2012 PGA Championship: Rory McIlroy Laps The Field To Win

Count Carl Pettersson among the majority of golfers, professional and casual, who would like to rewrite the Rules of Golf -- or at least one in particular. Co-leader of the PGA Championship midway through, Pettersson incurred a two-stroke penalty on the first hole of the final round on the Ocean Course when he inadvertently displaced a leaf on his backswing while hitting from a hazard.

“We have a lot of stupid rules in golf,” Pettersson, who had no idea his swing had any impact on a leaf, told reporters after signing for a final-round 2-over 72.

Rory McIlroy cruised to an easy win at the 2012 PGA Championship, lapping the field and finishing at 13-under for the tournament. With the win, McIlroy earned a seven-figure payday, nearly doubling up the prize money for second place. Everyone in the top-18 earned six-figures, but the real winner was McIlroy, both in an earnings sense and a literal one.

After a solid first two days, Noted Golf Enthusiast Tiger Woods finished well off the pace, ending his tournament at 2-under. He struggled throughout the weekend, finishing in a tie for 11th place with a whole host of people, 11 shots off the pace.

Rory McIlroy blew away the rest of the field on Sunday afternoon, winning the 2012 PGA Championship with one of the more impressive major performances in some time. The Northern Ireland native ended up beating the rest of the field by eight strokes, earning his second major victory -- and the honor of being the world’s top-ranked golfer -- at the young age of 23.

McIlroy finished 13-under on Sunday while making his way around the course at Kiawah Island Resort. He made six birdies en route to breaking a 1980 Jack Nicklaus record of finishing seven strokes ahead of his closest competition over the course of the four-day tournament. It’s interesting, by the way, that McIlroy finished with the same margin of victory in his other major victory at the 2011 US Open.

The 2012 PGA Championship has just two holes left and, provided there’s not some sort of monumentally-epic collapse, Rory McIlroy will be the winner. Despite shooting a 75 on Friday, the Northern Ireland native finished the 16th hole with another birdie to extend himself a seven-stroke advantage over the rest of the leaderboard.

If McIlroy is able to stay seven strokes ahead of Englishman David Lynn, the golfer currently in second place as he headed to the clubhouse at five-under par, he’ll tie Jack Nicklaus for the largest margin of victory in the history of the PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy isn’t doing his part in keeping Sunday afternoon’s final round at the 2012 PGA Championship exciting, as he continues to blow the rest of the competition out of the water. McIlroy tied for third place in 2009 and 2010 in the same tournament, but looks destined for a first place finish in this year’s event.

McIlroy parred the 13th and 14th holes on Sunday to stay at 11-under through the four rounds of the tournament. He’s yet to finish a hole during the final round with anything but either a birdie or a par, steering clear from any bogeys with just four holes left in the tournament.

Rory McIlroy continues to hold a multi-shot cushion at the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. McIlroy picked up birdies when he had to, posting red numbers at the gettable second and third holes. The lead was then extended on one of the later birdie holes on the front side, the par-5 7th. McIlroy put his second shot on the green and lagged a beautiful eagle putt to within a foot, setting up the tap-in birdie. With a four-shot lead, the young superstar is generally playing things safe -- simply putting approaches on the greens and not taking aggressive aim at the sticks.

The one early challenger to McIlroy was Englishman Ian Poulter. He started his round red hot, with birdies on six of his first seven holes. But the putter went awry on the seventh when he aggressively hammered a five-footer and missed the cup completely on the low side. The bogey dropped him to 6-under for the championship.

The final groups are now on the course as the Sunday push for the season’s final major commences. The first four holes at The Ocean Course are absolutely critical for anyone who hopes to contend at the PGA Championship. After a rough start to his third round on Saturday, Tiger Woods held on for a 2-under back nine in his third round. But he still finished the third round five shots back of leader Rory McIlroy, coming in Sunday morning at 2-under.

This made that final round start all the more critical, even with Woods professing that he would stick to his game plan and not try to get overly aggressive on a particularly penal layout. He began the round with a par on the easier par-4 but took advantage of the par-5 second hole. It’s hard to say that a player’s chances hinge on just one hole so early on, but if Woods wanted to have any chance coming down the stretch, he had to get a birdie on the easy par-5. It was almost better than birdie, however, as Woods stuck his second shot hole high on the green and burned the edge with his eagle putt.

The Sunday final round is under way at Kiawah Island, with the PGA of America utilizing split tees in the hopes of wrapping up a long day of golf and hand out the Wanamaker Trophy around 7 p.m. ET.

Sunday afternoon should provide favorable scoring conditions at The Ocean Course, which has dramatic swings in degree of difficulty depending on the weather and the wind. The wind is relatively down and the greens should be soft and receptive after Mother Nature dumped another rainstorm on Kiawah Saturday afternoon.

Rory McIlroy holds a three-stroke lead over Carl Pettersson entering the final round Sunday at the 2012 PGA Championship. It’s no surprise, then, that he is the overwhelming favorite to win the whole tournament. McIlroy was given 4/7 odds by Bovada with the round set to begin just before noon on the East coast.

Tiger Woods has a lot of ground to make up at five shots off the lead, but bettors are still relatively confident that he can challenge McIlory before the end of the day. He was given 6/1 odds, compared to 10/1 for Pettersson.

The third round of the 2012 PGA Championship wrapped up Sunday morning after inclement weather suspended play at Ocean Course on Kiawah Island in South Carolina. Rory McIlroy is alone atop the leaderboard at 7-under overall after shooting 5-under in the third round. Carl Pettersson is in second place, but three shots back at 4-under overall. Tiger Woods shot plus-4 on the front nine alone, and is currently five shots off the lead in a four-way tie for sixth.

The first golfers will tee off for the final round at 11:44 a.m. ET. The leaders will start later.

When you pluck your golf ball from the crook of a tree limb and still par the hole, you pretty much know it’s going to be a good day.

“I’m just glad I didn’t try and play that ball from the tree,” co-leader Rory McIlroy told reporters with a laugh after finishing nine holes on Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course with a 4-under 32 in Saturday’s third round that was cut short by threatening weather.