Jimmy Walker did everything required of a major champion on the longest final day in 64 years at a PGA Championship golf tournament.
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Day still trailed Walker by two as he stood over a 14-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole.
Walker overcame an aggressive charge from Jason Day, who put the pressure on him with an eagle, but he was able to par the 18th hole and sunk a putt to win the title. “Playing 36 holes today, especially under the pump. and finishing that way, was pretty special”, said Day.
Jimmy Walker goes wire-to-wire at the PGA Championship thanks to a timely hole-out from the sand. All I knew was that I assumed I was only two shots back going into 18.
“I got soaked with champagne, and for the closing ceremony, she gave me a dry one”, Love said. “But we got it”.
The 37-year-old American won his first Major by carding an unblemished three-under-par 67 at Baltusrol on Sunday. Even with the silver trophy at his side, Walker still had a hard time letting that sink in. But if there were any nerves, they didn’t show as Walker stroked the putt with confidence and won the PGA Championship.
Walker and Day can be considered neighbors during their PGA Tour travels. Day knew he would need the eagle plus a Walker bogey at the last.
He holed out from a greenside bunker at the start of the back nine and then only went and sunk a 35 footer on the following green by which time he must have been thinking this was going to be his day, his time, his championship.
“Great stuff, mate”, he told Walker.
“This is how you grow as a player and as a person and get better”. “We just felt for the fair play of a major championship we needed to play preferred lies in the final round”. In an effort to beat the clock and avoid a second consecutive Monday finish at Baltusrol, the pairings stayed the same for the final round. Players could clean mud off their balls in low-mown areas and replace them.
But it ended on a happy note for Walker.
And for the first time since 2011, all four of the year’s Majors had been claimed by first-time winners.
Better yet: It moved him from No. 29 to No. 4 in the Ryder Cup standings, all but assuring him a spot on the team.
Walker finished the round with a 3-under 67 and a one-shot victory over Jason Day. As he looked up to the big screen, once Jimmy Walker holed a birdie at 17 to solidify his lead and nearly guarantee his maiden major win.
As gruelling as the day was, the Australian said he had enjoyed the challenge. Not only did he finally figure out a way to get out of his own way and win a major, but he was pretty classy in the way he handled the rules controversy that was thrown his way.
This year, though, squeezed into the men’s tournament schedule as it was between The Open and the looming Olympics, and at the mercy of Mother Nature, “Glory’s Last Shot” seemed doomed to go down as one of the least remarkable major finales in recent history. As soon as I hit it, it felt ideal. “I had to step up and do something and I hit two good shots with my two-iron”.
For the second straight major, this became a duel over the final hour. As he made a birdie putt some moments after the 2-iron.
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The PGA Championship may not have provided the thrills and chills of the Phil Mickelson-Henrik Stenson epic duel just two weeks earlier at the British Open, but that it held viewers in thrall for most of the leaders’ back nine was something of a coup.
