Mark Brooks won the 1996 PGA Championship because he figured out how to play the 18th hole the final day, and Kenny Perry did not.

This 542-yard par 5 had yielded plenty of birdies all week, and was reachable in two by most players. But the green was a three-tiered horseshoe, and the pin the final day was on the highest of tiers at the center of a surface as slick as a car hood. It was guarded by a deep bunker in front and a steep slope in back that was tangled with bluegrass rough.

Perry came to the 18th hole with a two-shot lead and the backing of thousands of his fellow Kentuckians. Then he chopped his way through the left rough all the way to the green and eventually made bogey. Vijay Singh and Steve Elkington, playing together, needed to birdie 18 to tie Perry, who, surprisingly, had remained in the CBS broadcast booth behind the green. Elkington made par after drawing a difficult lie in the front bunker. Singh made a bogey after stone-handing a pitch shot from the back of the green.

Now came Brooks, who also needed to birdie to tie. His second shot found the front bunker, but he played a better shot than Elkington had, to four feet. He snuck that putt in the right side of the hole, forcing a playoff with Perry. Again Perry, who had not been warming up as the other contenders were finishing, pulled his drive into the left rough and proceeded to stay there until he got his fourth shot on the green.

Brooks reached the green in two from 229 yards and two-putted for birdie and the championship.