Jason Day made it look easy, but after years of major championship heartbreak his record-setting win Sunday at the PGA Championship was anything but. Jason has been knocking on that majors door for a long time.
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“I’m exhausted from the majors this year because of what it does”. Obviously, I’m not going to give up trying. The Northern Irishman entered the tournament attempting to defend his title but hadn’t played competitive golf since June after rupturing his ankle prior to the Open Championship last month.
Spieth fell short in his bid to join Ben Hogan and Woods as the only players to win three majors in the same season. “There was a lot of low scores out there today”, Day said, although he got off to an uneven start alternating birdies and bogeys at his first five holes before his first par of the day at the sixth.
“It’s exciting for golf right now, ” said Justin Rose, who finished fourth.
“I played solid golf”.
Indeed, Day was the last man standing on the 18th green, locked in a long and emotional hug with caddie and coach Collin Swatton.
Day’s first major victory comes just 59 days after he collapsed on the Chambers Bay course at the US Open, initially reporting “dizzy spells” but actually suffering from a condition later diagnosed as vertigo linked to a viral ear infection.
The final steps in that journey might have been the most impressive.
An unfortunate bogey on the fourth hole for Spieth made the lead three for Day, a lead he would continue to build on.
Among the many stellar names looking to reel in Day, it was unheralded world number 28 Grace who got closest when he moved with one shot after a birdie at the seventh.
“The experiences that I’ve had in the past with previous major finishes has definitely helped me prepare myself for a moment like this”.
That was enough to ensure the American, 22, replaces Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, 26, as world number one.
McIlroy, who finished before the new rankings became official, said: “I feel like I’m playing well, but if he does go to No. 1 today, it’s very deservedly so”.
“I turned to him and said, ‘Holy -!” “And each time after it came off the face, the hope was lost”.
After losing his father to cancer at age 12, Day went off the rails and was drinking alcohol and getting in street fights at 13. Spieth, faced with an impossible stance over a bunker shot in front of the green, splashed it to within 2 feet and matched him.
“The kid just doesn’t go away, ” Day said of Spieth.
“That was killer because at that point I would have got it to about square and it would have been a different story coming down the stretch”. He proved me wrong.
-20 J Day (Aus); -17 J Spieth (US); -15 B Grace (SA), J Rose (Eng); -13 A Lahiri (Ind), B Koepka (US); -12 G Coetzee (SA), M Kuchar (US), D Johnson (US).
Jason Day’s mother Dening Day also could not hold back the tears.
“He realized that he’s got incredible talent but he was at that time anxious if he was even going to play golf again”, Driessen said. Woods was 21 when he became No. 1 for the first time in just his 21st tournament.
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Day’s major battle this season has been quite the frustrating one.
