For Shaun Micheel, this week at Oak Hill is more about tackling golf demons than posting a number

Shaun Micheel looks at that 7-iron, tucked away in the golf room of his Collierville home, and doesn’t think about the shot.

The shot that made him a major championship winner as the No. 164th-ranked golfer in the world. The 175-yard approach shot that landed two inches from the cup at No. 18 in the final round of the 2003 PGA Championship. The shot that, 20 years later, is still part of “PGA Championship lore,” just as CBS announcer Jim Nantz described it on the broadcast.

“I think of all the 7-irons I’ve hit since,” Micheel said over the phone Wednesday night, about 12 hours before he was to take the first tee shot in the first group of the 2023 PGA Championship.

Micheel is back at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, the scene of his defining golf accomplishment ‒ and the only PGA Tour win of his career.

The anniversary has prompted Micheel, 54, to confront some of the golf demons that developed within him between now and then. There are fewer than 300 golfers in the history of the game to win a major, but he still grapples with how a great moment two decades ago didn’t lead to persistent greatness.

The Golf Channel asked Micheel ahead of this tournament if he sees himself as a great underdog or a great underachiever since he’s the rare golfer whose only win came in a major.

“Probably underachiever,” Micheel responded.

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There is regret, even though his career isn’t devoid of other feats. Micheel finished second behind Tiger Woods in the 2006 PGA Championship and then beat Woods in a match play event a month later. He made the cut more often than he didn’t on the PGA Tour, and he has 20 top-10 finishes.

Micheel has been refreshingly open about all of it this week.

“Every player wants to feel like they belong on the trophy, and I just say, I think that the guys that are on that trophy, they played for their place in the game and legacy, and I suppose I played to keep my job, and I think that’s really unfortunate,” he said during a Tuesday news conference. “I look back and I’m like, ‘That’s exactly the way I played.’ I played like every shot was life and death.”

“When you win and then your expectations change, you become I would say driven by perfection. That was my undoing,” he continued. “Golly, if I could just rewind. Who knows if it would have been different? I just did some things I wouldn’t do it again.”

Shoulder surgery, a heart procedure and the death of his parents – combined with the pressure he felt to live up to what he did during those magical four days at Oak Hill – eventually took their toll. It led to unnecessary swing- tinkering and second-guessing. He lost his full-time status on the PGA Tour in 2011.

He most recently served as Butler’s assistant golf coach, making the trek up to Indianapolis to help out a friend. This will be his first tournament in nine months.

“I definitely faced a lot of scrutiny because of the post-PGA and not ever winning again. I don’t really think about it anymore because I don’t get to play that much. But it bothered me for a while,” Micheel said. “I just became exhausted and I just almost threw up my hands and said, ‘That’s it. I can’t do this anymore.’ That’s kind of where I’ve been.”

But back at Oak Hill this week, his spirit was alive, even if his game wasn’t. Micheel limped home on Thursday, shooting a 44 on the back to finish at 81. He’s in last place heading into Friday’s round.

Micheel knew it would be even more improbable for him to win the PGA Championship this year than it was in 2003. He’s only able to play this week because he’s exempt as a former champion.

But his 19-year-old son Dade is with him this year. He sort of was in 2003, too. Stephanie Micheel was six months pregnant when Shaun Micheel kissed her belly to celebrate his win.

So last Friday, upon arriving in Rochester, father and son went out to the 18th hole. They found the plaque that now sits in the grass from the very spot Micheel hit the shot. Micheel says it usually reminds him of all the 7-irons that followed, the shots he wished he could have back. But this time, they decided to recreate the shot he’s remembered for.

A plaque in the rough on the 18th hole commemorates the 7-iron shot that Shaun Micheel struck from 174 yards during the 2003 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. (Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Micheel recorded as Dade attempted to do what his father did 20 years earlier. He used a 6-iron, but he “hit it up there.”

“People do focus on the shot, the way that I won, and I think it is really, really cool. I remember it very well,” Micheel said. “There was so much that happened to me after that PGA, trying to find myself. But at my age, I’m trying to find a little bit more perspective.”

You can reach Memphis Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter:@mgiannotto