What just happened at the PGA?

The PGA Championship was completed today/last night depending where in the world you were watching it, with 25 year old German, Martin Kaymer (pictured right) claiming the Wanamaker Trophy with a total score of 277 (11 under par), outlasting Bubba Watson in a playoff. Mired in controversy was American Dustin Johnson, who was penalised two shots on the 72nd hole for grounding his club in a whisker of sand.


If you were unaware what happened, Johnson, tied for the lead heading down the final hole, skewed his tee shot well right of the fairway (Johnson, pictured left in the 'bunker' preparing to hit his second shot). Lining up to hit his second shot from a sandy lie in the rough (or so we thought), Johnson grounded his 4 iron into the soft turf, before hitting his shot. Although having been treated as a walkway by the patrons the entire week, rules officials claimed that it was in fact a bunker, and a two shot penalty was incurred. With over 1000 bunkers on the course at Whistling Straights, you wonder if you are allowed to ground your putter on the greens or are they classed as bunkers also?

Although many people are rating this PGA Championship as one of the greatest of all time, simply because of the young upstarts who produced some pretty fine golf, many people are glossing over the fact that only one of the top 10 players in the world were in contention on the final day (Martin Kaymer jumped from 13th to 5th in the World Rankings with the win). Even in young Rory McIlroy who was the only top 10 ranked golfer on the leader board, he is still not a household name.

There were many subplots to this championship with the main one being whether Phil Mickelson would be able to claim the number one ranking. With the need to finish in the top 4, Mickelson started the day in a T-48th and with a final round 67 jolting him up 36 places into a T-12th, Mickelson would’ve needed a final round 62 to achieve the number one ranking.

With the final major having taken place and your major winners for the year being Mickelson (US Masters), Graham McDowell (US Open), Louis Oosthuizen (British Open) (who by the way is having a fantastic season), and finally Kaymer with the PGA Championship. Four different winners, and now we have the pleasure of the Ryder Cup to look forward to starting in October.

As a final note, I realised i’ve just written a whole article on golf without mentioning his name...