Honestly, golf history’s full of holes sometimes. I’d been watching old tournament clips and realized nobody talks much about who won the PGA Championship way back in 1968. So I grabbed my laptop, coffee getting cold beside me, and started digging.
Where I Began
First I tried Google. Big mistake. Searched “1968 PGA Championship winner” and got flooded with ads for golf clubs and betting sites. Clicked through junk for like twenty minutes before realizing I needed better sources.
Switched tactics entirely. Remembered an old sports almanac collecting dust under my TV stand. Dug that out, flipped past baseball stats and horse racing results. Found the golf section – but the dang thing started records from 1970. Total dead end.
The Library Hail Mary
Drove downtown to the public library. Their microfilm room smells like dust and burnt toast. Scrolled through reels of 1968 newspapers until my eyes crossed. Finally hit pay dirt in the July 29th edition of The San Antonio Express. Big headline: “BOROS OUTLASTS ALL AT PGA”. Had no clue who that even was.
Pulled up more details:
- Course: Pecan Valley in Texas, middle of a brutal heatwave
- Final showdown: Boros beat Bob Charles and Arnold Palmer in playoff
- Mind-blowing stat: Dude was 48 freaking years old – oldest major champ ever at that time
Library printer jammed twice before I got a clear copy. Almost screamed when it finally spat out the article.
Verification Headaches
Back home, checked four different golf history sites. Three had conflicting info about the playoff holes. One said Boros won by three strokes (totally wrong), another had the location as Ohio instead of Texas. Finally confirmed through PGA’s own digital archives around midnight.
Learned something weird too – that tournament had eight different leaders during the final round. Absolute chaos with golfers collapsing in the heat. Boros just sat back steady as a rock while everyone else melted.
Put all my notes on the kitchen counter. Wife asked why I needed six books and three printed articles just to find “some golfer’s name.” Told her Julius Boros deserves his damn recognition. Oldest major winner ever ain’t just “some golfer.” Case closed.
