Jason Day holds off Jordan Spieth to win PGA Championship

Day is the fifth Australian to win the PGA title and the 12th to win a major championship — the first since Adam Scott in the 2013 Masters.

A year of major heartache ended with Jason Day breaking through in a major way Sunday at the PGA Championship.

In 2011 a surging Charl Schwartzel denied him at the Masters before his fourth major start at the US Open saw him unable to catch Rory McIlroy.

Day reached 20-under for good with a two-putt birdie from the fringe at the par-five 16th.

His final birdie of the day was huge.

“I didn’t expect I was going to cry”, Day said.

Asked on Saturday night what he needed to do differently, Day had replied, “I think the hardest thing for a player is, when they’re trying to close, they get in their own way”. “There’s been such awesome golfers, especially throughout the history of golf, our sport, and to have that record just goes to show the work I’ve put in is paying off”. He bit his lower lip, swatted his caddie on the arm, knowing his work was nearly done.

” It’s been a long-time relationship between me and Colin”, Day said after a record 20-under-par total at Whistling Straits gave him a three-shot win over new world number one Jordan Spieth. “But if those silly mistakes weren’t in there, you never know what would have been at the finish”. No one ever questioned his ability, only the trophies. With a share of the lead at the U.S. Open and British Open, he had to watch someone else celebrate.

“It’s been a long-time relationship between me and Colin”, Day said at his news conference.

“I learned a lot about myself, again, being able to finish the way I did. He wailed on it. It was a stripe show”.

Spieth has the greatest consolation possible.

The golf superstar achieved his second-place finish Sunday wearing the UA Drive One, which features a predominantly white upper with hints of gray and black, and a white outsole.

“He’s taken me from a kid who was getting in fights and getting drunk at 12 and not heading in the right direction to a major victor”, Day said.

The boy went off the rails after Alvin’s death, falling in with the wrong crowd, missing the school and hitting the bottle, in his words, “to ridiculous levels for a kid”. The only final round higher in the last five years was last year’s dramatic tournament won by Rory McIlroy in primetime (6.0/13).

Even if he skips it, he says he’ll play more golf in 2015 – overseas and in some end-of-season events. It was acknowledgement that he was throwing everything he could at Day, and both men understood it wasn’t going to phase him.

“If my dad didn’t pass away, I don’t think I would have been in a good spot”, he said. McIlroy motivated to get it back will make it even better. Maybe the 3-wood he smoked on the 72nd hole at Chambers Bay to set up a birdie that won the U.S. Open? He was hoping for a miss, a double bogey, anything to rattle him.

Starting with a two-shot lead over his final round playing partner, Day was always in command after starting with four birdies in his first seven holes. He closed with a 70 and finished fourth.

When Jordan Spieth lifted his thumb in Jason Day’s direction after Day rolled a 55-foot putt less than a foot from the hole on the 17th green yesterday at Whistling Straits to ensure another par, Day’s weeklong battle with Spieth to lay claim to the 97th PGA Championship was over.