The fans remember the celebration. Hale Irwin remembers Mike Donald's mistake in the playoff.
The fans remember a 15m over-the-hill-and-round-the curve birdie putt going in on the 72nd hole and Irwin, a 45-year-old veteran, taking a lap around the green to high-five anyone with an outstretched palm.
He remembers playing those last eight holes five-under-par and posting a score for everyone else to shoot at.
The fans remember him clutching his third United States Open trophy. He remembers the long road back.
Maybe the golf gods were trying to give a peek into the future when Irwin defied the odds to come from behind in the final round, force a playoff and beat Donald in 19 holes to win the 1990 United States Open at Medinah, in Chicago.
There was so much more lying ahead. Irwin himself was not quite sure where he was headed. The more he immersed himself in golf course design, the more he struggled with his game.
He was 45 and had not won since 1985.
Could he still play with the big boys? Was the Senior PGA Tour an option in the future? Did he want to be working on his game at 50 or sitting back and enjoying the show?
Irwin had told himself 1990 was the year. He was going to put everything he had into the season and see where it took him.
At Medinah, where he was given a special exemption into the field, he found the answer.
Irwin returns to the course this week for the first time since that Monday in June 1990 when he came from two shots down in the playoff to win that third Open.
He has not had a reason to play Medinah - or even drop by - since then. And would it really matter? The course they are playing in this PGA championship will be longer and, quite likely, a bit kinder and gentler than the one the USGA set up in 1990.
Just as he did in 1990, Irwin comes into Medinah with something to prove. At 54, he is tearing up the senior tour for a third straight year, but he wants to, at the very least, be competitive.
Going into the final round of the 1990 United States Open, Irwin was four shots - and in a pack of players - behind Billy Ray Brown and Donald. Irwin did not consider himself a contender.
"I had at best a longshot to win," said Irwin, who had changed putters for the final round because he was not comfortable on the greens.
"Through the first 10 holes, I wasn't in the top 15. I was playing respectable, but not great. And after I hit the tee shot at 11, I thought if I play one under from here in I can finish in the top 15 and get invited back for the following year.
"I immediately birdied 11. So then I'm thinking I could make the top 10.
"Then I birdied 12 and I started thinking I could make the top five. Then I birdied 13 and 14 and now I'm at 7-under and the lead at the time was 9-under.
"I'm thinking if I can get to 8-under and post it and they're out there looking at it, I have a chance."
He did indeed get there, dropping that 15m birdie putt on the 72nd hole. Then he sat back and waited.
"I played 5-under the last eight holes of a US Open and that far surpassed anything I could imagine," he said. "It put me in the clubhouse with the lead and everyone else was out there scrambling."
He remembers watching Donald, Brown and Nick Faldo all make their run at the title. He remembers making the playoff against Donald and realising that longshot had turned into a 50-50 chance.
"What I've got is a player [Donald] who hasn't been there," Irwin said. "As far as technically hitting the ball better, he had the advantage. But I had my experience and I hoped that would carry the day."
It did. Irwin started fast and Donald caught up, then cruised on by. The kid from Hollywood, Florida, had a two-shot lead with three holes to play. And he was up at the 18th, when Irwin let his drive fly into the fairway.
"I'm standing there to the side saying 'please hit driver' because if he pulls it out, I might have a chance," Irwin said.
"He'd been hitting a little fairway wood all day and hitting it well. But here, I thought he might go to driver and if he did, well, he wasn't used to hitting it."
That win, coupled with his win at the Buick Classic the next week made Irwin's decision easy. Yes, he could still play and still wanted to play.
He added the exclamation point four years later with a win at the MCI Heritage, then headed to the senior tour.
Now Irwin has struck an easy - but fast-paced - balance between design and golf.
Golf: Medinah event trip down memory lane for Irwin
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