TULSA, Okla. – The dominant storyline before the PGA Championship 2022 revolves around Phil Mickelson, who became the oldest grand champion last year when he won the event at the age of 50, but chose not to defend his title. The focus of the tournament then shifted to Tiger Woods, 46, who arrived at the Southern Hills Country Club to resume his exciting return from injuries sustained in a horrific car crash 15 months ago. But Woods struggled physically and sank last three rounds, retiring before Sunday’s final round.
What developed instead on the last day of the PGA Championship was a look at the youthful future of elite men’s golf, not its aging past. In a nervous, upside-down afternoon in eastern Oklahoma, there was another dramatic battle between the dazzling, stubborn 20-year-olds ahead of the game.
In a tense three-hole playoff game after a 18-hole fourth round ended in a draw, 29-year-old Justin Thomas overtook 25-year-old rising star Will Zalatoris to win his second PGA Championship. The last four winners of the big golf championship, Thomas; Scotty Scheffler, at the Masters; Colin Morikawa, at the British Open; and John Ram, the reigning US Open champion, are 20 years old.
Even in defeat, Zalatoris laughed briefly as he assessed how his generation had become dominant so quickly.
“Sometimes I have to check myself because I feel like I’m playing junior and college golf at first,” said Zalaris, referring to longtime rivals Scheffler, Thomas and Mito Pereira, 27, who have held the lead most of the time. the fourth round. “We’ve been playing together for almost 10 years. We are now at the highest level of golf. ”
Thomas, who started the last round with seven strokes from the lead, did not think he was celebrating victory after his first eight holes on Sunday, when he was one above the face value. His rally from the last round was tied for the third largest return in the history of the big championship.
“It was a strange day, no doubt,” said Thomas, who also won the 2017 PGA Championship.
Pereira, the leader in the third round, seemed ready to become the first Chilean golfer to win a major golf championship. He advanced to the 18th on Sunday night, played in the final group and needed only money to win the title.
But Pereira, who is only playing in his second major championship, cut his shot into a small river near the fairway. After a penalty kick from the water, Pereira’s approaching blow found the thick rough to green. His chip from there moved far through the green until it stopped at the edge on the opposite side of the green. Pereira made a double god and ended in a draw for third place with American Cameron Young, a teammate from Zalatoris College, when they were in Wake Forest.
“It’s such a stressful situation,” Pereira said of the atmosphere on the 18th. “But I didn’t feel more nervous than the other pictures today. I didn’t even think about water. But, you know, I wish I could do it again. “
The playoffs ended a series of 19 consecutive major tournaments dating back to the 2017 Masters, which required no additional holes to decide the outcome.
Thomas and Zalatoris started the playoffs with birds on the first hole, the 13th. On the accessible par-4, the 17th hole in 302 yards, Thomas scored the green and had a long shot for the eagle, which turned out to be 3 feet shorter. Zalatoris’ drive on the 17th hole was just out of the green, and his flop stopped 8 feet from the hole. His bird blow slides past the hole and Zalatoris hits for face value.
With a chance to take advantage, Thomas slammed into his shot with one shot and headed for the third playoff hole, the 18th.
Both golfers reached the 18th green with two strokes. Zalatoris could not cover up a shot, and Thomas only needed two strokes for a draw to win the championship.
For Zalatoris, this was his last close call to the major. He finished second at last year’s Masters and was sixth at last month’s event. He was eighth in the PGA Championship 2021 and sixth in the US Open 2020.
But on Sunday, Zalatoris, after an equal nine, was hampered by a poor set-up that plagued him throughout the season. He overcame the 12th and 16th holes, but stood up, draining an 8-foot bird path on the 17th hole. He also dipped a 10-foot shot to save the face value of the last hole, to shoot 71 for the last round and finish at five below face value overall. At the time, however, that didn’t seem to be enough to catch Pereira.
Thomas probably ended his round with the same feeling. After a rough start to the day, he played the ninth hole and had a tie on the 10th. Thomas then struck a 64-foot shot from right up to the 11th hole for another bird. On par-4 12th he sank an 18-foot bird strike. Thomas missed successive guided bird strikes on the 13th and 14th holes, but then fired from the green bunker at par-4 17th hole up to 3 feet away, a distance he successfully negotiated for his fifth bird of the day. That would put him within one shot of Pereira with a play hole. Brilliant driving and a bold approach to the raised 18th green stopped 11 feet behind the hole, but Thomas’ shot slid past the right end for a draw.
“I was very calm in the playoffs and very calm in the last holes before the playoffs, which helped a lot,” said Thomas. “I was nervous, but it was a different kind of nervousness, which may come with experience. It was different from how I felt trying to win my first major in 2017. Whatever it was, I felt right.
“To perform some of these difficult blows when you really need to, it was a shiver all over your body.”
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