Jimmy Walker closing in on PGA glory

• American leads by one going into final round of PGA
• Defending champion Jason Day one shot behind on -10
• Stenson and Koepka share third place on -9

Jimmy Walker holds a one-shot lead going into the final round of the weather-blighted PGA Championship at Baltusrol.

The 37-year-old American carded a two-under 68 on Sunday morning to lead outright on 11-under-par, one better than defending champion Jason Day, who went round in 67.

Open champion Henrik Stenson is a further shot adrift on nine-under alongside Brooks Koepka.

Walker, five times a winner on the PGA Tour, is bidding to seal his first major championship title in what is only his 18th start in the game’s four marquee events.

A win for Jimmy Walker would complete a clean-sweep for first-time major winners in 2016.

He has only ever had three previous top tens, with a best finish of tied-seventh in the 2014 PGA Championship.

Should Walker win, he would complete a clean-sweep for first-time major winners in 2016, following Danny Willett’s Masters victory, Dustin Johnson’s US Open triumph and Henrik Stenson’s Open win just two weeks ago. The last time all four titles were claimed by first-time major winners in the same calendar year was 2011.

Read more -> ‘My round with Jimmy Walker’

Walker’s final round gets underway shortly after 8pm this evening (3pm local time).

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Defending champion Jason Day was delighted to complete his third round ‘blemish-free’ and says that he is feeling confident going into the final round.

“I feel good,” the world No.1 told Sky Sports. “I’ve got to go out, be me, try to play good golf and hopefully hold the trophy at the end of the day.”

Should Day overhaul Jimmy Walker to win, he’ll become the first player to successfully defend the season’s final major since Tiger Woods did so in 2007. Woods, indeed, is the only player to have ever retained the title in the championship’s strokeplay era (since 1958). As well as 2007, he did so in 2000.

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Henrik Stenson is two shots behind Walker as he seeks to win back-to-back majors. However, the Swede admitted that the third round had been ‘a bit of a battle’ for him.

“I didn’t have my best day with the long game,” Stenson told Sky Sports. “The warm-up was a bit off and I continued that on the golf course but I finished on a strong note. My putting kept it together and I’m very pleased to have shot three-under given how I played.”

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Jimmy Walker: Will he seal the deal?

Do you think Jimmy Walker will hold on to win the PGA Championship? Or will somebody else steal the Wanamaker Trophy from under his nose? Leave your final round predictions in our ‘Comments’ section below.

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor