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Day to remember: Jason Day takes PGA Championship

By Andrew Wagner, The Sports Xchange
Jason Day, of Australia, kisses the Wannamaker trophy after shooting a 20-under-par 268 to win the 97th PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on August 16, 2015 in Kohler, Wisconsin. Photo by Frank Polich/UPI
1 of 3 | Jason Day, of Australia, kisses the Wannamaker trophy after shooting a 20-under-par 268 to win the 97th PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on August 16, 2015 in Kohler, Wisconsin. Photo by Frank Polich/UPI | License Photo

KOHLER, Wis. -- Twice this year, Jason Day went into the final round of a major championship with the lead after 54 holes, only to come up short.

So when he teed off Sunday, holding a two-stroke lead on the final day of the 97th PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Day wasn't about to let the opportunity for a first major slip away again.

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The 27-year-old Australian played one of the best rounds of his career, notching birdies on four of his first nine holes and finishing with seven on the day as he became the first player to ever finish a major 20-under par.

"That was probably the hardest round of golf I've ever had to play," Day said. "I was very confident going into the round ... I knew today was going to be tough but I didn't realize how tough it was going to be."

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He made his biggest move of the day on the back nine.

After missing a birdie by inches on the 10th, Day launched a 383-foot drive on the par-5, 563-yard 11th that left him 168 feet short of the pin. Using his wedge, Day landed on the green in two and two-putted for birdie to go up four on Jordan Spieth.

"When he hit that tee ball and I saw where it was, I actually out loud turned to him and said 'holy -- you know -- you've got to be kidding me.' He gave me a little bicep, then he hit a wedge into the hole and I knew I was going to be playing uphill from there."

Spieth was trying to make history of his own after winning the Master's and U.S. Open earlier this year, and was a shot short of making a playoff at the British Open last month. He finished second, three strokes behind Day.

Spieth had played his way into second place Saturday with a 7-under 65. He bogeyed the fourth and ninth holes, missing the fairway each time, and went into the turn 3-under on the day and 18-under for the tournament.

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He kept the pressure on Day through the back nine, with birdies on the 10th, 13th and 16th, but couldn't make up the difference and finished with a 68 on the day, 17-under for the tournament.

"I could have obviously made more putts today," Spieth said. "I could have done a little bit more but it would have been hard to shoot 8-under and to go 15-under on the weekend. That's just very hard to do at a major championship."

The 22-year-old, who topped the World Golf Rankings released earlier in the day, finished his year four strokes short of winning the grand slam.

"It's amazing to think about," Spieth said. "You only get four a year, to have an opportunity to win all of them is so cool. I hope to have a season like this one at the biggest stages again. I hope we can do that again, but it's not easy."

While Day maintained his lead and Spieth started to slip, Justin Rose charged back up the board and got within three strokes of the lead with a birdie on No. 10.

But a double-bogey on the 13th dropped him back into third place. Rose would fall to fourth by day's end, at 14-under, just behind South Africa's Branden Grace, who shot a 69 to finish 15-under.

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Dustin Johnson, the leader after one round, might have found himself in the mix Sunday had he not opened the final round with a quadruple-bogey. Johnson bogeyed two of his next three holes, then went 5-under on the back nine, including eagles on the 11th and 16th, to post a 69, leaving him at 276 for the weekend.

NOTES: In what might have been the final major of his career, Steve Stricker posted a 2-under 70 Sunday, finishing the tournament at 4-under. The 48-year-old Wisconsin native underwent back surgery last December and played a limited schedule this season. He has no tour exemptions for 2016 but said he'd like to work his way back to major competitions, especially for the 2017 U.S. Open, which is set to be played in Wisconsin for the first time. ... The tournament field featured players from 24 nations. ... Jordan Spieth had gone 36 consecutive holes without a bogey before taking a 5 on the par-4 fourth Sunday.

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