Kaymer and Watson in USPGA play-off

German Martin Kaymer and American Bubba Watson went into a three-hole play-off for the USPGA Championship at Whistling Straits on Sunday night after Watson’s compatriot Dustin Johnson dramatically suffered a two-stroke penalty on the final hole.

Johnson, who blew the US Open with an 82 in June, would have been part of the shoot-out as well, but was penalised for grounding his club on sand before his second shot.

That left Kaymer and Watson to go head to head – and moved 21-year-old Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy joint third with former Masters champion Zach Johnson, whose namesake Dustin dropped to fifth.

McIlroy just missed out after failing to make a 15-foot birdie putt on the last.

He closed with a 72 and was also left to rue a bogey on the 15th after he had climbed into the lead.

Watson had set the target of 11 under par with a 68 before Kaymer, trying to give Europe their second major out of three following Graeme McDowell’s US Open triumph, made a 12-foot par putt on the last to tie him.

Only two months ago Johnson had a three-shot lead with 18 holes to play in the US Open, but double-bogeyed the second hole, doubled the third and shot 82.

This time he set off three behind Nick Watney, who in a similar nightmare double-bogeyed the first, triple-bogeyed the seventh and slumped to 18th with an 81.

Meanwhile, Kaymer’s performance knocked Luke Donald out of an automatic qualifying place on the Ryder Cup table and left him needing a wild card along with Padraig Harrington.

However, Paul Casey’s surge into joint 12th spot was just enough to lift him above Harrington into the ninth and last qualifying spot.

There are two weeks left, though, and he could still be overtaken – especially as he is staying in America rather than going back for the race-ending Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

Johnson’s bid to make amends for Pebble Beach hit trouble with bogeys on the third and fourth, but it was nothing compared to Watney.

He dropped another shot at the third and, after a birdie on the driveable sixth hinted that he might have settled, he promptly hit his tee shot to the short seventh into Lake Michigan, ran up a six and completed a front-nine 43 with two more bogeys.

By then Kaymer had become the man to catch. He birdied the second and fourth, was lucky to avoid the water on the fifth, but then saved a great par from 10 feet at the eighth.

Out in 34, he started for home with another birdie, but then had to try to withstand a mounting challenge.

Watson caught him with a two-putt birdie on the long 16th, only to go down the cliff edge left of the green at the short 17th.

As he bogeyed there, though, Kaymer failed to get up and down from just off the green at the 15th.

That brought McIlroy into the joint lead as he had just made a 10-footer on the 14th.

But, trying to make it two Northern Irish wins in three majors, McIlroy could not quite pull it off.

“It was just a weird day,” he said. “I got a good putt on 14, but I missed one on 15, which was quite disappointing.

“I’ll take the positives from it. It wasn’t the result I wanted, but it’s a learning experience.”

It was the third time he has finished third in a major, doing so at last year’s USPGA and then The Open at St Andrews last month.

Neither of those, however, saw him in the thick of it like this.

Casey shared 12th with, amongst others, fellow Englishman Simon Dyson and Masters champion Phil Mickelson.

Dyson has kept alive his Ryder Cup hopes in the process, but Mickelson did not do enough to topple Tiger Woods (28th on two under) from the world number one spot.

Johnson, whose penalty brought boos from the crowd when it was announced, commented: “It never crossed my mind I was in a sand trap. The only worse thing that could have happened was if I made that putt (to ’win’).

“I just thought I was on a piece of dirt the crowd had trampled down.

“Obviously I know the rules – you can’t ground the club in a bunker – but I guess it’s one situation where I should have looked at a rulesheet.

“The official said the whole course is a bunker. It’s up to them. If it was up to me I would not have thought I was in a bunker.”