PGA Championship 2015: Whistling Straits last time around
It is not often that the player who tied for ï¬fth is remembered more than the eventual champion.
Earlier that year Dustin Johnson blew a three-shot lead at the US Open with an error strewn 82. He came to the 72nd hole here with a one-shot lead and then flailed a drive into a patch of sand where the gallery had been walking all week. The shot should have been treated like a bunker shot – but it wasn’t. Johnson grounded his club and incurred a fatal two-shot penalty.
“The only worse thing that could have happened was if I had made the putt on that last hole,” he said.
Seven players held a share of the Sunday lead and it was left to Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson to put the ï¬nishing touches to a cracking week.
PGA Championship 2015: How Jim Barnes won the very first PGA
Here is a timeline of events as they unfolded that day.
Sun 19.50 Nick Watney begins the day with a three-shot lead. By the time he has doubled the 1st he is level with Dustin Johnson
20.04 The first big move as Bubba Watson makes an eagle at the 5th, he’s now one of eight players within two of the lead
21.20 Watney’s race is run as he finds the water at the 6th en route to a treble. The overnight leader finishes T18 after a closing 81
21.47 As the final group turn: Kaymer -11, Elkington -10, Watson -9, Dufner -9, Z Johnson -9, Rory -9, D Johnson -9
22.53 Rory, still only 21, finally makes a putt at the 14th, from three feet. He gets to one behind Kaymer and Elkington
23.22 Bubba pars 18 to finish at -11, a bogey at 17 one of just two bogeys. Elkington comes up short with a bogey-bogey finish
23.49 Kaymer makes the clutch putt of the week at 18, the hardest hole on the course, a 15-footer for par to tie Bubba
23.56 Rory needs a birdie to tie but, after a brilliant, approach, just misses the putt. Dustin birdies 16 and 17 and needs a par to win…
00.01 DJ smashes his drive into the crowd and then hoists an iron long and right from a sandy lie. Has a seven-footer to win
00.07 Johnson misses and is told by an official on the 18th green that he might have grounded his club with his second shot
00.15 ’All sand on the course is in a bunker’ and Johnson’s bogey turns into a seven. He goes from a play-off to a tie for 5th
00.36 Tournament director explains the ruling was posted on the mirrors in the locker room and that Johnson had no excuse
00.40 Bubba strikes at the first of three play-off holes. A long drive sets up a straightforward chip and a putt. Kaymer pars
00.52 Kaymer hits back with a brilliant two at the long par-3 17th. All square with one to play and back to the tricky 18th
00.59 Bubba takes on the green from the rough and finds the creek. Kaymer chips out and finds the green
01.12 Bubba hits the flag from the sand, takes six and Kaymer taps in for a five and his first Major. Strange old week…
