when you have the 18th hole . . . when you have to have a great drive and water on the right and mounding on the left, and for them to go for an elevated green in two, it’s not easy to hold a long shot to that green. It just creates a lot of excitement for the fans and is a super layout all the way around.”

Caitlyn Doyle (PGA of America intern in 2014, now PGA Career Consultant at the Northern California PGA): “I was following Rory in the final group on Sunday. I remember standing on the tee box and everything was starting to get really dark. Are they going to keep playing? Are they going to push until Monday? I know there was weather coming the next day too, so I was standing by 18 and I just remember the excitement of it all and the chaos. Is Rory going to hit on 18 and play as a foursome? Or is he just going to wait and tee off until Rickie and Phil finish?

Haigh: “We have walking referees with the last five groups – which we’ve always done – and it was getting darker and darker. And we left it to the players, the best as I can recall, the officials said, ‘Are you OK to keep going’ and in the last two or three groups the minute any of them would have said ‘we don’t want to play’ we would have stopped or suspended play for darkness. The last four, six, or eight players were all going, so we kept going.”

Rory McIlroy (to CBS’ David Feherty on the broadcast as they were chasing daylight): “We played in this stuff when we were young.”

Haigh: “There was a ruling in the third to last group which held up the second to last group which held up the last group, then you had the drive up on the last group and they did it again on the second shot. There was some misunderstanding on the second to last group if they said to hit up or not, but they did. Weather was also coming in, as well. We had lightning in the distance. It was far enough away not to suspend for that, but it was certainly getting closer. An awful lot of things were happening.”

Rickie Fowler (in 2014 on Sunday): “We were cool with hitting the tee shot. We weren't expecting the approach shots. Typically, if it's getting dark and they are going to blow the horn, you at least get the guys off the tee, and it gives them the opportunity to play. We weren't expecting the approach shots. So, however you look at it. It is what it is.”

Doyle: “The darkness stands out for me. Rory's hitting that approach shot in almost the pitch black. The fact he could do that and come out as a Champion was pretty incredible.”

Sprague: “Obviously coming down to the wire both with scores and daylight and I’m like . . . this would be unfortunate if we had to go one more whole day for the fans and the competitors to sleep on basically one night for one hole. We did everything we could by lighting up the green area because it was getting dark very, very quickly. The excitement and the energy of finishing under the lights made it that much more exciting.”

McIlroy (in 2014 on Sunday): “I suggested that we play up as a four. I didn't know if they wanted to do that or not – you know, to get this thing finished and get this thing over and done with. And the guys let us play up with our drives, and they didn't need to do that, they could have just left us on the tee box there and just play normally, but they showed a lot of class and a lot of sportsmanship by doing that. I thanked Rickie and Phil in the scorer's area and reiterated what I said in my speech out there on the 18th green. It was a classy move by them, and if they had not of done that, we might not have been able to get it all done because it was getting really dark out there.”

Doyle: “This had never happened. It’s so crazy and so new and having it happen with three of the best players in the world . . . to be there and be there as a PGA intern and so young, I was like, ‘I cannot believe this is actually happening. I have never seen this.’”

Haigh: “With darkness, it’s always the same protocol. Once we feel it’s too dark to play, we will suspend play. However, if there are only one or two groups out on the course, if they want to keep going then we would not suspend play – which is ultimately what happened in 2014. We were ready to suspend play but the groups with the walking referees they were fine to keep going. It wasn’t an exception to the rule but using common sense and the players being fine with playing . . . then what’s the harm? They know it’s a major and had any of them said it was too dark to play we would have suspended immediately.”

Jim Nantz (on the broadcast): “We have a shining star at sunset. Rory continues his run to greatness.”

Fowler: “Obviously Rory played great this week, and he's been a deserving champion last three tournaments. He's playing quite good right now. Best player in the world, hands down.”

Sprague: “I’ve always been a fan of Rory. He’s a consummate professional inside the ropes and outside the ropes. What’s refreshing is that he wears his emotion on his sleeve and he’s very direct in his answers, and I think that’s why so many golf fans around the world respect him but he does it in a very thoughtful and respectful manor. He’s been a great ambassador for golf world-wide. He tends to rise to the occasion. Other athletes and fans look up to him because of those great characteristics and attributes.”

McIlroy (in 2024, with a laugh): “I’d say I'm a pretty, you know, non-confrontational person. I'm not a huge fan of conflict, but when push comes to shove, I will. That was one of those times when I needed to sort of assert my will on a situation. I think if I wasn't as, I guess, as pushy as I was, I would have had to sleep on that lead and on that tee shot overnight, I just didn't want to do that. I think the guys up ahead were pretty unhappy with how it all unfolded. I got the result that I was looking for in the end and that's all that matters.”

Doyle: “The darkness stands out for me. Rory’s hitting that approach shot in almost the pitch black. The fact he could do that and come out as PGA Champion was pretty incredible. That’s the moment when I looked over to my fellow intern and said, ‘oh my god – we’re watching history.’”