When American Jimmy Walker held off Australian Jason Day for a thrilling one-shot victory at the PGA Championship on Sunday, it marked a rare year when previous major winners who were among the favourites found themselves overshadowed by other players who had never before landed a big one.
Five of the six majors played before the 2016 season began were accounted for by the formidable troika of Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy or Jason Day, but they failed to repeat their heroics in 2016 thus ensuring that there was plenty of suspense and novelty.
On Sunday, 37-year-old Texan Walker showed he had what it takes by holding up over 36 holes over the sopping wet Baltusrol course on the final day for a one-shot win over world number one and defending champion Day.
He thus joined Masters winner Danny Willett, US Open champion Dustin Johnson and British Open victor Henrik Stenson in the history books as players who broke through this season with a big one in their bags.
“I felt confident. I felt confident in myself. I felt confident in what I was doing. Felt confident in my golf swing, my putting, my chipping,” said Walker, who had missed four cuts from his last eight events but found something “clicked” over the last nine holes of last week’s Canadian Open. “Kind of tried to wrap myself around that; that everything was feeling good, and to go with that and trust what I was doing. Trust all the stuff that I have been working on, and that’s what I tried to apply out there.”
The biggest test awaited on the par-five 18th. Australian Day made eagle to cut Walker’s three-shot lead to one, requiring him to make par for victory.
Walker may have turned into an unexpected champion but it also came from unorthodox pairings on Sunday, too.
Torrential weather on Saturday forced the leading groups to play their third round on Sunday morning. Tournament organisers decided to maintain those same pairings for the final round to ensure the tournament did not stretch to Monday.
The marathon final day meant the duo battled it out a hole apart. So instead of watching Walker from the green, Day had to watch from the scorer’s tent as Walker held his nerve to save par and win his maiden major at 37.
When golfers were gearing up for the year’s first major— the Masters in April — nobody would have envisioned McIlroy, Day or Spieth going without a major title this year.
But first-time major winners bring great stories to the game, and even if they fail to live up to expectations in the future, they become part of the great collection of golfing folklore. The game can only be richer for that.