Jason Day makes great start to PGA Tour season
Jason Day – a final round of 64 moved him to a share of second place – file image PGA of Australia
Jason Day has begun his 2026 PGA Tour campaign with an impressive share of the runner-up position at the American Express Championship in La Quinta, California.
Day’s bogey-free final round of 64 improved him 18 places from his 54-hole standing, and his finish betters his 3rd place finish twelve months ago.
Day shared second place with Ryan Gerrad, Matt McCarty, and Andrew Putnam and snares the 38-year-old a season-opening US$489,000.
“It’s a good start,” said Day. “My 100th top 10 of my career. So that was a milestone that I was very interested in, like very excited to get to. Yeah, very pleased that I got off to a good start this week. It’s always nice to come to the desert and get things rolling in the right direction.
“So I’m playing Torrey next week, probably just drive over tomorrow and then get some good prep Tuesday, Wednesday, and get into the tournament again. But I’m very pleased with how the game is looking. I have to have a few tweaks with my game. I think I’m just not quite happy. At the top end, like driver and 3-wood are okay. I kind of got to work on the 5 through, probably, 6-, 5-, 4-iron. But everything else feels really nice. So just trying to work that out and then get into next week.
“I feel good about the finish, but I’m already kind of, I’m processing right now, but I’m already thinking about what clubs I need next week at Torrey Pines. And they’re the important ones, the 6, 5, 4, because we’re going to be hitting a lot of ’em. So I got to kind of work that out. Yeah, like I said, I mean, I played great.”
Day finished behind world number one Scottie Scheffler, who claimed his 10th PGA Tour title, and Day, a former number one himself, offered his thoughts on the amazing run Scheffler is having.
“I mean, it’s just the patience and not only the belief that he has in his game, but the ability to be able to shake off all the distractions around him. To be able to get on to the golf course and play the way he does.
“Very unorthodox in the way that he swings the club, and it’s not like we’re looking at Tiger, but he’s putting up Tiger-ish numbers, even though Tiger was, you know, obviously the GOAT. But, yeah, I mean, every time he tees it up, he is right around the lead. And that is one of the most difficult things to do, to always stay hungry to the point of not being satisfied.
“Because it’s very easy to get satisfied out here. You win a couple of times, you’re like, Well, I’m kind of relaxed and I can coast for a little bit. And it seems like he never wants to relax. He always does his work, needs to do whatever he needs to do to be able to prepare, and he’s always around the lead. And that’s a very, very difficult thing to do with how many distractions there can be, especially at No. 1.”
Scheffler was brilliant as he overcame his one-shot deficit through 64 holes to grab the lead in a final round tussle with any one of ten potential winners to eventually win by four.
When asked about the comparisons being made to Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, given the speed at which he has reached the 20-victory milestone, Scheffler would say, “I mean, any time you can get mentioned with those guys, it means you’re doing some stuff right. At the end of the day it’s not something that will occupy many of my thoughts day-to-day.
“When I was thinking about getting ready for this week, I was just trying to prepare and do the best that I could. Hopefully, we’ll get out of here tonight and get ready to gear up again, get some rest, and then get ready to kind of do it all over again in a couple weeks. I don’t spend too much time thinking about the milestones or anything like that.”
Second-season PGA Tour golfer, Karl Vilips finished as the next best of the Australians when he tied for 18th.
