Golfer Walker bags maiden major title at PGA Championship
Springfield (New Jersey), Aug 1 (IANS) American golfer Jimmy Walker pulled off an astonishing wire-to-wire triumph at the PGA Championship, sloshing 36 holes across soggy Baltusrol course and outduelling top-ranked defending champion Jason Day down the stretch to clinch his maiden Major title.
The 37-year-old on Sunday scored a birdie on the next-to-last hole and ended 14-under 266 (65-66-68-67), a stroke ahead of Australia’s Day (68-65-67-67), who almost caught up with him with a prodigious eagle on the last hole of the match.
“It’s surreal. I just had not quite played as well as I would have liked to this year,” the world No.48 said.
“Just to be in it and be there and have a chance and then to finish it off is just so gratifying. It’s amazing,” he added.
“Some stuff kind of clicked last week, literally in the last like nine holes. Everything felt good. I kept it going. Finished off the round. Finished off the nine holes. It felt big to me. Like everything worked, like my head was there. I was in every shot.”
The victory of Oklahoma golfer marks the end of an unusual season, in which all the majors have been won by first-timers like Britain’s Danny Willett, winner of the Masters, the American Dustin Johnson, winner of the US Open, and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, recent winner of the British Open.
On Sunday, Daniel Summerhays finished third with a 10-under 270 total after he carded 66 in the final round, while Branden Grace, Hideki Matsuyama and Brooks Koepka shared the fourth place at nine-under 271.
Stenson, Martin Kaymer and Robert Streb finished tied seventh at 272 total.