With his driver just not dialled in enough on Sunday, Dean Burmester nonetheless managed to hold on to a share of 12th place in the 106th PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
That will be enough to get him back into the PGA Championship next year, even though he was unable to really take advantage of his length off the tee to score as well as some of the leaders did on a course which was gettable throughout the championship.
In the end, he was able to take advantage of only one of the three par-fives, and, at 12-under for the tournament, he was nine strokes behind the winner, Xander Schauffele of the United States. He shared 12th with Alex Noren of Sweden, Taylor Moore, Lee Hodges and Sahith Theegala of the United States, and Rory McIlroy who had another disappointing week while searching for a fifth major title.
Schauffele needed a birdie at the last – and it thought twice about going in – to hold off a charge from Bryson DeChambeau who carded a closing seven-under-par 64 to move to 20-under for the championship.
It was a thrilling final round, with Viktor Hovland also right in the mix until the very end. He three-putted the 18th after a deflating miss of a birdie putt which would have taken him to 20-under and put more pressure on Schauffele finishing up after him. In the end, he finished third.
Thomas Detry of Belgium and Collin Morikawa, who couldn’t buy a birdie putt all day until the final hole, shared fourth on 15-under, with Justin Rose and Shane Lowry sharing sixth.
Schauffele, who began the championship with a 62 to tie the major championship record, finished at 21-under 263 with that winning birdie. That beat by one shot the major record previously shared by Brooks Koepka in the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive and Henrik Stenson in the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon.
