1969 PGA Championship Winner and Scores
Winner: Raymond Floyd, 276
Where it was played: NCR Country Club in Kettering, Ohio
Tournament dates: August 14-17, 1969
Leader after first round: Al Geiberger, Bob Lunn, Bunky Henry, Charles Coody, Johnny Pott, Larry Mowry, Larry Ziegler, Raymond Floyd and Tom Shaw, 69
Leader after second round: Raymond Floyd, 135
Leader after third round: Raymond Floyd, 202
What Happened at the 1969 PGA Championship
Raymond Floyd began to fulfill his promise at the 1969 PGA Championship, which is also noted as a tournament at which the social turmoil of the 1960s broke into the well-cacooned world of professional golf.One of golf's greatest, Gary Player, hailed from a country, South Africa, that at that time employed a policy of brutally enforced racial segregation and discrimination known as apartheid. Player's history with apartheid is complicated, and early in his career he defended the practice. But by this point in his career he was working, mostly quietly, to improve the situation in his homeland.
Apartheid protesters interruped the 1969 PGA Championship in the third round, and hounded Player throughout the tournament. Player told Golf magazine, in an article published in 2009, that the protesters "... threw ice at my face, threw telephone books at the top of my backswing, said they would kill me. I had policemen guarding me. It cost me seven strokes, and I lost by one."
The golfer Player lost to was Floyd, who barely held off Player in the final round. Floyd, after shooting three rounds in the 60s, took a 5-stroke lead into the final round, then shot 74 to Player's 70. Player was within one stroke after Floyd bogeyed the 13th and 15th holes, but then Player had his own bogey on the 16th. Player cut the margin again with a birdie on the 17th, and that's how it finished — Floyd winning by one.
Floyd first won on the PGA Tour in 1963, and much later in his career he was one of the most-respected players on tour, with a reputation for steely-eyed precision and toughness. In 1969, however, his reputation was that of a party boy who hadn't lived up to his potential. He was known for late-night drinking and carousing. Floyd even, for a time, promoted an all-female rock band that performed topless.
His win here was Floyd's first major championship title and his fifth win on the PGA Tour. He didn't win again until 1975, so that reputation didn't change overnight as a result of this victory. But Floyd did begin the process of shirking that reputation here. He finished his career with 22 PGA Tour wins total and four career wins in majors, including the 1982 PGA Championship.
Beginning with this PGA Championship, and continuing into the 2010s, the tournament moved to August and was the last major championship played each year. They key thing about that is that it put some separation between the British Open and PGA Championship on the schedule, making it much easier for golfers who wanted to play both tournaments to do so. (In some previous years, those two majors had even overlapped.)
Jim Turnesa, winner of the 1952 PGA Championship, played a major for the last time here and made the cut, finishing tied for 76th.
1969 PGA Championship Final Scores
| Raymond Floyd | 69-66-67-74—276 |
| Gary Player | 71-65-71-70—277 |
| Bert Greene | 71-68-68-71—278 |
| Jimmy Wright | 71-68-69-71—279 |
| Miller Barber | 73-75-64-68—280 |
| Larry Ziegler | 69-71-70-70—280 |
| Charles Coody | 69-71-72-69—281 |
| Orville Moody | 70-68-71-72—281 |
| Terry Wilcox | 72-71-72-66—281 |
| Frank Beard | 70-75-68-69—282 |
| Don Bies | 74-64-71-74—283 |
| Bunky Henry | 69-68-70-76—283 |
| Larry Mowry | 69-71-69-74—283 |
| Jack Nicklaus | 70-68-74-71—283 |
| Chi Chi Rodriguez | 72-72-71-69—284 |
| Bruce Crampton | 70-70-72-72—284 |
| Dave Hill | 74-75-67-68—284 |
| Don January | 75-70-70-69—284 |
| Howie Johnson | 73-68-72-72—285 |
| Johnny Pott | 69-75-71-70—285 |
| Ron Cerrudo | 74-66-70-76—286 |
| Bobby Cole | 72-74-71-69—286 |
| Bob Lunn | 69-74-73-70—286 |
| Tom Shaw | 69-75-73-69—286 |
| Julius Boros | 72-74-70-71—287 |
| Gay Brewer | 74-71-76-66—287 |
| Bob Dickson | 74-72-70-71—287 |
| Tony Jacklin | 73-70-73-71—287 |
| George Knudson | 70-75-67-75—287 |
| Fred Marti | 73-70-71-73—287 |
| Dan Sikes | 71-74-69-73—287 |
| Butch Baird | 71-71-75-71—288 |
| Bruce Devlin | 70-78-69-71—288 |
| Al Mengert | 74-72-72-70—288 |
| Billy Casper | 72-74-70-73—289 |
| Bob Charles | 75-73-72-69—289 |
| Al Geiberger | 69-72-77-71—289 |
| Mac McLendon | 73-68-75-73—289 |
| Steve Reid | 72-75-71-71—289 |
| Dave Stockton | 75-67-71-76—289 |
| Pete Brown | 77-72-70-71—290 |
| Gardner Dickinson | 72-70-72-76—290 |
| Dick Hart | 73-73-72-72—290 |
| Harold Henning | 74-73-70-74—291 |
| Larry Hinson | 75-74-70-72—291 |
| Bobby Nichols | 74-71-75-71—291 |
| Tom Weiskopf | 70-76-70-75—291 |
| Bobby Brue | 73-71-74-74—292 |
| Dale Douglass | 73-76-72-71—292 |
| Gene Littler | 73-76-71-72—292 |
| Dick Lotz | 75-73-69-75—292 |
| Dave Marr | 78-68-71-75—292 |
| Bobby Mitchell | 73-71-75-73—292 |
| Phil Rodgers | 70-72-75-75—292 |
| Lee Trevino | 73-71-72-76—292 |
| Dudley Wysong | 72-76-73-71—292 |
| Tommy Aaron | 70-72-79-72—293 |
| Jacky Cupit | 70-73-75-75—293 |
| Howell Fraser | 72-76-71-75—294 |
| Pat Schwab | 75-72-73-74—294 |
| Mike Souchak | 75-73-74-72—294 |
| Kermit Zarley | 75-74-69-76—294 |
| Dick Crawford | 73-72-75-76—296 |
| Jay Hebert | 75-74-73-74—296 |
| Davis Love Jr. | 73-71-76-76—296 |
| Billy Maxwell | 76-73-75-72—296 |
| Bob Murphy | 74-71-75-76—296 |
| Sam Snead | 75-72-71-78—296 |
| George Archer | 75-74-71-77—297 |
| Jack Burke Jr. | 74-75-74-74—297 |
| Stan Dudas | 76-70-76-75—297 |
| Jack McGowan | 76-73-72-76—297 |
| Ed Kroll | 72-70-79-77—298 |
| Bob Stanton | 77-72-73-76—298 |
| Stan Thirsk | 73-75-75-75—298 |
| John Cook | 77-69-73-80—299 |
| Dow Finsterwald | 75-73-75-76—299 |
| Jim Turnesa | 74-74-77-74—299 |
| Eddie Merrins | 75-70-77-80—302 |
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