Jimmy Walker wins 2016 US PGA Championship as it happened! | US PGA

Ewan Murray's report

So much for the Monday, possibly Tuesday, finish, huh? All of a sudden, the major year is done and dusted. Danny Willett, Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Jimmy Walker have all broken their ducks in 2016. And in spectacular style, too. Those were four pretty great championships, right? 2017’s got a lot to live up to. Sweet dreams, everyone, and thanks for reading!

-14: Walker
-13: Day
-10: Summerhays
-9: Grace, Matsuyama, Koepka
-8: Stenson, Kaymer, Streb
-7: Hatton, Casey, McGirt
-6: Harrington, Simpson, Spieth, Reed, Grillo

Walker is presented with the Wanamaker Trophy, and hoists it high over his head. It’s a big cup, that’s a lot of extra effort given he’s just had to play 36 holes of golf under the most intense pressure. “I was thinking birdie at 17 would do it. We made the birdie. but sometimes things don’t come easy. Golf isn’t an easy game, and Jason is a true champion, so I wouldn’t expect anything less. Eagle at the last! That’s unreal! I had to make par, and sometimes pars are hard. But we got it!” One of the most gracious interviews by a winner you’re likely to hear. Poor old Jason Day. But he’ll come again. Congratulations to the wonderful Jimmy Walker!

Jimmy Walker, the winner of the 2016 PGA Championship, is signing for a bogey-free 67! What a way to win your first major! He had to hole his fair share of nervy short ones, and wriggle his way out of a couple of tight spots too. But every time he looked in any sort of trouble, he came up with the putt, or the chip, or the perfectly judged approach! And then he was tested to breaking point by Jason Day, the world number one. Most would have buckled. Walker didn’t. Day could have done nothing more - the poor chap looks appropriately drained as he trains his eyes on a point approximately one thousand yards in the distance - but he comes out of this with flying colours too. There’s only one winner, though, and Walker is the deserving champion!

JIMMY WALKER IS THE 2016 PGA CHAMPION!

His motor skills don’t desert him. He rolls in the three footer, like he’s done all day, and punches the air in celebration! He hugs his caddy, then his wife and kids. That was something else. He was pushed to the limit by the genius of the defending champ Jason Day, and still didn’t buckle. The deserved winner of the 2016 PGA Championship! Day arrives to give him a hug. “Well done mate.” These are sweet scenes.

The tension around the 18th at Baltusrol is palpable. Crackling. Maybe this was the electrical storm they were predicting. Walker pounds up and down the green, then strokes what looks like a fine putt towards the cup. But it keeps rolling, three feet past! What a nervy one he’ll have coming back! Robert Streb goes as quickly as he can to tidy up for his par, and a final-round 69; it still seems like an age to Walker. Finally, his moment of destiny. He’s not about to do a Doug Sanders, is he? He steps up, takes aim, makes his stroke, and ...

This is a jaw-dropping end to another wonderful major! Day sits in the scorer’s hut with his wife and child. Walker stands by his ball with his hands on his hips, the nerves clanging like a Milt Jackson vibraphone solo. But he doesn’t hang around. A few practice swishes with his wedge - and he plays the safe bet. He lobs high into the centre of the green. He’ll have two putts from 30 feet for the par that’ll secure the 98th PGA Championship!

Oh my! Walker hoicks his 3-wood way right, over the bunkers on that side of the green, into the thick stuff! The business end of a major championship, right here, right now! He doesn’t have a terrible lie, and he’s got green to work with. But even so!

Walker plays it safe off the 18th tee with iron. It’s in the fairway. No messing. No risk. A very clever play. Meanwhile up the hole, Day bends forward as he reaches the green to squint at the leaderboard. “Aw fuckin’ hell!” he softly mouths as he gently spins his club in impotent frustration. He’s just hit one of the great long irons under all sorts of pressure, but almost certainly for no reward! Though he’s going to make Jimmy Walker answer the question: he rolls in his eight-foot eagle putt!!! He reels round in celebration! A huge grin. He’s done all he can. That’s a 67, though his number isn’t the point: what an iron! What a putt! What an eagle! What a stunning defence of his title, whatever happens now!

-14: Walker (17)
-13: Day (F)

This is sensational! Jason Day whips a long iron 260 feet into the 18th green. It’s a laser-guided missile, straight at the flag! It lands four feet away to the left of the cup, and rolls perhaps a couple of feet further past! What an eagle opportunity he’s lined up for himself! A huge roar echoes around Baltusrol. But Jimmy Walker is immediately coming back at him! He tickles his birdie putt towards the hole. For a second it looks as though it’s going to kink off to the right, but the cup reaches out to grab the ball. In you come! That ball had to be missing on the right. But somehow it dropped! A birdie that has almost certainly secured his maiden major victory, unless he’s about to channel heroic Open legend Jean van de Velde. Day has to make his eagle putt, for a start! That was astonishing!

-14: Walker (17)
-11: Day (11)

Up on 18, Martin Kaymer drains a 40-foot eagle effort across the green! He finishes with a 66, at -8, and finally that’s a top-ten finish in a major that he’s not actually won. The Open champion Henrik Stenson can’t get up and down from the back: par, a 71, and he finishes at -8 too. He’s the only player in the top 40 to post an over-par final round; the efforts of Troon finally catching up with him. Ah well, those efforts were worth it, huh? Back on the tee, Day whip-cracks an iron down the centre of the fairway. And further back on 17, Walker spins a wedge from 70 yards to ten feet. He’s so very close.

With Walker waiting down the fairway to play his second, Day has a good think about his birdie putt. A long think. And eventually, after a lot of crouching and prowling, he hits the ball firm and true. Problem is, he’s misread it ever so slightly, the ball staying out on the left. He knocks in the return, but Day is about to book a room in the last-chance saloon. He vacates the green, still two behind at -11. Once he’s gone, Walker wastes no time in laying up. He’s in prime position to wedge close.

Walker screeches his tee shot at 17 straight down the middle. Up the hole, Day wedges to the front of the green, leaving a 15-foot uphill putt for birdie. You’d think he needs to make it, in order to place the leader under even more pressure. But then anything is possible at the denouement of a major. Assume nothing. Let’s just let the footage roll.

Walker gives his putt across 16 an aggressive clack. It slides by on the right, and ends up five feet past the hole. Gulp. But he rolls it right into the middle of the cup! This is a stunning display of mental strength, if nothing else. Whenever he begins to look even a tad ragged, understandably so in the circumstances, he pulls it round. Usually with the putter, but he’s hit a couple of wonder approaches when out of position. Meanwhile up on 17, Day smashes his second out of the rough down the right and back into the middle of the fairway, setting himself up for a short iron in. And on 18, Stenson whistles a fairway wood over the pin and towards the grandstand at the back. It’ll be a fun up and down from there for a valedictory birdie.

-13: Walker (16)
-11: Day (16)
-10: Summerhays (F)
-9: Grace (F), Matsuyama (F), Koepka (F), Streb (16)
-8: Stenson (17)

Jimmy Walker hits his tee shot at 16 pin high, but 50 feet away in Jason Day Country. Day himself wings a wild drive into the punters down the right of 17, clapping some poor bugger on the back. Stenson meanwhile misses a two-footer up on the green for birdie. Troon seems a long way away right now. Troon is a long way away, in fairness. It’s late. I’m trying my best. I promise.

Walker can’t work out the line of a snaking birdie putt, but he gets the pace bang on, and taps in for yet another par. He’s -13, two clear of Day, who is up on the 16th green taking two putts from 5o feet for par. Walker’s so close to his maiden major now. Meanwhile from the fringe at the back, Streb doesn’t hit his 12-foot birdie effort, and he’s staying put at -9. Up on 18, Brooks Koepka finds the green in two, and nearly knocks in a 40-foot eagle effort. But that’s a birdie, and he’s smiling broadly as he signs for a 70 that sees him end the week at -9. After a tie for fifth last year, that’s another top-ten finish at the PGA.

Day leaves his long par putt on 15 a good ten feet short of the cup. This could be the end, if he doesn’t knock this in. But he does, guiding a right-to-left slider into the cup! That was sheer quality, a putt that keeps his challenge alive. But unless he makes a move very soon - and he hasn’t gone close with his tee shot at 16 - he needs Walker to make a mistake. And while the leader got a massive break back down 15 when driving into the tree, he’s taken advantage of that luck. He fires low and hard towards the green from under the branches, and sends his ball pin high, leaving a 20-footer across the dancefloor for birdie! What a way to turn possible disaster into a possible deal-sealer!

Hmm. This isn’t over yet, of course. Walker haplessly slices his drive at 15 into the branches of a huge tree. He’s very fortunate to see his ball drop down on the other side. That’s not perfect, of course, but it could have been a whole lot worse. Meanwhile finally a putt goes in for Hideki Matsuyama! A birdie on 18, and he signs for a bogey-free 68. That could have been a seriously brilliant round if his putter was even lukewarm. As it was, he missed at least five tiddlers on the back nine. As he’s finished at -9, this goes down as one serious missed opportunity for the brilliant tee-to-green Japanese star.

“In regulation” undersold Walker’s approach to 14 a tad: he’d left himself a 12-footer for birdie. He doesn’t hit the putt, though, the ball refusing to hold its line and dying off to the left. Par will do under the circumstances. We’re a hole closer to a full sweep of first-time winners in the majors. It’ll be the first since 2011, when Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Keegan Bradley grabbed the prizes. Before that, 2003, when Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel swept them up. Not a classic year, 2003, was it.

No back-to-back majors for Henrik Stenson. He misses the six footer he leaves himself for bogey, and slips back to -8. Ah well, he’ll always have Troon. Walker is safely on the 14th green in regulation. Day, up on 15, needs something soon, but sends his drive into the rough down the left, and can only find the front of the green, some way from the flag. Walker is the hot favourite right now, but as we’ve seen a hundred times in major championship golf, there’s many a slip.

Jordan Spieth takes his leave of Baltusrol. It’s not a particularly happy exit, even though he’s signing for a 68. Two very short putts missed for birdie at 17 and 18. He was hardly missing a thing from inside 20 feet last year! His putter’s letting him down right now. As is the rest of his game, I guess, but at -6 he’s only seven off the lead despite having misplaced his A, B and C games. He’ll be back soon enough, and more brilliant than ever. Also with the putting woes: Hideki Matsuyama, who has missed a short putt on just about every hole on this back nine. The latest a birdie chance at 17. He’s -8. He could conceivably be leading this tournament. He’s missed a series of incredibly daft ones. Tee to green he’s been exceptional. It’s as though he’s been taken over by the spirit of Sergio. Sergio? Is that you?

Walker doesn’t go particularly close with his wedge into 13, then rattles a 25-foot birdie effort four feet past the hole. Another test of the flat stick, and his nerves. And in it goes! This is very impressive. He stays two clear at -13, though Day nearly knocks in a long birdie effort across 14 to close the gap.

Meanwhile up on 15, Stenson goes for the flag, tucked back left, and overcooks the approach, sending his ball into the thick stuff behind. He’ll not have much room to play with. And he duffs the chip back. He leaves the chip from the fringe a good six feet short, too. This looks like the end of the Open champion’s challenge. If it’s to be a scoreboard shootout, it’ll be between Walker and Day.

Brooks Koepka needed something to happen. Well, something’s happened! He rolls in a 50-footer on 15 for his first birdie of the day, and moves back to -9. He’s got to keep the spectacular scoring going now, if he’s to have any real hope. Henrik Stenson nearly drains a 30-foot birdie chance on 14, but races it by the hole. He keeps his nerves under control to knock in the three-foot return and save his par. His playing partner Martin Kaymer’s been going along well, incidentally. Birdies at 2, 7, 12 and now 14, offset only by bogey at 5, and he’s -7, back inside the top ten. Two major championships to his name, but otherwise no top-ten finish. Could this break that strange duck?

-13: Walker (12)
-11: Day (13)
-10: Summerhays (F), Stenson (14)
-9: Grace (F), Koepka (15), Streb (12)

Up on 18, Daniel Summerhays kisses an effortless fairway wood into the heart of the green to set up a 45-foot eagle effort. He doesn’t make the putt - one more turn was all it needed, a superlative attempt - but the birdie gives him a 66. He’s -10, the new clubhouse leader, and after a tie for eighth at Oakmont, he’s set for an even better major-championship finish at Baltusrol.

A long putt for Jason Day from the centre of 13. The second it comes off the face of his flat stick, it bounces in the air. Robbed of momentum, the ball stops a good six feet short of the hole. With Walker already two clear - and having just crashed a mammoth drive down the middle from the teebox behind - this is a pressure putt for Day. But he knocks it in, and stays at -11. That was rock.

Walker’s tee shot at 12 isn’t all that: in the middle of the green, but the pin’s towards the back right. A long lag, and he knocks it up to three feet. He’s leaving a lot of these short putts. The sort you should get, but when the nerves are clanging at the business end of a major, they’re very missable. He thinks about it a lot, but eventually tidies up. Streb, from 25 feet, flashes his putt straight at the hole. Problem is, he hit it with the power to cover 35 feet. It pings up on contact with the cup and stays out. Par, but a more delicate touch would have given him another birdie. He stays where he was too.

Amid that Walker-inspired brouhaha on 11, Robert Streb had stuck his approach to a couple of feet, and that’s two birdies in three holes for Mr 63. He’s -9. Daniel Summerhays finds the centre of 17 in regulation with a wedge that should have been closer, and can’t knock in the 15-footer he leaves himself. Par, and he remains at -9 with just the one hole to play. Stenson arrows an approach straight to 13. But it’s 20 feet short, and he doesn’t give the birdie putt enough. This is magnificent entertainment.

-13: Walker (11)
-11: Day (12)
-10: Stenson (13)
-9: Grace (F), Summerhays (17), Streb (11)

I’m not going to tempt fate by saying it looks as though the expected electrical storms have given Baltusrol the bodyswerve. But, well, y’know. Here we are, this rather brilliant golf continues. The leader Jimmy Walker takes an age over a wedge from the middle of 11. He sends it pin high, but a good 30 feet to the right of the pin. He looks concerned and nervous as he uses his club as a loofah to rub the small of his back. Still frowning, he lines the putt up - and guides a left-to-right breaker over a ridge, down the slope, and into the cup! Never missing! Sheer brilliance on the last two holes, and that’s back-to-back birdies! He’s two clear again, and just as it looked like he might be buckling a tad, he proves he’s as solid as you like under the most intense pressure! Day meanwhile makes like Stenson at 12 and leaves his tee shot a club short. He rolls a monster up the green and nearly makes it, but it rolls six feet past. That’ll be a tester coming back. But in it goes. Under the circumstances, he really needed that!

-13: Walker (11)
-11: Day (12)

Maybe not! Jason Day finds the heart of 11, then curls in a 20-footer for a birdie of his own! You wait ages for a birdie, then it’s the old London bus scenario. Daniel Summerhays isn’t letting this go, either: he sends his tee shot at 16 to ten feet, and knocks the putt in to move to -9! Stenson rolls his long putt at 12 to a couple of feet, and secures his par. Hideki Matsuyama meanwhile misses three very makeable birdie putts in succession, at 12, 13 and 14. He’s currently -8. It’s all about the flat stick, really, as Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia will tell you.

-12: Walker (10)
-11: Day (11)
-10: Stenson (12)
-9: Grace (F), Summerhays (16)

Koepka nearly knocks in a 20-foot birdie effort on 12. He stays at -8. Coming behind, Martin Kaymer clacks his tee shot dead. He’ll move to -6. Stenson leaves his half a club short, though, and will have a 40-footer up the green for his birdie. But there’s a HUGE moment on 10: Walker pushes his long-iron second shot into the bunker to the right of the green. A spot of trouble, but he splashes out to ten feet, and sends the ball rolling into the cup for birdie! If you can remember the bunker shot that won the 1986 PGA for Bob Tway, it’s not entirely dissimilar. An Australian, in Greg Norman, was denied that time round. Will this do for Jason Day?

Henrik Stenson is bidding to become only the fourth player to win multiple majors in the same season as a fortysomething. The other veteran legends? Ben Hogan (1953), Jack Nicklaus (1980), and Mark O’Meara (1998). Sending his second at 11 into thick rough to the left of the green, shortsiding himself, doesn’t necessarily assist him in that quest. A staunch up and down saves the day, though. Jimmy Walker meanwhile is getting a little ragged with nerves. He nearly sends his tee shot at 9 into a bunker to the right. He just about holds the green, but he’s 40 feet from the flag. And he lags up short. A testing five footer to save his par. But it’s in! He reaches the turn in 34, nine pars out of nine. His playing partner Robert Streb, who had clipped his tee shot to three feet, taps in for birdie: he turns in 33 after bogey at 3 and birdie at 5. He’s -8, and not out of this yet. Summerhays bogeys 14 but grabs the shot back at 15. Day meanwhile very nearly drains a 50-footer on 10 for birdie, but that’s another par. With everyone now on the home stretch, this is hotting up. And it’s hotting up like this:

-11: Walker (9)
-10: Stenson (11), Day (10)
-9: Grace (F)
-8: Summerhays (15), Matsuyama (8), Koepka (11), Streb (9)

Koepka manages to punch his second escape from the trees out to the semi rough. He then sends his fourth ten feet past the flag, and knocks in the return. A bogey to ruin that pretty card of pars, but he’ll feel pretty good after limiting the damage there. He’s back to -8, but that could have been so much worse. Matsuyama meanwhile creams a lovely tee shot to six feet at the par-three 12th. But he pushes a poor birdie effort to the right. He remains at -8. He can’t be passing up opportunities like that.

Henrik Stenson has a chance to tie the lead at 10, but he fails to hit a straight 12-foot birdie putt. That was very timid. Jason Day knocks in his birdie putt, and he’s -10, one behind Walker who pulls his second shot into 8 but lags up well from 40 feet and rescues yet another par. But Brooks Koepka’s run of pars looks like coming to a sorry end. He hits his drive on 11 straight left into a bagatelle of trees. He fires a low escape towards the fairway, but only succeeds in hitting one of the trunks flush, and he’s pretty much back where he started. Oh dear. We’ve all done it. Just not on the back nine of a major championship.

It’s ten pars from ten for Brooks Koepka. Back down on the tee, Henrik Stenson blasts his 3-wood down the middle. It plugs. Don’t worry, he’s allowed to place his ball on these wickedly wet fairways. But that just shows how heavy the conditions are. Up on 11, Hideki Matsuyama breaks his long run of pars by curling in a putt from 35 feet. The birdie moves him to -8. And on 9, Jason Day whirls a gorgeous 6-iron to four feet. A broad smile. If he knocks that in, he’ll be back to level par for the round, and only one off Jimmy Walker’s lead.

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