The 1990 PGA Championship was the 72nd

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

, held August 9–12 at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

Wayne Grady Wayne Desmond Grady (born 26 July 1957) is an Australian professional golfer. Early life Born in Brisbane, Grady turned professional in 1978. Professional career Grady began his career on the PGA Tour of Australia. He had much early suc ...

won his only major championship, three strokes ahead of runner-up Fred Couples. In the final round, Couples led by a stroke after a birdie at the 12th hole, but then had four consecutive bogeys, while Grady shot par for the rest of the round. Defending champion

Payne Stewart William Payne Stewart (January 30, 1957 – October 25, 1999) was an American professional golfer who won eleven PGA Tour events, including three major championships, the last of which came just a few months before his death in an airplane acci ...

was in the final pairing with Grady, but was two-over par on the front nine. On the par-5 11th hole, he put his third shot into the water and fell from contention with a triple bogey. Grady became the third Australian-born player to win the PGA Championship, preceded by

Jim Ferrier James Bennett Elliott Ferrier (24 February 1915 – 13 June 1986) was an Australian professional golfer from Manly, New South Wales. After compiling a fine record as an amateur golfer in Australia during the 1930s, he moved to the United States ...

in 1947 and David Graham in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

. It was Grady's second and final win on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

. Concerns about racial discrimination in the club's membership caused many sponsors to pull their network television advertising, including IBM. This was the final year that

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

carried the broadcast, replaced by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

Controversy

Leading up to the tournament, Shoal Creek founder Hall Thompson doubled down on the club's policy of excluding African-Americans from membership. Various groups threatened to protest the event and sponsors pulled out, and the PGA considered moving the tournament away from Shoal Creek. In the end, a local African-American executive accepted an invitation to become an honorary member and the tournament was held as planned.

Venue

This was the second PGA Championship at Shoal Creek, which hosted six years earlier in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. Opened in 1977, the course was designed by Jack Nicklaus; it was the venue for the

Regions Tradition The Tradition (known as the Regions Tradition for sponsorship reasons) is an event on the PGA Tour Champions. First staged in 1989, the PGA Tour recognizes the event as one of the five senior major golf championships. Unlike the U.S. Senior Ope ...

, a senior major championship, from 2011 through 2015, and the

U.S. Women's Open The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, W ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

Course layout

: Previous course lengths for major championships * – par 72, 1984 PGA Championship

Round summaries

First round

''Thursday, August 9, 1990''

Second round

''Friday, August 10, 1990''

Third round

''Saturday, August 11, 1990''

Final round

''Sunday, August 12, 1990'' :

Scorecard

''Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par''
: :

References

External links

PGA.com
– 1990 PGA Championship
Yahoo! Sports: 1990 PGA Championship leaderboard
PGA Championship Golf in Alabama Sports in Birmingham, Alabama