U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer has won the PGA Grand Slam by beating Masters winner Bubba Watson of the U.S. on the first playoff hole after a long and startling day in Bermuda, as a Category 4 hurricane was expected to arrive imminently.
Kaymer let a three-stroke lead slip on a couple of occasions before winning in a playoff against time against Watson, with the threat of Hurricane Gonzalo hanging over the Caribbean island. Watson took a two-stroke lead into the par-3 16th hole by holing a birdie, with Kaymer counting a bogey on his card.
The German responded with a good hit on the par 5 17th, where Watson returned the favor with a bogey. Then, they counted pars on the 18th for Kaymer to count 71 and Watson 69. Thus, the equality at the end of the 36 holes led Kaymer and Watson to an extra series that went in favor of the European.
The winner of the British Open and the PGA Championship, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, closed with a card of 75 strokes to finish eight strokes behind, while American Jim Furyk, who was invited this time, had a 73 and finished fourth.
The 32nd edition of this PGA Grand Slam of Golf ended just after the hour, when heavy clouds appeared on the horizon as an announcement of what will be the passage of one of the last hurricanes of the season in the Caribbean in the coming hours. In the playoff, Watson missed a 4-foot putt for birdie, which gave Kaymer the win after the German scored his birdie from 6 feet a few seconds earlier.
“It was a good competition, it was very good,” commented Kaymer. “Of course, I would have liked to win without a playoff, but of course I keep this memory as the winner,” the German noted.
“I thought I hit a good putt,” lamented Watson. “I think the wind and a drop I wasn’t expecting doomed me. It was one of those things that happens in golf and I can’t do anything but congratulate Martin,” he said.
The weather-hurried final round had ups and downs, with these two players alternating first place. Kaymer led by 3 over Watson after the first seven holes but the American held on to match him three holes later. Then, the German again pulled within one over the next three holes, but one hole later they were even and one hole later it was Watson who was in front.
Wednesday’s was a new chapter between these two players who have faced each other on several occasions in the recent past. Kaymer holed from off the green for eagle on the 16th hole at Gleneagles to beat Watson in the Ryder Cup nearly three weeks ago. They also met in the final round of the PGA Championship in 2010 at Whistling Straits, which Kaymer won on the last hole after Watson sent it into the water.
But the stress of a strong finish to the tournament did not end when the title was clinched. With Hurricane Gonzalo approaching, the PGA of America chartered a plane to evacuate its entire crew off the island. Organizers made sure that the four players could have their flights before the Category 4 hurricane, which is expected to hit the island late next Thursday, arrived.
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