Kaymer Claims PGA on Compelling Final Day

Martin Kaymer is the 2010 PGA Championship winner, surviving a three-hole playoff against Bubba Watson to become just the second golfer from Germany to win a major.

It was a long, strange final day at Whistling Straits, a course whose many idiosyncracies wound up playing a role in the outcome of the tournament.

Nick Watney, who took a 3-stroke lead into the final round, double-bogied the first hole, a few holes later triple-bogied, and wound up shooting 81. That's one stroke less than Watney's partner in the final pairing, Dustin Johnson, shot when he was in final-round contention at the 2010 U.S. Open. Despite that history, and despite watching firsthand Watney's blow-up, Johnson kept himself alive all day.

There was 47-year-old Steve Elkington, who seemingly hadn't been in contention since the Eisenhower administration, tying the lead late but letting several good opportunities slip by, and then bogeying the 17th.

There was 21-year-old Rory McIlroy, hitting wild shots early but scrambling to keep himself in it, before misplaying the par-5 16th.

There were Kaymer and Watson and Johnson, Kaymer playing steady much of the day; Watson and Johnson bombing and gouging their way to the top of the leaderboard.

Kaymer and Watson got into the clubhouse at 11-under and waited on Johnson to finish. Johnson birdied the 16th and 17th holes to get to 12-under and had the tournament in his hands on the 72nd hole.

But his drive went wild right, he played over the green, hit a great chip but a bad putt, and bogied to drop back to 11-under. Three-way tie, three-way playoff, right? Wrong. Remember what we said about the idiosyncracies of Whistling Straits coming into play? It turns out that Johnson's drive on the 18th was so far right that he managed to find himself in a bunker without recognizing it as a bunker. That's because the bunker he was in was outside the ropes, with fans walking through it all week, with fans in it and around it even as he played from it.

But because Johnson didn't recognize that he was in a bunker, he also didn't remember not to ground his club. Ground your club in a bunker and it's a 2-stroke penalty. That's what Johnson was assessed, dropping him out of the playoff.

That's a shame for Johnson, of course, but also for Kaymer, whose victory will in some ways be overshadowed by the controversy.

But win the playoff Kaymer did, making a great birdie putt on the second extra hole to tie Watson. Then, after Watson's approach to the third playoff green (Whistling Strait's 18th) found water, Kaymer chipped his ball forward out of rough rather than risk his own shot over water. He played for five and got a five, and when Watson's blast out of a back bunker hit the flagstick but stayed out, Kaymer had the Wanamaker Trophy in his hands.

Kaymer is still a youngster at age 25, and he's one of those players about whom other players and golf media start saying, "Keep your eyes on this guy, he's going to be a star." And many times, those guys never become stars. They wind up at age 35 with just a win here and a close second there.

But Kaymer is now a major champion, surviving the fog delays and 30-hole days, surviving the playoff, and surviving Whistling Straits.