Xander Schauffele has won the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky. File photo. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
American Xander Schauffele birdied the final hole to win the PGA Championship by one shot over LIV Golf's Bryson DeChambeau at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, to claim his first major title.
Schauffele put the finishing touches on a wire-to-wire victory at the year's second major, with a closing six-under-par 65 that left him at 21 under on the week.
Needing a closing birdie for the win, Schauffele's tee shot at the 18th perched up on the edge of a fairway bunker and forced him to take a compromised stance inside the hazard for his second shot, which he left just in front of the green.
Schauffele then displayed nerves of steel as he chipped to six feet from where he drained the biggest birdie of his career for the lowest winning score to par at a major championship.
"I was kinda emotional after the putt lipped in. It's been a while since I have won," a relieved Schauffele said.
"I kept saying all week, 'I just need to stay in my lane,' and man was it hard to stay in my lane today. I tried all day to just keep focused on what I am trying to do and keep every hole ahead of me."
Schauffele has a reputation for patience, but said: "I think I would probably be less of a patient person if that putt did not lip in. I really didn't want to go into a playoff against Bryson... It would have been a lot of work.
"I just told myself that is my opportunity, just capture it."
Schauffele said he had rung his father in Hawaii straight after his win.
"I had to hang up pretty quickly because he started to make me cry. He was sitting on the phone, bawling."
- Reuters / RNZ
