Shaun Micheel is one of two former winners of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, who will be in the field in May of 2023. This year’s playing will be the fourth at the venerable Rochester NY course. Jack Nicklaus, the winner in 1980, will probably opt out of the event. Micheel (2003) and Jason Dufner (2013) will certainly take advantage of their former-winner exemptions and return to the site of their major glory. Micheel currently serves as the assistant Men’s golf coach at Butler University, and plays on the PGA Tour Champions. In between coaching and playing trips around the country, Mr. Micheel found time to answer eight of our questions, and surprise us with a ninth of his own.
The 2003 PGA Championship was the first that I covered as a journalist. At the end of this interview, you’ll see the proof of my attendance. One funny note about that tournament: I was under an early deadline and had to get back home to the Buffalo area. I left Oak Hill before Micheel hit his life-changing seven iron, and I did not check the updates before I submitted my piece. As a result, I am confident that I am the only writer to NOT reference the shot for the ages in a story. This year, I’ll stick around until the glorious end.
1. Orlando to Memphis to Bloomington to Rochester. We know that there were numerous other locales along the way, but please begin this conversation by telling us why those four cities define, to a large part, your golf and life arc.
1/If you can bear with me for a bit, I’d like to put your question into a bit of context. Each of
these cities has a tremendous amount of meaning to me and have filled my mind with so many
fantastic memories.
The move from Orlando to Memphis came about when a company, Federal Express, sent out
an industry notification stating that they were in need of pilots. My dad had been flying for
Shawnee Airlines, a commuter airline that operated all over Florida and the Bahamas. Shawnee
flew turboprop aircraft, but my dad wanted to fly with one the passenger airlines. In order to be
hired by one of the legacy carriers, he needed jet time. Because he had been in the Air Force,
he had $8500 through his GI Bill that he could use pay for the training that Federal Express
required. He began flight training in late 1972 and earned his Type Rating in the Falcon-20, one
of six that were operational. In February of 1973 my dad was hired. Soon after, my mom loaded
my sister and I up and we moved to Memphis, which is where I still live.
My father introduced me to golf when I was 9 or 10 and I quickly fell in love with it. Of course, I
played other sports, but my summers were spent on the golf course at Stonebridge CC. As my
game improved, I began to play in local junior tournaments and earned my way onto the
Christian Brothers High School golf team as a freshman. Interestingly, this is the same school
that Dr. Cary Middlecoff attended. Cary won the 1956 U.S. Open at Oak Hill so he and I share
some great history. I was a pretty good player and won the Tennessee State Championship
twice(sophomore and senior) but I wanted to be a pilot like my dad. So, I began my flight
training and earned my pilots license in 1987. While flying, though, I kept an eye on college golf
scholarships as a way to advance my flying opportunities and still compete. I took a number of
visits before finally deciding on Indiana University in Bloomington. After my sophomore year,
my coach retired so I was left with a big decision. My mind to leave and play for Mississippi
State was made until I was told that Sam Carmichael would be our new coach. Sam was an All
American at LSU and played on the PGATOUR from 1962-1969 before retiring to start a golf
camp in Indiana. By this point, I was still thinking about flying, but I won 3 individual
tournaments my junior year and I began to think about professional golf. My senior year is
when I really started to believe that I could play the tour. I won 5 tournaments including the Big
Ten Championship(Individual and team) and was a First Team All American with players like
David Duval and Phil Mickelson. It was Sam who gave me the confidence and belief that I
could play at the highest level. So, I abandoned my dream of flying as a profession and after
graduating from IU, I got on a plane to South Africa in January of 1992 to start down a new
path.
After a few years of struggling and losing my tour privileges, some really good play in 1998 and
1999 led me back to the tour in 2000. My professional game was on the upswing and I was
finally beginning to have some success. By 2003, I had only played in two Majors, the ‘99 U.S.
Open at Pinehurst and the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills but I was trending upward. The
summer of 2003 was pretty stressful because my game was very inconsistent and my quest to
qualify for the PGA Championship was slipping. With a top 10 in Hartford a month or so before
the PGA, I had earned enough money to qualify for the seasons final Major, known as Glory’s
Last Shot. When I teed off on August 14, 2003, I was still learning to play high level golf.
Certainly, I didn’t know that my life would be forever changed a few days later!
Shaun Micheel at Oak Hill in 2003. Photo courtesy of PGA of America
2. Prior to your breakthrough in 2003, you had won in Singapore (Asian Tour) and Greensboro (now Korn Ferry Tour.) What did you find during each of those weeks, that allowed you to play golf that was good enough to bring home the title?
2/After losing my PGATOUR card in 1997, my manager at the time asked me if I wanted to go
play in Asia. He thought that getting away from the U.S. would help me focus on my game. In
early 1998, I flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to compete in the Asian Tour Qualifying School. It
was a grueling four days because of the time change and the tremendous heat. Somehow, I’m
finished high enough that I was going to get into most, if not all of the tournaments. My win in
Singapore was a result of old fashioned hard work and belief. It had taken some time, but I
finally believed in myself and my ability to play at the professional level. Basically, good results
bred even better results and that carried over into the next year when I made it onto the NIKE
Tour. Although I was disappointed not to have qualified for the PGATOUR, I was happy to be
back home in the U.S. Finishing 3rd on the Asian Tour Order of Merit signified to me that my
game was really, really good and that it was time for redemption. Again, the win in Greensboro
came about because of the firm belief that I was a good player and that I had finally overcome
the self doubt that had plagued me in my early professional years.
3. Returning to Rochester, you had not played a major event since the 2001 US Open at Southern Hills, where you tied for 40th. You had never played a PGA Championship. How early did you arrive at Oak Hill, and what were your initial thoughts?
3/I don’t remember why I flew into Rochester on Monday versus Sunday but I suspect it had
something to do with playing the week prior. When I got onto the golf course on Tuesday, I fell
in love with it. Now I hadn’t played very well leading up to it, but I loved treelined, meandering
fairways, rolling terrain and deep rough. Tough courses seemed to suit my game really well and
Oak Hill was certainly that. But, my goal was to simply make the cut. At that point in my career,
I was still learning and I figured that making a cut in a Major was just another step in that
process.
4. In 2003, the PGA Championship was held in August, and was known as Glory’s Last Chance. Were you in a comfortable place on the money list, or were you starting to calculate exactly what you needed to make it to 2004?
4/Looking back, I believe that I was well inside the money list for keeping my card for 2004. I
had qualified for the PGA Championship by being Top 70 in earnings from the prior years PGA
so I had played well for the last year or so.
5. You started 69-68 and took a two-shot advantage into the weekend. Were you in complete control of all elements of your game, or was one part of your game carrying you along?
5/I was playing really well the first two rounds. Mistakes were made, but my putter was making
up for any missteps. I didn’t think that my driving accuracy was where it needed to be to
contend for 4 days but my iron game was solid and gave me scoring chances when I was set
up to do so. But, It was my putter that won the tournament. I seemed to make every crucial
putt when I had gotten out of position and capitalized on most of the birdie opportunities that I
faced. Over the 72 holes, I made 21 birdies.
6. Another 69 on Saturday kept you tied for the lead, now with Chad Campbell. Campbell’s 65 was the low round of the tournament, but no one had yet been able to follow a low round with a decent one. Competitors who shot 66 on Thursday, came back with 74 and 75 on Friday. The same went for those who posted 67s on Saturday. In contrast, you were moving along in a balanced manner. What were your thoughts on Saturday night, as you prepared for yet another, biggest round of your career?
6/I played better on Saturday than any of the other days and I was cruising around without
much trouble. That was until I bogeyed the final 3 holes. I spent quite a bit of time in the media
center and I was asked about my finish. Most questions centered around the pressure that I
seemed to be facing and how that might affect the final round. I had accepted the bogeys
because I knew how well I was playing. Of course I had no idea how Sunday was going to go
but I felt really good about my chances. Once I got back from the golf course, it really hit me
that I had an opportunity to do something really special. I did think about the many other
events that I wasn’t able to finish but I felt really, really good about the way that I was playing.
To share this time with my wife, Stephanie, was an incredible benefit as she filled me with the
confidence that I could win.
7. You’ll read my anecdote about the end of the championship in the intro to this interview, and most folks will recall your 7-iron that soared to tap-in distance for a closing birdie and a two-shot victory. Walk us through the final round, and let us know where you were throughout the first and second nines.
7/Stephanie and I arrived to Oak Hill a couple of hours before my starting time. I was in a weird
place and I wasn’t up for small talk so I left her in family dining and went to my locker to get my
mind ready for what was about to transpire. When I got to my locker, there was a note taped to
the front. It was from Loren Roberts, who had been a friend of mine for several years. His note
said, “Shaun, you’re as good as anybody else out here. Go play your game and win. I’m
rooting for you. Loren”. I have that note at home and to this day, it is one of my most prized
possessions.
I felt sick to my stomach as I walked with Stephanie to the first tee. Once my first tee shot
found the fairway, that feeling went away and I was able to focus. It was an up and down front
nine with a few birdies mixed in with a few bogeys. Making the turn, I made 4 solid pars to
begin the final stretch. When I drove the 14th green and two putted for birdie, that’s when I first
thought that it was going to win. Chad made an incredibly long and difficult putt on 15 for
birdie and I three putted. There went the thought of winning. Another birdie preceded a 17th
hole bogey. Up only one on the last hole and it was imperative that I get my tee shot in play.
Both of us found the short grass and it all came down to the approach shots. Chad and I had
about the same yardage but I went first. When my caddie, Bob Szczesny, gave me the
yardage, we talked about the club selection for about five seconds. I had 162 yards to the front
and 13 more to the pin for a total of 175. It was a perfect 7 iron yardage. I never knew just how
perfect it was until I got up to the green and saw the ball a few inches from the hole.
8. What outside-golf factors do you recall from that week? Where did you stay? Where did you eat? What did you do away from the course, to take your mind off the golf?
8/With Stephanie being 6 months pregnant with our son, most of the outside golf stuff centered
around her. It was a very hot week and we spent a bit of time at the pharmacy as she was
battling a heat rash and a bit of dehydration. As we had a number of late nights, we ate room
service most of the week and we weren’t doing anything outside of golf. There wasn’t any time
for anything else. So, it was a fairly benign week for us as a couple but I was really happy that
we were together.
9. Is there a question that you’ve never been asked, regarding your win at Oak Hill, that you would enjoy sharing? Ask and answer, please.
9/Many know about the plaque that Oak Hill placed at the site where you hit your 7 iron, but have you been awarded an honorary membership to the club?
I have not, but I think they need to have a Tennessean included in their directory. Seriously though, the membership has always opened their arms to me and go out of their way to let me know that I’m always welcome at the club.
