“If he makes birdie, I’ve got a couple to play with and I can relax a little bit, but I didn’t get to relax”.
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Her late collapse in the ANA Inspiration almost as recent as her three straight LPGA Tour victories, the 20-year-old Thai player held on to win the Women’s British Open for her first major title. By the time the third round ended, Walker (-11) led Day by just one. And Jimmy Walker said, “Really cool way to finish”. “Especially coming down the last hole”. Thereafter, he played the rest of the round in a spotless 5 under par and almost forced a playoff with a dramatic eagle on 18.
The American sprayed his approach to 18 into thick rough right of the green before punching his third safely onto the green but 35 feet beyond the hole.
In a year when every major championship was won by a man who had never won a major championship, golf is suddenly unpredictable fun.
“It’s surreal”, said Walker, whose 67 put him at 14-under-par 266. “Sometimes pars are hard”.
“So it would have been nice, but we all understand we were trying to get the championship in”.
Walker held the 18-hole lead and shared the advantage with Streb after 36 before reclaiming it through 54.
Day, 28, now has four runner-up finishes in majors and 13 top-10s. He was the player of the year on the second-division Nationwide Tour in 2004 and spent the next few seasons battling relegation from the PGA Tour.
What it means: It took Walker nine years and 188 starts to win his first PGA Tour title at the Frys.com Open in 2013.
Grace once more was a contender in the PGA Championship, getting within one of the lead until a three-putt bogey stalled his momentum on the 16th, and he drove into the water on the 18th trying to take an aggressive angle for a shot at eagle.
“We both felt great all week”, Walker said.
“It was nice to get the eagle, just to try and make Jimmy think about it”, Day said.
“I just had not quite played as well as I would have liked to this year but I knew it was close”.
Henrik Stenson felt he never reached his best form after falling away during the final round of the US PGA Championship. Desperate to beat the clock and avoid a second consecutive Monday finish at Baltusrol, the pairings stayed the same for the final round.
Walker and Day were playing with occasional mud on their golf balls on the back nine of the third round Sunday morning as some players behind them were able to lift, clean and place their golf balls in short grass in the fourth round.
With Jimmy Walker claiming the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, the trend of first-time major winners has been extended.
Walker then calmly buried the putt, which not only won him his first major but all but clinched a spot on the United States’ entry in next month’s Ryder Cup. He lost his magic in the final round, however, shooting a one-over 71 to finish six shots behind Walker. Day wasn’t making any excuses, but clearly that’s not the ideal way to go into a major championship. “Hats off, because it’s not easy to win tournaments and he controlled himself pretty darn well all day”.
The 27-year-old German player broke Steve Wheatcroft’s 72-hole stroke record of 255 and tied Daniel Chopra’s mark for relation to par set in the 2004 Henrico County Open.
“It was a long day”.
“I made the birdie (on 17) but sometimes things just don’t come easy and golf is not an easy game, and Jason is a true champion”, Walker said. “I think I hit more poor shots in the two rounds today than in the previous six or seven rounds combined”. His first putt ran three feet past the hole but he sank the nerve-jangler to become a major champion.
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The defending champion struggled to make much happen down the stretch until he knocked a sublime 255-yard second to 13 feet at the last, but with the roars of the crowd up at 18 easily audible to Walker on the 17th green, he responded by holing a pivotal eight-foot putt for birdie.
