German Martin Kaymer wins PGA for first major

KOHLER, WIS. – It's the PGA Championship that will be remembered as much for the player who didn't get into the three-hole playoff as the two who did. Or maybe even more. But that's not Martin Kaymer's fault. Yesterday, at Whistling Straits, he closed with a 2-under-par 70 that was punctuated by a 15-foot par putt on the 72nd hole. Then he came back from one shot down after the first extra hole, first with a tying birdie on No. 17 and finally a two-putt bogey at the 18th. That gave him a 1-stroke victory over Bubba Watson and his first major.

So, two decades from now, what else will really matter?

"I was very calm, very confident," said the 25-year-old German, who joins Bernhard Langer (Masters in 1985 and '93) as the only men from that country to have won grand slam events. "It's amazing . . . I don't really know [how it will be received at home]. For me, at the moment, I don't realize what just happened. I've got goosebumps just talking about it."

It was a day in which six different guys held at least a piece of the lead. It would have been a three-way playoff, except that Dustin Johnson, who'd just birdied 16 and 17 to go up by one, closed with a bogey that became a triple-bogey after he had to add two strokes to his score for grounding his club in a bunker just before hitting his second shot.

So it came down to Kaymer and the ridiculously long-hitting Watson, who carded a final-round 68 playing in the sixth-to-last twosome. Kaymer, who would make just three bogeys in his final 57 holes, was three groups behind. Watson started the playoff with a birdie at No. 10. Following a par, he hit his second shot from the right rough at 18 into the water fronting the green. The best he could do from there was a double-bogey, although he did nearly hole his fifth shot from the back sand trap. That allowed Kaymer, who also drove into the rough, to play safe. He chipped out to the fairway, knocked his approach to about 15 feet and got down in two comfortably from there to put his name on the Wanamaker Trophy.

It's the second time in 3 years that only one major went to an American, that being Phil Mickelson at the Masters.

Kaymer becomes the third straight non-American to win this thing. The only other time that happened was almost a century ago.

It's also the second time in two PGAs here that it went to a playoff. In 2004, Vijay Singh beat Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco.

Kaymer also becomes the sixth first-time major winner in the last seven, with Lefty being the exception. Maybe we should have seen this coming. He finished eighth at the U.S. Open in June, and seventh at the British Open last month.

Still, that's what can happen to the sport when Tiger Woods and his game go on hiatus.

Anyway, it's the first win in America for Kaymer, a five-time champion on the European Tour. It earns him $1.35 million and a spot in October's Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda. You can never have enough perks.

Watson, who got his first PGA Tour win in June, didn't seem too upset by the ending. He moved up from 18th to third in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings, which means he'll be playing in this October's biennial matches for the first time. Not a terrible consolation prize.

"I made a bad swing," he said. "Winning would have been great, but [making the American squad] was all that mattered to me. That's all I care about . . .

"It was a weird day, obviously. You know, I wasn't on anybody's radar this morning. And I got a chance. I just put my head down and played about as good of golf as I could and tried to grind out a good finish.

"It's very heartbreaking to hear about Dustin Johnson. That's upsetting. He just made a mistake. I feel for him. It didn't seem right."

Nick Watney was ahead by three after 54 holes, the only one in the field with three rounds in the 60s. But like Johnson at the U.S. Open, he ballooned to an 81 and a tie for 18th. Jim Furyk was one out of the top spot through seven but went 7-over the rest of the way.

Zach Johnson (70) missed the playoff by one. So did Rory McIlroy (72), coming off a third at the British, who had as many chances as anyone. But his putter let him down. Steve Elkington bogeyed the last two holes for a 71 to finish two back with Jason Duffner (71) and Johnson (73). Elkington, who won the 1995 PGA at Riviera but hasn't won anything in 11 years, at 47 was trying to become the second-oldest major winner ever behind Julias Boros, who was 48 when he took the 1968 PGA. Elk was ranked No. 300 in the world. Since the rankings came into being in the mid 1980s, only Ben Curtis (2003 British) had won a major with a lower number.

A lot of guys were in position to be the last one standing. Only Kaymer got it done.

"I just wanted to give myself a chance to win," he insisted. "That's all I wanted to do. I was trying to avoid looking at the leaderboard on the front nine. When I [finally] did, I said to my caddy, 'That's the first time I've led a major in my career. It's a pretty good feeling.' "

And even better when you're still there when it counts.

"I just tried to play golf," Kaymer continued. "I was trying to enjoy the atmosphere out there. I was just trying to avoid stupid mistakes. If I kept giving myself a chance at birdie, the worst I was going to do was [make] par. I told myself that I can't influence the other guys. I can only take care of my own game. That was the most important thing I carried around all day . . .

"It's a very nice feeling to have a [gimme] putt like that to win. I should really have thought about that moment, but I knew I wasn't going to miss."

Of all the things that transpired by the shores of Lake Michigan, it was one of the few that made sense. *