Shawn Warren, a teaching pro at Falmouth Country Club, is believed to be just the second golfer from Maine to qualify for three major championships. He played in the PGA Championship in 2018 and 2020, and will return to the event this year. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Shawn Warren booked his third trip to the PGA Championship – one of golf’s four men’s majors – and he did it in comeback fashion.

Warren, 37, a Windham native and teaching professional at Falmouth Country Club, fired a 5-under 66 on Wednesday in the PGA Professional Championship at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas, to finish 2-under for the tournament and in a five-way tie for sixth in the 72-hole event.

The top 20 finishers at this annual tournament for club and teaching pros earn invitations to the PGA Championship, which this year will be held May 19-22 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Warren started his final round in 53rd place, five shots out of the top 20.

“In the moment, with those sort of stakes riding on it, a chance to play in another major, I would put that round right up there with one of the best,” Warren said.

Warren’s 66 tied for Wednesday’s low score on a windy day when only five of 75 players broke par.

“I felt like I had to play a really good round, 5, 6 under,” Warren said. “I knew the wind was coming, not as hard as it did blow, but if I could shoot a good score, I’d have an outside chance.”

Jesse Mueller, 39, of Phoenix, won the tourney by five strokes at 10-under. As the winner, Mueller also earned exemptions to six PGA Tour events.

Starting his final round on the back nine, Warren bogeyed No. 10. But he birdied 12, 15 and 18, to get his round to 2 under and his overall score to 1 over.

“Once I turned in 2 under and I was watching the leaderboard and saw everyone was going backward, I figured if I played a strong back nine, I’d be in the mix,” Warren said.

After missing birdie chances on 2, 3 and 4, Warren rolled in a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5, 598-yard fifth hole and followed that with a birdie on the par-4 sixth. He finished with three trouble-free pars to punch his ticket to the PGA Championship and earn a solid paycheck of about $19,000 from the $675,000 total purse.

“I’m proud of the fact, in those conditions, I was able to hit the shots I needed to in that type of situation,” Warren said.

Warren played in the PGA Championship in 2018 at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis and in 2020 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, failing to make the cut both times.

Both years, Warren had tough opening rounds and then played near par in the second round.

Warren is on a very short list of players from Maine or pros working in Maine to play in a major championship. He is believed to be just the second Mainer to qualify for three majors, joining Portland High graduate Jeff Martin, currently a club pro at Wollaston Golf Club in Milton, Massachusetts. Martin also qualified for three PGA Championships (2005, 2008, 2013).

Warren, who lives in Falmouth in the summer and in Orlando, Florida, in the winter, has long been one of the top golfers to come out of Maine. As an amateur, he won the 2004 Maine Open and the 2006 Maine Amateur. At Marshall University, he was team captain and had the team’s best scoring average all four years.

Since turning pro, he has won the PGA New England Section Player of the Year award four times (2013-15, 2018), and the New England PGA Championship three times (2013, 2019-20).