Justin Thomas Wins 2022 PGA Championship

TULSA, Okla. — Justin Thomas is a major champion for the second time, winning the PGA Championship on Sunday in a three-hole aggregate playoff over Will Zalatoris.

Thomas, the 2017 PGA champion at Quail Hollow, began Sunday trailing leader Mito Pereira by seven shots and was down by eight early at Southern Hills. But he made a Sunday charge with four birdies in his last 10 holes of regulation to shoot 67 and post 5 under before Zalatoris matched him at that score. Thomas began the round trailing Pereira by seven shots and was down by eight early in the round.

Thomas pulled ahead by one shot on the second playoff hole, the drivable 302-yard par-4 17th. Thomas landed his drive on the green and two-putted for birdie, while Zalatoris missed the green right, pitched up to 8 feet but failed to convert his birdie putt.

Both players birdied the first playoff hole, the par-5 13th. Thomas hit his drive in the right rough and laid up with his second shot, but wedged it close and made the putt. Zalatoris was on the green in two and two-putted for his birdie.

The two-man playoff did not include Pereira, who began the final round with a three-shot lead but stumbled with a double bogey on the 72nd hole to shoot 5-over 75 and to finish in a tie for third with Cameron Young at 4 under, one shot out of the playoff

Pereira, a 27-year-old Chilean and a PGA Tour rookie, stood on the tee at the par-4 18th hole needing a par to win or a bogey to join the playoff, but his drive sailed to the right into a creek. After a penalty drop his 190-yard third shot sailed left of the green, then a chip shot ran through the green and two shots later he had a crushing double-bogey 6 to miss the playoff. 

Pereira also left a birdie putt on the edge of the hole at the drivable 302-yard, par-4 17th that could have given him a two-shot lead going to the last hole.

“I was OK, I wasn’t thinking about the water,” Pereira said of the fateful drive at 18. “I guess you have so much pressure in your body, you don’t even know what you’re doing.

“It’s tough to finish like that.”

The win is Thomas’ 15th in seven years on Tour and the 29-year-old’s first since the 2021 Players Championship.

Zalatoris, 25, is still looking for his first PGA Tour win but added to his remarkable major championship history. In eight majors he has five top-10 finishes and two seconds.

The playoff on Sunday broke a streak of 19 consecutive majors since the 2017 Masters (Sergio Garcia over Justin Rose), the longest such streak in major championship history.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases