Xander Schauffele made a dramatic birdie on the 72nd hole to win the 2024 PGA Championship by one shot.
The world no.3 held off a final-round charge from Bryson DeChambeau to finally claim the first major victory of his career at Valhalla Golf Club.
LIV Golf star DeChambeau shot a stunning 64, including a birdie at the last, to leave Schauffele needing a four on the par-five 18th to avoid a play-off.
Overcoming an awkward second shot, the 30-year-old held his nerve on the green, lipping in a six-foot putt while DeChambeau watched on helpless from the practice range.
Schauffele finished on 21-under par, which is the lowest score to par in major championship history, breaking the previous record of 20-under par set by Jason Day at the 2015 PGA Championship.
DeChambeau ended up on 20-under par, marking the first major championship in history where multiple players have finished on 20-under par or better.
A dramatic Sunday saw a resurgent Viktor Hovland come third, three shots adrift of Schauffele, while Collin Morikawa and Thomas Detry finished in a tie for fourth.
Hovland’s fellow European Ryder Cup stars Shane Lowry and Justin Rose found themselves in a tie for sixth after a couple of stunning rounds on Saturday.
However, the story of the championship will forever be world no.1 Scottie Scheffler getting arrested before round two on Friday.
The 27-year-old still managed to finish in a tie for eighth, completing the top ten alongside Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel and Robert MacIntyre.
Reports claim the charges against Scheffler, who was thrown in a jail cell after a traffic misunderstanding with police, are set to be dropped, with a hearing set for Tuesday.
For Schauffele, though, it was the end of a career-long drought in major championships.
Until Sunday, the American was the only player in the top five of the Official World Golf Rankings yet to win one of the sport’s four biggest events, despite contending on multiple occasions.
Schauffele said: “I was kind of emotional after the putt lipped in. It’s been a while since I’ve won and I kept saying all week I needed to stay in my lane. Man was it hard to do that today. I tried all day to keep focussed on what I needed to do and keep every hole ahead of me.
“I think I would have been a bit less patient if that putt had not have gone in. I really did not want to go into a play-off against Bryson. I am assuming we’d have played 18 and it would have been a lot of work. I told myself ‘this was my opportunity, just capture it.’
“My mum is in San Diego and my dad is in Hawaii and I managed to call him but I had to hang up quickly because he was making me cry. He was on the phone bawling. It means so much.”
Meanwhile, former US Open champion DeChambeau admitted he briefly hoped his round was enough to win a second major.
“I thought it might be enough,” he said.
“18 is not necessarily a birdie hole that you can birdie easily, you can get a weird lie in the bunker or in the rough and weird stuff can happen.
“But we did what we needed to do and I didn’t take care of it earlier in the week. I played well today but made a couple of mistakes early on.
“I’m happy with it, but I want to win.”
