That the PGA Championship ended on time Sunday night made us all winners. It's a saccharine and horrible cliche, but it's a miracle that we got through the third and fourth rounds at Baltusrol and doled out the Wanamaker Trophy to new champion Jimmy Walker before Monday.
The interminable Sunday started at 7 a.m., with Walker still needing to wait 40 minutes just to tee off in his third round. The entire day felt a little off from there. My colleague made the argument at the start of the week that the PGA is the best major in golf because of the finishes it delivers, providing a course setup that yields lots of birdies and dramatic Sunday leaderboard movement. We thought we would get that on Sunday, with a wet and soft golf course and the PGA making the dramatic step to put lift, clean, and place conditions in effect for the final round. That low 60s number, however, never came. No one could put much of a scare into the wire-to-wire winner ... until the final hole.
There was little indication that Walker was ready to turn in this kind of performance. His results on Tour have been middling, and his advanced statistics were nothing special. But he's a five-time winner on the PGA Tour and had sustained runs in recent years that pushed him to the top levels of the world rankings.
The wire-to-wire win, the first since Phil Mickelson did that here at Baltusrol in 2005, did not come against some dog field or slouch set of chasers. The PGA of America always ensures that the top 100 in the world get an invitation, making it the deepest major of the year. A total of 97 of the top 100 showed up this year, and the No. 1 player in the world was right there at the end pushing Walker.
Even while Walker held that lead, Jason Day emerged as the betting favorite over the weekend. He's been the best golfer on earth over the past calendar year and was the defending champion, and we were on a course that should accentuate his strengths and reward his distance advantage even more than normal. Day came close at different points this week, setting Baltusrol on fire on Friday with seven birdies in eight holes that put him in sole possession of the lead for a moment during that second round.
The Aussie could not put together any kind of streak that approached that form from Friday. He had his moments that sent the crowd into conniption but never brought the hammer down on Walker.
Then Day took it all the way to the 18th, pulling an iron off the tee on the short par-5 and then hitting, no exaggeration, one of the great 2-irons we've seen in years. This was a laser that, at the time, set up a putt that would have tied Walker.
NOT.
— PGA.COM (@PGAcom) July 31, 2016
DONE.
YET. #PGAChamp https://t.co/AypafXhCZ7
Unfortunately for Day, Walker was not opening the door behind him. He made a birdie putt just moments after that 2-iron. The crowd had not settled down up ahead, and Walker had already answered at the 17th green.
Day converted the eagle putt, sending the crowd up on 18 yet again, and Walker made things extra interesting by refusing to lay up and hitting a fairway wood into the rough right of the green.
The drama is building.
— PGA.COM (@PGAcom) July 31, 2016
Jimmy Walker misses the green on 18 with a one-shot lead. #PGAChamp https://t.co/W1RIegpoat
That birdie on the 17th ended up being the cushion he needed thanks to Day's incredible finishing eagle. Walker would get up on the green, two-putt the 18th and walk off with his one-shot win. A flat day became dramatic in the final 20 minutes, which is good enough for us after that Open Sunday spoiled everyone.
It seems the appropriate way to end a majors season which saw first-time winners take all four of the game's biggest titles. Your final results from Baltusrol:
1 -- Jimmy Walker -- -14
2 -- Jason Day -- -13
3 -- Daniel Summerhays -- -10
T4 -- Branden Grace -- -9
T4 -- Hideki Matsuyama -- -9
T4 -- Brooks Koepka -- -9
T7 -- Henrik Stenson -- -8
T7 -- Martin Kaymer -- -8
T7 -- Robert Streb -- -8
T10 -- Tyrrell Hatton -- -7
T10 -- Paul Casey -- -7
T10 -- William McGirt -- -7
T13 -- Padraig Harrington -- -6
T13 -- Webb Simpson -- -6
T13 -- Jordan Spieth -- -6
T13 -- Patrick Reed -- -6
T13 -- Emiliano Grillo -- -6
T18 -- Kevin Kisner -- -5
T18 -- John Senden -- -5
T18 -- Adam Scott -- -5
T18 -- Gregory Bourdy -- -5
T22 -- Justin Rose -- -4
T22 -- Francesco Molinari -- -4
T22 -- Kyle Reifers -- -4
T22 -- Russell Knox -- -4
T22 -- Jhonattan Vegas -- -4
T22 -- Russell Henley -- -4
T22 -- Kevin Na -- -4
T22 -- David Lingmerth -- -4
T22 -- K.J. Choi -- -4
T22 -- Louis Oosthuizen -- -4
T22 -- Billy Hurley III -- -4
T33 -- Joost Luiten -- -3
T33 -- Phil Mickelson -- -3
T33 -- Vaughn Taylor -- -3
T33 -- Soren Kjeldsen -- -3
T33 -- Jon Curran -- -3
T33 -- Hideto Tanihara -- -3
T33 -- Zach Johnson -- -3
T33 -- Yuta Ikeda -- -3
T33 -- Rickie Fowler -- -3
T42 -- Charl Schwartzel -- -2
T42 -- Ryan Palmer -- -2
T42 -- Keegan Bradley -- -2
T42 -- Ross Fisher -- -2
T42 -- Steve Stricker -- -2
T42 -- Scott Hend -- -2
T42 -- Jamie Donaldson -- -2
T49 -- Rafa Cabrera-Bello -- -1
T49 -- Jason Kokrak -- -1
T49 -- Patton Kizzire -- -1
T49 -- Matthew Fitzpatrick -- -1
T49 -- Aaron Baddeley -- -1
T49 -- Andy Sullivan -- -1
T49 -- Alex Noren -- -1
T56 -- Bill Haas -- E
T56 -- Brandt Snedeker -- E
T56 -- Young-han Song -- E
T56 -- Danny Lee -- E
T60 -- Jason Dufner -- 1
T60 -- Bubba Watson -- 1
T60 -- Marc Leishman -- 1
T60 -- George Coetzee -- 1
T60 -- Andrew Johnston -- 1
T60 -- Harris English -- 1
T66 -- Roberto Castro -- 2
T66 -- Ernie Els -- 2
T66 -- Kiradech Aphibarnrat -- 2
T66 -- Justin Thomas -- 2
T70 -- Colt Knost -- 3
T70 -- James Hahn -- 3
T70 -- Ryan Moore -- 3
T73 -- Freddie Jacobson -- 4
T73 -- Thongchai Jaidee -- 4
T73 -- Jim Furyk -- 4
T73 -- Rich Beem -- 4
T73 -- Daniel Berger -- 4
T73 -- Marcus Fraser -- 4
T79 -- Matt Jones -- 5
T79 -- Billy Horschel -- 5
T79 -- Danny Willett -- 5
T79 -- Brian Stuard -- 5
T79 -- Bradley Dredge -- 5
84 -- Cameron Tringale -- 6
85 -- Lee Westwood -- 7
86 -- Thomas Pieters -- 10