Reggie Jackson earned the nickname "Mr. October" for his dominance in postseason baseball while with the New York Yankees. The PGA Championship has a "Mr. September" of its own, as golf icon Walter Hagen won four of the ten PGA Championships held in September, with two of those victories coming in the empire state.

The tournament's September era ran when the PGA Championship played a match-play format, with Jim Barnes winning the first in 1919 and Byron Nelson claiming the last in 1940.