Walker, who led the PGA after every round, stretched his advantage to three shots with a birdie at No. 17.
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He’ll make the team and with the confidence that comes with winning a major title, his calm demeanor and smart play should lead to more success.
“There was nothing easy about the day – really about the week, for that matter”. “Especially coming down the last hole”.
Walker sent his second shot into the right rough but lofted his third onto the green 23 feet from the cup.
Said Day: “It was nice to get the eagle, just to try and make Jimmy think about it, but obviously Jimmy just played too good all day”. “Sometimes pars are hard”.
A par was still good enough for Walker to become the eighth wire-to-wire victor of the US PGA – and the first since Phil Mickelson at the same venue in 2005 – and the 37-year-old held his nerve after pitching to 30 feet from right of the green. This time around at just one behind on 10-under with three to play, Grace found the par three 16th in regulation, but a woeful birdie attempt followed as he left the ball well short of the hole.
By finishing in the top four at the PGA Championship, Summerhays qualified for the 2017 Masters. Six of the past eight major winners have been first-timers, with Jordan Spieth and Day opening their accounts in 2015.
Add Jimmy Walker to the crowd, then, the crowd that will make major championships so much fun, a crowd perhaps best defined by a Jason Day soliloquy after this PGA when he tried to explain why four second-place finishes in majors have left him unsatisfied… Usually on the PGA TOUR, we kind of – it’s like a grab a sandwich and go kind of deal.
But Day put on the pressure, reaching the par-five 18th in two.
But the circumstances around some great golf were odd to say the least. “I didn’t know if he holed the putt before my shot or after my shot because I didn’t hear anything really”. “We just felt for the fair play of a major championship we needed to play preferred lies in the final round”. Desperate to beat the clock and avoid a second consecutive Monday finish at Baltusrol, the pairings stayed the same for the final round.
Aside from the champion, Daniel Summerhays seemed as happy as anyone at the end.
It marked the first time players in a major championship were allowed to lift, clean and place balls in the fairway.
“It was quite a odd finish to the PGA Championship”, said Day.
With Day, Swede Henrik Stenson and countryman Brooks Koepka breathing down his neck it was Walker’s hole-out for birdie from a greenside bunker on the 10th that made the tournament his to lose, a birdie bomb on the very next hole another near-fatal blow. “The birdie on 17 was key for him”. Minutes later, Walker briefly looked like he might have a Jean Van de Velde moment, only to calmly card a two-putt par and lock up his first career major trophy. “But he’s handled himself pretty good”.
Jutanugarn played the final five holes in 1 under for an even-par 72 and a three-stroke victory over American Mo Martin and South Korea’s Mirim Lee. He had his best major showing of the year – in the three others, the best Day placed was eighth at the U.S. Open – and went a long way toward sewing up his spot atop the world rankings, one of his goals this weekend.
Walker had to return to the classic championship course early Sunday morning to play his entire third round after heavy rain and thunderstorms suspended play on Saturday, and shot two-under 68 for a one-shot lead going into the final 18. “Everything I’ve done up to this point, helped this happen”.
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Fifteen groups teeing off each tee in 10-minute intervals would mean the final group teed off at 9:20 a.m. Figuring five-hour rounds, the final groups of the third round would’ve been done by 2:20 p.m.
