Was this the most bizarre finish ever at a major championship?

Mao Saigo's win at the 2025 Chevron Championship was one of the most bizarre finishes in major championship history.

There was serious drama at the end of a history-making Chevron Championship. But where does it rank in the rundown of bonkers final days in history? Let’s have a look…

It was one of the more bizarre finishes in major championship history – and one Ariya Jutanugarn will not want to see again.

The two-time major champion was two shots away from completing the third step of the Grand Slam when she was faced with a routine chip at the 72nd hole of the Chevron Championship.

The 29-year-old had three shots from the greenside rough at the par-5 18th to add to her Women’s Open and US Women’s Open titles from 2016 and 2018 respectively.

But then the unthinkable happened when Jutanugarn, who had led for most of the final round at Carlton Woods, did this…

The Thai star made no mistake with her next effort, but it drifted 10-feet beyond the hole and she failed to make the par putt that would have handed her the title.

Instead, she went into a record-breaking five-way playoff with China’s Ruoning Yin, Korean Hyo Joo Kim, American Lindy Duncan, and Japan’s Mao Saigo, who birdied the 18th one more time to earn not only her first major championship but her first LPGA Tour title too.

For Jutanugarn, though, it is one to forget.

The most bizarre finishes in major championship history

Jutanugarn can take solace in the fact she is far from alone in what is a pretty competitive field.

Here are a few others in recent years that some of these golfers won’t thank us for bringing up…

1999 Open

Jean van de Velde started the day five clear of Craig Parry and Justin Leonard at Carnoustie – and even though that lead had been cut to three by the time he stood on the 72nd tee, the Claret Jug was surely heading to France for the first time since 1907 when Arnaud Massey triumphed at Hoylake.

But, thinking the lead was only two, Van de Velde opted to take driver before going for the green with his second. His ball hit the grandstand, and then a rock in Barry Burn, before landing in knee-high rough. His third hack ended up in the water, and he opted to take his shoes and socks off for one of the most famous photo ops in the history of any sport.

It all ended with a triple-bogey that allowed Leonard and Paul Lawrie – who had come from a record-breaking 10 shots back – in for the unlikeliest of playoffs.

Lawrie dominated the extra holes, hitting a career-defining 4-iron to four feet at the last. The Scot remains the last Briton to lift the Claret Jug.  

2006 US Open

As many as five players held at least a share of the lead on a thrilling final day at Winged Foot.

But when it got to the business end of proceedings, both Colin Montgomerie and Phil Mickelson stood on the 18th tee at 4-over-par – a score that would have won the tournament.

After a lengthy wait in the middle of the fairway, Monty had a late change of mind on which club to hit and ended up finding the thick rough to the right of the green. A double-bogey meant the Scot’s wait for a major title would go on.

It was equally heartbreaking for Mickelson, who pumped his driver into the hospitality area to the left of the fairway and he too could only save double-bogey. The American has, to date, finished runner-up in the US Open a record six times. It remains not only the title he wanted most, but the one that’s kept him from the Grand Slam.

All that drama allowed Geoff Ogilvy to quietly par his way to a maiden major title.

2009 PGA Championship

Why did we bother tuning into the final round at Hazeltine? With Tiger Woods holding a two-shot lead through 54 holes, this thing was done.

Except YE Yang had other plans. The hunter became the hunted, and when Yang chipped in for eagle at 14 to take the lead for the first time, Woods could only watch on helplessly as one of the biggest upsets in our sport’s history unfolded in front of him.

2009 Open

It was all set to be a historical day at Turnberry. Tom Watson, then 59, led by one through 54 holes as he looked to become the oldest ever major champion by some distance, while Lee Westwood, Chris Wood, Ross Fisher and Luke Donald were all in the hunt to end England’s (still ongoing) wait for a first Open champion since Nick Faldo in 1992.

While Fisher fell away and Donald’s birdie run proved too little too late, Westwood and Wood were both left kicking themselves after bogeys at 18 saw them slip back to 1-under-par. And with Stewart Cink in the clubhouse at 2-under, it meant Watson just needed to par the finishing hole to win a sixth Claret Jug – 34 and 26 years on from his first and last respectively. But he flew the green and failed to get up and down. The bogey saw him into a playoff with Cink, which the younger American won.

It’s been 16 years, and we still haven’t forgiven him.

2010 PGA Championship

Remember when Martin Kaymer won the PGA Championship? Neither do we, because all we think about is how Dustin Johnson grounded his club in what he thought was a waste area at Whistling Straits. Turns out it was a bunker, and that two-shot penalty cost him his first major championship title.

2011 PGA Championship

Keegan Bradley was playing in his first major championship at Atlanta Athletic Club – and he would have been pretty pleased with a runner-up spot when he trailed Jason Dufner by five with three to play.

But he rattled off a couple of birds and his rival bogeyed three of his last four. The two went to a playoff, and Bradley came out on top. He remains the last player to win on his major debut.

2014 PGA Championship

Fresh from completing the third leg of his Grand Slam bid at the previous month’s Open, Rory McIlroy came out all guns blazing at Valhalla. But he stumbled on the final day and found himself as many as three shots back at one point.

But an eagle at 10 and two further birdies saw him come down 18 with a two-shot lead over Phil Mickelson in a round that will be remembered for finishing in complete darkness.

2016 Masters

I really didn’t want to add this one but I’m being told I must.

Fine. Here are the bridge notes. Jordan Spieth led by five at the turn on Sunday and was surely going to defend the Green Jacket he’d won 12 months prior.

He then flubbed two in the water at 12 and allowed Danny Willett in to set up the most awkward Butler Cabin exchange ever. (And there was another soon-to-be recognizable face there, too…)

2025 Masters

We couldn’t leave Rory McIlroy winning the Grand Slam out now, could we?

You can read all about that right here.