ROCHESTER, NEW YORK | Twenty years on, Shaun Micheel’s victory in the 2003 PGA Championship at Oak Hill remains as unlikely now as it seemed at the moment.
It wasn’t just that Micheel, the 164th-ranked player in the world that charmed week, made that PGA Championship the only victory in his PGA Tour career.
That in itself was a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.
It was how Micheel did it, rainbowing a 175-yard, 7-iron shot to within inches of the cup on the 72nd hole, setting up a tap-in birdie that put the silversmith to work etching his name into the Wanamaker Trophy, where the name of almost every great player is listed.
Clinging to a one-stroke lead over Chad Campbell at the end of a long, tense afternoon, Micheel crafted one of the most memorable closing shots in major championship history.
It was a blessing and a burden, an accomplishment that defined Micheel’s career for better and for worse.
“A lot has happened in 20 years,” Micheel, now 54 years old, said Monday afternoon.
What Micheel remembers as much as the 7-iron that became his claim to fame is walking over to his wife, Stephanie, who was six months pregnant and kissing her belly. This week, 19-year old Dade Micheel, a freshman in college, is with his father, taking it all in together.
Micheel was never a great player but he had a great week, punctuated by a great swing. It created enormous opportunities but it also shadowed Micheel as he struggled to live up to his own achievement.
Unlike Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy or Jon Rahm, Micheel played less to make history and more to make a living. Keeping his PGA Tour card was always his priority.
“When I won here, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was like how in the world do I upstage what I have just accomplished,” Micheel said.
He played 401 PGA Tour events, made the cut in just over half of those and had 20 top-10 finishes over all of the events. He was more like a factory worker than a boss and some of the critical things written and said about Micheel stayed with him.
Questions about whether his name belonged on a major championship trophy – in a year when Mike Weir, Ben Curtis and Jim Furyk won the other majors – hit a little too close to home.
“It just took me a long time personally to get over some of the things, and to some extent 20 years later I’ve still struggled with that,” Micheel said.
“Every player wants to feel like they belong on the trophy. I’d just say I think that the guys that are on that trophy, they played for their place in the game, their legacy, and I suppose I played to keep my job. I think that’s really unfortunate.”
Twenty years allows for plenty of time for reflection and Micheel’s perspective has evolved. He regrets not asking for help coping with his own expectations after his victory and, if he could do it over again, he would call someone like sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella for advice.
“I’ve tried to justify the name on the trophy,” Micheel said. “But when you win and then your expectations change and you become, I would say, driven by perfection, that was my undoing.
“I look in the mirror and I own everything. I look back, and it’s amazing what you kind of learn as an older person, and you’re like, golly, if I could just rewind. Who knows if it would have been different. But I just did some things that I wouldn’t do again.”
Micheel isn’t suggesting that winning the PGA Championship hurt him. It gave him a sliver of golf immortality and he will forever be known as a major champion.
The Cleveland 7-iron he hit is still in his golf room at home in Tennessee and it still brings a smile to his face.
What happened 20 years ago, Micheel said, feels like a distant memory at times but he can still remember the shots he hit and is still irked that rules official John Paramor put him and Campbell on the clock midway through the final round.
“Dade has looked at it. His friends come over, they grab it out of there. I kind of keep it hidden because I don’t want anybody to see it and take it away, but I have been asked for it, to put it out,” Micheel said.
“I was like, well, if I was Tiger Woods and had 15 majors and I had all these extra clubs I could loan out, I would, but that’s not really going to go anywhere I don’t think.”
For Micheel, he’s been back to Oak Hill several times over the past 20 years. The golf course looks different now after a spectacular renovation by Andrew Green that took out trees, reshaped bunkers and refreshed its reputation, but the old feelings return.
What happened 20 years ago, Micheel said, feels like a distant memory at times but he can still remember the shots he hit and is still irked that rules official John Paramor put him and Campbell on the clock midway through the final round.
“The 7-iron, I think about it. I think about the four days here, I think about the four rounds that I played and the incredible golf that I played, but I think about this little guy right here,” Micheel said, glancing at his 19-year old son.
“That’s what has special meaning to me this week.”
For first- and second-round PGA Championship starting times, click HERE.