2015 PGA Championship results: Jason Day bests Jordan Spieth for 1st major title

Jason Day beat back challenges from all comers Sunday at Whistling Straits, winning his first major championship by three shots over Jordan Spieth at the PGA Championship.

Day, who took his first solo 54-hole lead at a major into Sunday’s finale -- a two-shot edge over American Slam-seeking Jordan Spieth -- hung on for the W with a seven-birdie, two-bogey, 5-under 67 final round. Playing competitor Spieth and others, though, made the 27-year-old Australian grind out the victory.

The head-to-head battle between Day and Spieth, the final twosome of the afternoon, was everything golf fans could hope for in the men’s last major of the year. While Day desperately wanted to capture the first grand slam victory of his career, Spieth had his sights set on becoming the first golfer in history to win the three majors played on U.S. soil.

A win for Spieth, from Texas and the clear favorite of the Cheesehead crowd, would have also put him in the elite company of Ben Hogan (1953) and Tiger Woods (2000) as the only three golfers of the modern era to win three majors in the same calendar year. The 22-year-old phenom also set the record for all-time lowest cumulative score in a season’s four majors.

Spieth, who tied Woods at 53-under with a birdie on the 13th hole, needed to post a 4-under 68 for the scoring record. He closed with that and in solo second, which enabled him to overtake Rory McIlroy for the world No. 1 ranking.

In their marquee contest, Day struck first, with a birdie on the par-5 second hole to extend his lead to three strokes. Spieth got that shot back with a birdie on the par-3 second, but only his third bogey of the week on the following hole dropped him into a tie for second with Branden Grace.

Grace, who started the finale three shots out of the lead, crashed the party with a second birdie in his first five holes to pull ahead of the wunderkind. He also had Day hearing footsteps.

The ping pong match continued most of the day, with guys draining birdies from all over Wisconsin. When Day poured in a 49-footer to maintain a two-shot lead over Grace, he made a huge statement and wrote himself into the history books.

That stroke put Day in elite company, as he became just the third player -- after Woods at the 2000 British Open and 2006 PGA and Spieth in April at Augusta -- to reach 19-under in a major title bout. He got it to 20-under with another birdie on the par-4 14th, the second player (after Tiger in the 2000 Open Championship) to go so low. After giving it back with a bogey on 15, Day immediately birdied the 16th and signed for a 20-under.

And so it went until Grace fell away when a shot from an uphill lie in the rough on the par-4 10th skittered over the green and down the cliff. He needed two shots to scale the hill back to the putting surface, and two putts later, the South African had a double and fell to four shots back.

At the same time, the wheels wobbled a bit on No. 9 for Day and Spieth. A chunked 122-yard approach shot from the frontrunner traveled all of 71 yards, but he was able to get up and down for par as Spieth dropped a shot.

Spieth got it back with a birdie on the next and briefly moved back into a tie for second -- this time with Justin Rose -- at 15-under.

In the meantime, 2013 U.S. Open champ Rose was quietly inching his way up the board. His fourth birdie of the day, at the 11th, moved him to 16-under and within striking distance of the lead. He finished at 14-under for the week.

Dustin Johnson, who blew his 2010 PGA chances on the 72nd hole in one of Whistling Straits 1,000-plus bunkers, dashed any hope for redemption on the first hole of the finale. He entered Sunday at 9-under, just six shots back of Day, walked off the first green at 5-under after his approach shot from a fairway bunker went long and landed in a horrible sandy lie. Six shots later, including four just to muscle his ball up to the green, and DJ carded a quadruple-bogey 8 and became a non-factor.

Johnson clawed his way back into the conversation by going 9-under in holes five through 16, thanks to five birdies and two eagles. He finished at 12-under.

Bubba Watson, at 3-under starting Sunday, did not figure to be in the mix. But the big-hitting two-time Masters champion was bombing golf balls all over Sheboygan. He went Bubba long for an eagle on the par-4 sixth:

And then he exploded with a 402-yard drive that flew the green on the par-4 13th:

Of course, Bubba being Bubba, his round was not without incident. The guy who complained at last year’s PGA about water on his club face engaged a rules official in a debate about dangerous insects and burrowing animals.

With a birdie on the challenging par-4 18th, Watson finished at 7-under.

Then there was McIlroy, competing in his first tourney since injuring his ankle on July 4. With his skull-imploding Omega commercial seemingly running every two minutes like, um, clockwork, casual viewers could be excused for believing the four-time major winner was in contention.

Alas, McIlroy idled in neutral all week and ended his PGA week in 17th place -- 11 shots back of the winner. The 26-year-old, now No. 2 in the world, will skip The Barclays, the first of four legs of the FedEx Cup playoffs that start in two weeks, as he plans to take some time off to rest his ankle.

Here is a full look at the final leaderboard.