diff --git a/pmd/etc/grammar/Java.jjt b/pmd/etc/grammar/Java.jjt
index 0d1a5b4e2c..949ed255ee 100644
--- a/pmd/etc/grammar/Java.jjt
+++ b/pmd/etc/grammar/Java.jjt
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
  *
  * Added support for Java 7 language constructs
  *
- * Dinesh Bolkensteyn (SonarSource), 06/11
+ * Dinesh Bolkensteyn (SonarSource), 10/2011
  * ===================================================================
  * Added in support for assert as a name using lookaheads
  *
@@ -145,6 +145,12 @@ public class JavaParser {
       throw new ParseException("Cannot use the diamond generic notation when running in JDK inferior to 1.7 mode!");
   	}
   }
+  
+  private void checkForBadTryWithResourcesUsage() {
+  	if (jdkVersion < 7) {
+      throw new ParseException("Cannot use the try-with-resources notation when running in JDK inferior to 1.7 mode!");
+  	}
+  }
 
   // This is a semantic LOOKAHEAD to determine if we're dealing with an assert
   // Note that this can't be replaced with a syntactic lookahead
@@ -1968,6 +1974,7 @@ void TryStatement() :
 void ResourceSpecification() :
 {}
 {
+    {checkForBadTryWithResourcesUsage();}
 	"("
 	Resources()
 	(LOOKAHEAD(2) ";")?
diff --git a/pmd/regress/test/net/sourceforge/pmd/CommandLineOptionsTest.java b/pmd/regress/test/net/sourceforge/pmd/CommandLineOptionsTest.java
index c35d14d7f8..0e2f68b038 100644
--- a/pmd/regress/test/net/sourceforge/pmd/CommandLineOptionsTest.java
+++ b/pmd/regress/test/net/sourceforge/pmd/CommandLineOptionsTest.java
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ public class CommandLineOptionsTest {
     @Test
     public void testTargetJDKVersion() {
         CommandLineOptions opt = new CommandLineOptions(new String[]{"file", "format", "basic"});
-        assertEquals("1.5", opt.getTargetJDK());
+        assertEquals("1.7", opt.getTargetJDK());
         opt = new CommandLineOptions(new String[]{"file", "format", "ruleset", "-targetjdk", "1.3"});
         assertEquals("1.3", opt.getTargetJDK());
         opt = new CommandLineOptions(new String[]{"file", "format", "ruleset", "-targetjdk", "1.5"});
diff --git a/pmd/src/net/sourceforge/pmd/CommandLineOptions.java b/pmd/src/net/sourceforge/pmd/CommandLineOptions.java
index 4079c6fc06..e115c7ea0e 100644
--- a/pmd/src/net/sourceforge/pmd/CommandLineOptions.java
+++ b/pmd/src/net/sourceforge/pmd/CommandLineOptions.java
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ public class CommandLineOptions {
 
     private boolean debugEnabled;
     private boolean stressTestEnabled;
-    private String targetJDK = "1.5";
+    private String targetJDK = "1.7";
     private boolean shortNamesEnabled;
     private int cpus = Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors();
 
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ public class CommandLineOptions {
                 PMD.EOL +
                 "Optional arguments that may be put before or after the mandatory arguments: " + PMD.EOL +
                 "-debug: prints debugging information" + PMD.EOL +
-                "-targetjdk: specifies a language version to target - 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7; default is 1.5" + PMD.EOL +
+                "-targetjdk: specifies a language version to target - 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7; default is 1.7" + PMD.EOL +
                 "-cpus: specifies the number of threads to create" + PMD.EOL +
                 "-encoding: specifies the character set encoding of the source code files PMD is reading (i.e., UTF-8)" + PMD.EOL +
                 "-excludemarker: specifies the String that marks the a line which PMD should ignore; default is NOPMD" + PMD.EOL +