With some gritty play and two clutch putts, Martin Kaymer of Germany took home the Wanamaker Trophy at the 92nd PGA at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin. Kaymer, 25, sank a huge 15 foot par putt on the 18th to tie Bubba Watson in the clubhouse at -11. Watson shot 68 on the day and played tremendous golf. After Kaymer’s birdie, controversy ensued.
Dustin Johnson took the lead at -12 with a birdie on 17. He looked primed for his first major after a near miss at the U.S. Open. Then he drove his ball far right on 18. He hit his second shot out of the sand in the rough into the rough behind the green. He chipped up and missed his par put and was in a playoff with the other two. So we thought. The PGA official ruled the sand he was in was a sand trap and he was penalized two shots and out of the playoff. That was a tough call, but the rules were spelled out explicitly for the players. It was hard to tell if that was a trap or not but the rules about sand traps had been posted in the golfers’ locker room and on the first tee. All sand in areas that had even been roped off were considered sand. That was hard to recognize as a trap, but Dustin grounded his club thus absorbing a two shot penalty. Hard for Dustin to take but I thought he handled it with a lot of class when he talked to David Feherty of CBS afterwards. I feel bad for Dustin, but at 26, he’ll be in the hunt for some more majors again. That should happen.
Kaymer birdied 17, the second playoff hole, on a clutch 15-footer again, to pull even with Bubba after Bubba had birdied 16 to go one up. On 18, both players hit their drives right. Bubba gambled and lost, going for the green out of the rough and hitting it in the creek in front of the green. Kaymer played it safe and chipped out. With a 173 yard shot, Kaymer hit a seven iron 20 feet away. Bubba almost forced Kaymer to make it with a chip in from the sand but the ball hit the flag stick and rolled off a couple of feet. Kaymer two-putted for the win and the $1.3 million dollar winner’s check and a spot in history.
Bubba’s gamble was not a good move given that Kaymer probably couldn’t have reached the green either on his second shot and they would have both been hitting three all even. Bubba said that’s the way he plays. “I play to win.”
Sometimes that works like when Phil did it on 15 at Augusta, but sometimes it costs you. I think Bubba would have made a better play just chipping out and taking his chances hitting three into the green.
Bubba qualified for the Ryder Cup team as he was one of the top eight automatic selections along with Phil, Hunter Mahan, Furyk, Steve Stricker, Dustin, Jeff Overton (who played his round in 2 hrs 7 minutes yesterday) and Matt Kuchar. The four next guys are Anthony Kim, Lucas Glover, Zach Johnson and Tiger. I think three of those four should go and that includes Tiger. Glover hasn’t played that well. I’d like to see J.B. Holmes get the fourth pick instead of Glover. He’s a great competitor and played awesome in the ’08 Ryder Cup at Valhalla.
Kaymer now looks like a guy who can win multiple majors. You never know, but he, Rory McIlroy, Bubba, Dustin, Graeme McDowell along with Louis Oosthuizen (possibly) could be the future of golf. Those guys still have some proving to do, but the talent amongst those guys is unlimited, particularly McIlroy. I’ve never seen such good balance when he hits the ball. He doesn’t seem to hit a bad shot. If he had made some putts yesterday he could have been hoisting the trophy. Still can’t count out Tiger. Not with his talent and his typical work ethic. He’ll get back in there. Can he dominate? Not sure. He has a lot of work to do.
Anyway, another awesome major. They’re always good, but this one was special.
(Martin Kaymer pictured above, wins PGA at 25 years old)