Golf:The road to a Major title is never straightforward, and most certainly not in this 92nd edition of the US PGA Championship here at Whistling Straits. Yet, when all around him were losing their sense of direction in one way or another, Martin Kaymer – combining typical German efficiency with some stellar shots – claimed the Wanamaker Trophy in a three-hole aggregate play-off with American Bubba Watson.
That play-off featured just two players, but the unfortunate Dustin Johnson – who’d manfully holed a putt on the last hole of regulation play for what he thought had got him into the play-off – could perhaps feel a sense of grievance that he was not also part of it. Johnson was given a two-stroke penalty after he was deemed to have grounded his club in a bunker on the 72nd hole, a decision which rubbed salt into the wounds of his final round US Open collapse at Pebble Beach.
Johnson was assessed the two-stroke penalty on completion of his round, which meant his 71 was turned into a 73, leaving him on 279 – in tied-fifth – and consigned to a role of bystander for the play-off. Rory McIlroy, who played beautifully to create chance after chance, but who had a cold putter on the back nine when it really mattered, shot a 72 for 278 which gave him a tied-third finish. It was the 21-year-old Ulsterman’s third third-place finish in a major in the last 12 months!
Kaymer, though, continued the recent trend of first-time winners in majors. His success was the sixth in the past seven majors by a maiden winner. But he had to do it the hard way, sinking a 15-footer for par on the 72nd hole for a 70 to join Watson on 277, 11-under-par, in a championship which was a white-knuckle ride for most of an enthralling final day.
From the time that 54-hole leader Nick Watney double bogeyed the first and then ran up a triple bogey on the seventh hole, the posturing for the lead was an exhilarating ride with a list of potential winners that featured the new and the old: Johnson, Kaymer, McIlroy, Watson and Steve Elkington emerged as the main protagonists.
And, when Johnson birdied the 16th and 17th holes to move to 12-under and hold a one shot lead on the 18th tee, the title seemed to have swung his way. Oh, how we pondered on the golfing gods finding a way to give Johnson redemption for his travails in Pebble Beach. How they mocked us! For there was to be another twist in the Johnson storyline as his drive was pushed over the ropes into the massive galleries that lined the right hand side of the hole known as “Dye-abolical,” after its designer Peter Dye.
Johnson’s ball was on what appeared to be wasteland, and the spectators had to be ushered back so that he could actually line up a shot towards the green some 233 yards away. In actual fact, the waste was a bunker which had been trampled into nothing by the thousands upon thousands of footsteps which had walked on it during the week – and, having grounded his club, en route to a bogey five which he felt would get him into a play-off, Johnson was informed of his indiscretion when he went to sign his card. The 71 became a 73.
“I just thought it was a piece of dirt that the crowd had trampled down, I never thought it was in a sand trap. It never once crossed my mind,” said Johnson afterwards.
A supplementary rule of play posted in the players’ locker room prior to the championship had informed them that “all areas of the course that were designed and built as sand bunkers will be played as bunkers (hazards), whether or not they have been raked.”
So it was that Kaymer – the European Tour’s ‘rookie of the year’ in 2007 and who was winning his sixth European Tour title – and Watson, who won his maiden US Tour title in the Travelers championship last month, went into a two-man play-off over the 10th, 17th and 18th holes. As it would happen, the 18th became the decisive hole.
Watson birdied the 10th, to Kaymer’s par; and then, Kaymer birdied the 17th, to Watson’s par. All level standing on the 18th, it was effectively a sudden-death match: Kaymer drove into the right rough, and Watson followed him. However, Watson then put his approach shot into Seven Mile Creeek — and Kaymer, showing sense, simply chipped out to leave himself with a 173 yards approach to the green. Once he put that shot to 15 feet, the pressure was well and truly on Watson who had to take a penalty drop and then put his approach over the back into a bunker. He would finish up with a double bogey, and Kayer’s two-putt for bogey was sufficient to give him the title.
McIlroy’s tied-third place was his third such finish in a major in the past 12 months, having also finished third in last year’s championship at Hazeltine and the British Open at St Andrews last month. “I’ll take the positives from it. It wasn’t the result I wanted going out, but it’s a learning experience and hopefully one that I can establish myself in for the next majors,” he said.
Yet, this is a major that will be remembered for the way Dustin Johnson missed out as much as for Kaymer’s closure.
Collated final round scores & totals
(USA unless stated,
Irishin bold, par 72)
277Martin Kaymer (Ger) 72 68 67 70, Bubba Watson 68 71 70 68 (Kaymer won at three play-off hole)
278 Rory McIlroy(NIrl) 71 68 67 72, Zach Johnson 69 70 69 70
279Jason Dufner 73 66 69 71, Steve Elkington (Aus) 71 70 67 71, Dustin Johnson 71 68 67 73
280Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 71 70 68, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 72 71 64 73
281Matt Kuchar 67 69 73 72, Jason Day (Aus) 69 72 66 74
282Phil Mickelson 73 69 73 67, Paul Casey (Eng) 72 71 70 69, Bryce Molder 72 67 70 73, Simon Dyson (Eng) 71 71 68 72
283D.A. Points 70 72 70 71, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 71 71 70
284Nick Watney 69 68 66 81, Steve Stricker 72 72 68 72, Stephen Gallacher (Sco) 71 69 72 72, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 69 72 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 74 69 73, Stewart Cink 77 68 66 73
285J.B. Holmes 72 66 77 70, Jim Furyk 70 68 70 77, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 71 70 71 73, Simon Khan (Eng) 69 70 71 75
286Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 68 71 72 75, Tiger Woods 71 70 72 73, David Horsey (Eng) 72 71 69 74, Bo Van Pelt 73 67 72 74, Troy Matteson 72 72 70 72
287Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 73 71 75, Ryan Palmer 71 68 75 73, David Toms 74 71 67 75, Heath Slocum 73 72 68 74, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 70 73 73 71, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 71 72 70 74
288Brian Davis (Eng) 71 72 69 76, Adam Scott (Aus) 72 73 71 72, Hunter Mahan 74 71 68 75, Justin Leonard 73 69 73 73, Ben Crane 73 68 73 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 66 73 76, K J Choi (Kor) 74 69 71 74, Tim Clark (Rsa) 72 71 70 75, Brandt Snedeker 75 70 67 76
289Brendon De Jonge 74 66 74 75, Marc Leishman (Aus) 71 73 72 73, Shaun Micheel 73 69 76 71, Martin Laird (Sco) 70 74 72 73, Darren Clarke(NIrl) 74 70 72 73, Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor) 70 72 71 76, Charles Howell III 69 74 72 74
290Retief Goosen (Rsa) 76 68 74 72, Davis Love III 73 72 72 73, Tom Lehman 74 70 73 73
291Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 71 71 78, Kevin Na 74 71 71 75, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 70 75 76, Rickie Fowler 73 71 70 77
292Chad Campbell 70 70 78 74, Rhys Davies (Wal) 71 71 75 75, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 74 71 74 73
293Brian Gay 72 70 71 80, Ryan Moore 69 76 72 76
294DJ Trahan 72 73 74 75
295Rob Labritz 73 71 74 77, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 72 73 73 77
297Ross McGowan (Eng) 73 72 71 81
298Jeff Overton 74 71 74 79
WD:221 Ian Poulter (Eng) 72 72 77