Updated at 22.30pm
AUSTRALIA’S JASON DAY was showing steely resolve in his quest for a first major title on Sunday, maintaining a two-shot lead through nine holes in the final round of the PGA Championship.
The player applying the most pressure at Whistling Straits wasn’t Masters and US Open champion Jordan Spieth but South African Branden Grace, who had four birdies without a bogey through nine holes to move to 16-under par.
Grace rolled in three straight long-range bombs to move up the leaderboard, draining a 30-footer for birdie at the par-three third, a 20-footer for par at the fourth and a 30-footer for birdie at the par-five fifth, and also added birdies at six and seven.
Day, who started the day with a two-shot lead over Spieth, stretched it early when he got up and down for birdie from a bunker at the second.
He added birdies at the fifth, sixth and seventh to reach 19-under for the tournament, giving a little club-pumping celebration when his 50-foot birdie putt dropped at the par-three seventh.
Day dropped a shot at the eighth, where he had a tough lie in a fairway bunker, but he drained a testing 10-foot par putt at the ninth to make the turn at 18-under, two shots ahead of Grace and four ahead of Spieth, who missed a 12-foot putt for par at the ninth.
Spieth struggled to get anything going on the greens. He followed a birdie at the par-three third with a bogey at the fourth. He stayed in touch with back-to-back birdies at five and six before his bogey at nine dropped him to 14-under, level with England’s Justin Rose.
Live leaderboard here.
