Jason Day Records 7th Win in Past 17 Starts At Players Championship
- Dan Hauser
- 16 May, 2016
Adam Scott referred to his performance as of late on Sunday as “Tiger-esque”.
After closing with a Sunday-best 65 to tie for third, Justin Thomas said of him “It’s no coincidence he’s No. 1 in the world. He drives it extremely far, extremely straight. He hits it to the moon, so he can access pins that most people can’t. His short game is ridiculous. I think I’ve pretty much covered it all there when it comes to the golf.”
They were both referring to Jason Day, who has taken over the PGA Tour over the last year in a staggering way.
Heading into the 2015 season, Day had just two wins on the PGA Tour (including his famous showdown with Victor Dubuisson at the 2014 Match Play) and a slew of near misses. He was on pretty much on everyone’s list of “greatest golfer to never win a major” and was always mentioned as the “next one” to break through and win a major. Day has won eight times in the past 15 months, including a staggering 7 in his past 17 starts. His list of wins in that 15 month stretch include last year’s PGA Championship where he bested Jordan Spieth in a dominating fashion, a wire-to-wire win at Arnie’s place in March, and another wire-to-wire win this past weekend at the Players at TPC Sawgrass. Day was the first person to go wire-to-wire in claiming the richest purse in tournament golf since Bob Tway did it in 2000. The wire-to-wire win was also his third in the past year, something only a handful of players have done, including none other than Tiger Woods. Once again, another connection between Day and his mentor who he talks to either on the phone or via text on almost a daily basis it seems like these days.
Day seems to have turned on the afterburners as of late and has no problem telling everyone about it. After his Players win Sunday, he talked about how that desire and drive to win is stronger than ever and even went so far as to say that he feels the Players win will help him when it comes to getting into the Hall of Fame (hear that Omega?).
While everyone has seen the results on the course, Day’s caddie and swing coach Colin Swatton has seen it all unfold on and off the course.
“I’ve definitely seen a change, not necessarily in how Jason plays, or how he goes about his business, but I definitely see a little bit more trust and belief in himself,” Swatton said. “I can see a lot more confidence, and that’s a very, very hard thing to get, especially if winning would make you confident, but it doesn’t always do that. I guess Tiger’s a very, very good person to go to. He’s arguably the best player in the world, and that has been my advice to Jason in the past, to lean on people who can make you better. I definitely think Tiger can do that.”
That confidence was on full display at TPC Sawgrass this week. After two days of firing at pins at will and setting both the 36-hole scoring and lead reacord, the PGA Tour tricked the course out on Saturday, making the greens roll at a 15 on the stimp and cutting holes in almost impossible locations. Still, Day ended Saturday with the same four shot lead he started the day with. Twice during the day he made double bogey only to bounce back on the next hole with a birdie.
On Sunday, he got into some trouble on the ninth hole and was staring down a 6 foot putt for bogey. A miss, and all of a sudden his lead is down to one and a slew of guys are back in the tournament. He stepped up and drained it, saying after that the putt was his most important shot of the final round.
Day is at 10 wins now on his career and is hungry for more. His mentor has 79 wins on the PGA Tour and said when all is said and done, he wants to be looked at on that level.
“I look at Tiger, and he’s got 79, or whatever it is, and Phil [Mickelson] is up there. I’m like, `OK, I want to be looked back on as one of the greats in the game.’ I’m going to try my best. I have the opportunity to do that right now, to try and work as hard as I can to really leave my footprint in this game, that has given me so much.”
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
