PGA Championship 2015: Leaderboard, live coverage, results and more from Sunday’s final round

Sunday’s final-round match between Jason Day and Jordan Spieth at Whistling Straits was golf’s version of a heavyweight bout and it even had some muscle-flexing from the eventual winner.

For sure, every time Day seemed to deliver the knockout punch, Spieth would get up off the canvas and jab right back. There was one particular moment, though, when Spieth realized he was likely not going to catch his rival, who never gave up the lead he had coming into Sunday’s finale.

Tiger Woods had long since left the scene and Rory McIlroy had lost his perch atop the world rankings. However, the formerly top-ranked golfers recognized the history that Jason Day and Jordan Spieth made on Sunday at Whistling Straits, acknowledging both the new record-setting PGA champion and world No. 1.

Day, who won his first title by breaking Woods’ major scoring record with the best score relative to par (20-under to Tiger’s 19-under), counts Woods as a good friend. The feeling is obviously mutual, since congratulatory tweets from Tiger, who missed his third straight major cut on Friday, are not exactly plentiful.

HAVEN, Wis.-- I watched Jason Day the most out of anyone at Whistling Straits this week. Day was paired with Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler the first two days, so it was easy to convince myself to follow that group. On Sunday, I spent the afternoon following Day and Jordan Spieth around the course as they pushed each other in a two-man race for the Wanamaker Trophy.

Day was able to hold off the best competition in the world and win by three strokes to secure his first major victory at a record-breaking 20-under par. As soon as it ended, I bolted towards the media room knowing that while Day would be there as the same person, we’d see him through a different lens, this time as a major champion.

Jason Day undoubtedly had the best day at the PGA Championship Sunday, beating Jordan Spieth. But he may not have had as much fun as his son, Dash.

Now that the course is free of golf players, it’s time for Dash to play in the verdant Whistling Straits!

Jordan Spieth came up just short of winning the 2015 PGA Championship, but he will leave Whistling Straits as the new No. 1 player in the world. Spieth finished second to Jason Day, which was good enough for him to surpass Rory McIlroy for the No. 1 ranking.

Spieth began 2014 as the No. 9 player in the world, but quickly rose up the list as the season got underway. A win at the Masters boosted his ranking and another victory at the U.S. Open made him a serious threat to overtake McIlroy. Speith has won four times this season. A win at the PGA Championship would have guaranteed him the No. 1 ranking as long as McIlroy didn’t finish alone in second place. By finishing in second place by himself, Spieth needed McIlroy to finish worse than a tie for sixth in order to become the new No. 1. McIlroy finished 17th at 9-under to seal Spieth as the No. 1.

After a number of close calls in recent years, Jason Day was finally able to break through and claim the first major championship of his career. He celebrated by hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy, and with it will come the biggest payout of his career. By winning the 2015 PGA Championship, Day took home the $1.8 million first-place purse prize.

Although he was yet to win a major championship, Day had won some significant tournaments in his career. Even still, the PGA Championship payout is the largest of his career, topping the $1.53 million he won when he took home the WGC-Accenture Match Play in 2014. His $1.8 million payday at the PGA Championship is significantly more and is tied with the U.S. Open, British Open, Masters and Players Championship for the biggest reward in golf.

Jason Day has held the lead the entire day at the 2015 PGA Championship and he’s now just three holes away from winning the first major championship of his career. If he’s going to hold on and raise the Wanamaker Trophy, however, he is going to need to outlast Jordan Spieth who is once again making a run in a major.

Day improved to 20-under at one point in the round, becoming just the second player ever to hit that mark in a major championships. He wasn’t able to stay at 20-under, giving a shot back at No. 15, but he still holds the lead at 19-under. He’s been in fairly comfortable position all day thanks to some early birdies and entered the 16th hole with a three-shot lead and only three holes to play.

“I’m trying to remember the last time I saw something like that, that wasn’t in a pro-am,” was the line from David Feherty after this ghastly chunk from Jason Day. His drive went 323 yards, leaving him with just 122 in to the cup. The second shot went just 70 yards.

Day got to 19-under at the 7th green -- just the fourth time in championship history that milestone was reached, with Day being the third player to do so -- but then promptly gave one back with his first bogey of the day at the 8th. After that swing at the 9th, things were tightening up all around Whistling Straits, but Day made an incredible up-and-down save to escape with a par.

The 13th hole at Whistling Straits is officially listed at 409 yards. The tee must be up a little bit today because Bubba Watson’s drive, which went THROUGH the green and to the back, was measured as his longest of the year at 402 yards.

The wind was helping, but that is an obscene reminder that Bubba is playing a game with which none of us weekend hacks, and 99 percent of the pros, are familiar. He can be a real pain in the ass but watching him play golf is incredibly fun.

Whistling Straits is now hosting its third PGA Championship in just 20 years of existence, but it already has a little bit of history. The 18th hole in 2010 was the site of Dustin Johnson’s rules gaffe in that fairway “bunker” and also Bubba Watson’s playoff implosion into the water. The pin is tucked waaaaaay to the left again, and with so much trouble -- a creek, bunkers, unmowed junk -- surrounding the green, the hole is going to be a brutal finishing spot. A par will be a good score. If Jordan Spieth, Jason Day or anyone else in the field needs a birdie to get in a playoff, the odds are long.

Here are all the targets for what should be a fantastic final major round of 2015:

All eyes will be on Jordan Spieth and his chase of history Sunday afternoon at Whistling Straits, but 54-hole PGA Championship leader Jason Day will do everything he can to keep his eyes on the prize and off the reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion.

After ending a very long Saturday alone in first place at a major after 54 holes for the first time, Day seemed to give himself a pep talk about “all the boring stuff” he must focus on if he’s to prevail over America’s sweetheart and claim that first grand slam title he so desperately craves.

The bad news is there are just 18 more holes of major championship golf this year. The good news is that we may be set up for the best final round of all here this Sunday at the PGA Championship.

Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, the two best and most consistent performers at the majors this year, will anchor the tee sheet for the last 18 holes. It’s an easy head-to-head final pairing showdown to hype at the season’s final major. Spieth is trying to become the first player ever to win the U.S. Open, Masters, and PGA Championship in the same year. He’s already 50-under combined at the majors this year. A 4-under 68 would best Tiger Woods’ 53-under mark set in 2000, which is hailed as the greatest majors season ever. Thankfully, Spieth birdied six of his last eight holes Saturday night to get back in it and give us all this hype and excitement heading into Sunday.

Only 18 holes remain in the 2015 PGA Championship and if the closing round is anything like the preceding 54 holes, viewers should be in for an entertaining and eventful finish. Thanks to excellent scoring conditions, the leaderboard has been extremely fluid with players trading birdies to make a run at the lead. That could mean for a down-to-the-wire finish with more than a dozen players well within range of the lead.

A number of players dipped well into the low-to-mid 60s in the third rounds with birdies plentiful. That included Jordan Spieth who ripped off six birdies in his final eight holes to close strong and shoot a 65. That shot him up the leaderboard to 13-under. For the fourth time this year, Spieth will begin the final round of a major championship with a very legitimate shot to win. He won the Masters and the U.S. Open before coming up just short at the British Open. He will tee toff in the final pairing on Sunday.

Temperatures will be hot and skies will be sunny to mostly sunny for the final round of the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. It will also be humid with a stiff breeze out of the southwest during the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 20 to 25 mph at times.

Jordan Spieth is well on his way to claiming Player of the Year, with two major championships already added to the trophy case. He could make it three in one season on Sunday, but in order to do so, he will first have to chase down Jason Day. Day holds the 54-hole lead at the 2015 PGA Championship with Spieth lurking in second place. The two will make up the final pairing on Sunday and will be the focus as the action comes down to the wire.

Day posted a 6-under round of 67 to move to 15-under and take sole possession of the lead. He was rolling along and on the way to an even better round had he not run into some trouble on No. 15. He had issues in the bunker and wound up making a double bogey. Had he not done that, he would be four or even five strokes clear of the field. As it stands, Day will once again have a very solid chance at his first major championship. He has been close several times, but is yet to break through in a major.

It really should not come as a surprise after what we’ve watched since last December, but it was still astounding to see the unrelenting Jordan Spieth somehow shoot his way right into the final tee time at the PGA Championship. As he started his back nine with his peers shooting up the leaderboard all around him, the estimates were that he’d need a 3-under inward 33 to get back in it and have a shot on Sunday. He went ahead and posted an inward 30.

It was an awesome display of shotmaking, the typical tee-to-green Spieth stuff we’ve grown accustomed to this summer at the majors. This wasn’t the Masters weekend cruise -- he needed to make a move or he’d spend Sunday languishing out of reach. So he birdied six times coming in to the house, two separate runs of three in-a-row. The first streak was capped by this brilliant approach shot at the 13th.

Jordan Spieth entered the third round within range of the leaders, but initially struggled to stay there. While many other players were racking up red numbers, Spieth was making par after par. That changed on his second nine and and six birdies on the closing nine helped vault him up the leaderboard and just off the lead.

Speith made the turn at 1-under on his round and 7-under for the tournament. At the time, that was six strokes off the lead. Then he started doing things like this.