Pádraig Harrington won his second consecutive major and third overall, two strokes ahead of runners-up Ben Curtis and Sergio García.

He earned $1.35 million for the victory, and became the first European-born winner of the PGA Championship in 78 years, last accomplished in the match play era by Tommy Armour of Scotland in 1930 (by then a naturalized U.S. citizen).

Tiger Woods, the two-time defending champion, did not compete due to rehabilitation for a season-ending knee surgery following his playoff victory in the U.S. Open in June.

All former PGA Champions Paul Azinger, Rich Beem, Mark Brooks, John Daly, Steve Elkington, Davis Love III, Phil Mickelson (3,8,9,10), Vijay Singh (8,10), David Toms (9), Bob Tway (Eligible but not competing: Jack Burke Jr., Dow Finsterwald, Raymond Floyd, Doug Ford, Al Geiberger, Wayne Grady, David Graham, Hubert Green, Don January, John Mahaffey, Shaun Micheel, Larry Nelson, Bobby Nichols, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Nick Price, Bob Rosburg, Jeff Sluman, Dave Stockton, Hal Sutton, Lee Trevino, Lanny Wadkins, Tiger Woods) 2.

15 low scorers and ties in the 2007 PGA Championship Stephen Ames (8,10), Stuart Appleby (8), Woody Austin (8), K. J. Choi (8,10), Simon Dyson, Ernie Els (8,10), Anders Hansen, Justin Rose (8), Adam Scott (8,10), John Senden (8), Kevin Sutherland (8), Scott Verplank (8,9), Boo Weekley (8,10) (Eligible but not competing due to hand surgery – Arron Oberholser[3]) 7.

20 low scorers in the 2008 PGA Professional National Championship Sam Arnold, Ryan Benzel, Bradley Dean, Eric Dugas, Frank Esposito, Jr., Jim Estes, Kyle Flinton, Scott Hebert, Vince Jewell, Rick Leibovich, David Long, Eric Manning, Brad Martin, Jeff Martin, Alan Morin, Curt Sanders, Sonny Skinner, Tim Thelen, Tim Weinhart, Don Yrene 8.

70 leaders in official money standings from the 2007 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and Reno-Tahoe Open to the 2008 RBC Canadian Open Robert Allenby, Tommy Armour III, Aaron Baddeley, Briny Baird, Bart Bryant, Mark Calcavecchia, Chad Campbell (9,10), Daniel Chopra (10), Stewart Cink (9,10), Tim Clark, Ken Duke, Steve Flesch (10), Jim Furyk (9), Sergio García (10), Brian Gay (10), Mathew Goggin, Paul Goydos, J.

B. Holmes (10), Ryuji Imada (10), Freddie Jacobson, Jerry Kelly, Anthony Kim (10), Justin Leonard (10), Peter Lonard, Steve Lowery (10), Hunter Mahan, John Mallinger, Steve Marino, Billy Mayfair, George McNeill (10), Rocco Mediate, John Merrick, Ryan Moore, Sean O'Hair (10), Rod Pampling, Pat Perez, Kenny Perry (10), Carl Pettersson, Ian Poulter, Jeff Quinney, Andrés Romero (10), Rory Sabbatini, Heath Slocum, Brandt Snedeker (10), Henrik Stenson, Steve Stricker (10), D. J. Trahan (10), Camilo Villegas, Johnson Wagner (10), Mike Weir (10), Dean Wilson (Eligible but not competing due to wrist injury – Luke Donald[4]) 9.

Members of the 2006 United States Ryder Cup team Chris DiMarco, J. J. Henry, Vaughn Taylor (Eligible but not competing due to back injury – Brett Wetterich[5]) 10.

The PGA of America reserves the right to invite additional players not included in the categories listed above Mark Brown, Jonathan Byrd, Paul Casey, Darren Clarke, Fred Couples, Ben Crane, Ben Curtis, Nick Dougherty, Niclas Fasth, Ross Fisher, Alastair Forsyth, Hiroyuki Fujita, Richard Green, Søren Hansen, Peter Hanson, Peter Hedblom, Charles Howell III, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Brendan Jones, Robert Karlsson, Martin Kaymer, James Kingston, Søren Kjeldsen, Pablo Larrazábal, Tom Lehman, Graeme McDowell, Colin Montgomerie, Nick O'Hern, Louis Oosthuizen, Hennie Otto, Corey Pavin, Prayad Marksaeng, Jyoti Randhawa, Charl Schwartzel, Jeev Milkha Singh, Scott Strange, Toru Taniguchi, Bubba Watson, Steve Webster, Lee Westwood, Oliver Wilson (Declined invitation: Greg Norman – scheduling,[6] Jason Bohn – back surgery,[7] Shingo Katayama – back injury) 12.

Kenny Perry was forced to withdraw due to the effects of an eye problem that began plaguing him earlier in the week.

Ben Curtis and Justin Rose shared the best round of the day with three-under 67s to settle into a tie for second at even par with Charlie Wi.

The winner at Bridgestone the previous week and world #4, Vijay Singh, was the most notable golfer to miss the cut when he five-putted his last hole.

Andrés Romero, who completed his round Saturday, woke up much higher on the leaderboard as his five-under 65 put him four strokes off the lead and in a tie for seventh.

Harrington shot his second straight 66 (−4), and like his victory three weeks earlier at Royal Birkdale, he won with tremendous play on the back nine.

He would lose sole ownership of the lead on this hole, and ultimately the tournament after failing to match the crucial putts made by Harrington.