Thomas surges to stunning PGA win

JUSTIN Thomas has matched the greatest last-day comeback in US PGA Championship history, roaring back from seven strokes down to capture his second major title.

Thomas, 29, defeated his American compatriot Will Zalatoris by one stroke in a tension-packed three-hole aggregate playoff at Southern Hills in Oklahoma after a heartbreaking 72nd-hole collapse by Chile’s Mito Pereira.

Pereira led all day only to hit his final tee shot into water and launch a double-bogey disaster at the 18th hole and hand Thomas the trophy.

“It was a bizarre day,” Thomas said. “I was asked earlier in the week about what lead is safe, and I said, no lead. This place is so tough.”

Not since John Mahaffey’s seven-shot rally at Oakmont in 1978 had anyone made such a fightback to win the PGA Championship.

Thomas, who also won the 2017 PGA title, fired a threeunder-par 67 in the final round and Zalatoris, last year’s Masters runner-up, shot 71 to finish 72 holes deadlocked on fiveunder 275.

Zalatoris settled for his fifth top-10 finish in eight major starts and a sense he’s near a breakthrough.

“I can do it. I’m pretty close,” he said.

A back nine full of bogeys killed off Australian Lucas Herbert’s charge.

Herbert, the world No.46, secured a maiden top-15 major finish as he and fellow Aussie Cameron Smith finished at even-par for the tournament, five shots behind Thomas.

A lip-out putt for birdie on his ninth hole cost Herbert the chance to get within three shots of the lead before he crashed over the next six holes with bogeys at the 11th, 12th and 14th, and a double-bogey at the 16th.