Jimmy Walker savoured his first major win on Sunday after he survived a late charge from defending champion Jason Day to claim victory at the weather-affected US PGA Championship at Baltusrol.
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Heading into last year’s PGA Championship, Day had recorded nine top-10s at the majors before he finally entered the winner’s circle. “It’s awesome. Things began to click last week and then being able to bring it in this week”.
“I figured it was Jason”, Walker said, who steeled himself to curl in the birdie putt. “I thought I played some decent golf, but it wasn’t one of those golf courses that really suited me”.
Walker played so well in one of the strangest PGA Championships in recent memory that he led wire to wire.
Jimmy Walker did everything required of a major champion on the longest final day in 64 years at a PGA Championship. Daniel Summerhays of the United States carded a final round 66 for -10 to finish alone in third.
“It feels sweet”, he told Sky Sports’ Sarah Stirk.
He said in the after math: ‘It is surreal, an incredible finish, ‘ before adding: ‘I made it a little more hard than I would have liked but I did it’. Perhaps the only surprise about the putt that followed was that it went in the right half of the hole, rather than the middle.
“This is how you grow as a player and as a person and get better”.
American Day did not get off to the best start as he made two bogeys in the opening three holes. So it was actually quite nice to be able to see him celebrate with his family and friends there. “But obviously, Jimmy just played too good all day”.
A victor who came out of the blue even though Walker is ranked 48th in the world and has five PGA Tour victories. This year he missed the cut at the US Open and the Open at Troon and now comes a win. In fact, he didn’t make the weekend in four of his last eight tournaments.
Harrington – who shot 65 on Saturday – was among the early starters after officials chose to send players out for the final round in the same groups as the third round following Saturday’s weather-related early suspension of play.
Walkr moved from No. 29 to No. 4 in the Ryder Cup standings, all but assuring him a spot on the team.
Day was equal second at the 2011 Masters, runner-up at the 2011 and 2013 US Opens and runner-up at last year’s British Open at St Andrews. Sanders, who has multiple sclerosis, received a huge hug from Walker after the final putt fell. Those unusual circumstances meant leading players were not paired together but kept in their third-round groups to get the tournament completed. Desperate to beat the clock, they sent the third-round pairings right back out for the final round, meaning Walker was playing the third round as others were playing the final round.
Stenson stumbled with a double bogey at 15, ending his hopes of becoming the fourth over-40 player to win multiple majors in the same year. “I seemed to make a big key putt, long putt, every day this week”.
The top 10 players on the leaderboard did not make it out onto the course before an approaching thunderstorm forced play to be suspended at 2.15pm local time (7.15pm BST). It felt big to me.
Day sat in the scoring area with son Dash on his knee as he watched Walker pitch up and lag his first putt to within three feet of the hole on 18. He also is in solid position for the U.S. Ryder Cup squad.
Summerhays had five birdies over the last seven holes for a 66, giving him third place alone and a tee time at Augusta National next April for the first time. He shot 71 and shared seventh with Germany’s Martin Kaymer and American Robert Streb.
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Last year’s victor at Whistling Straights wasn’t about to hand over the Wanamaker Trophy on a silver platter. He shot 69 and 68 Sunday and was at 6 under.
