Powerful finish earns Jason Day his 13th PGA Tour title
Jason Day – Getty Images / PGA Tour
Jason Day has today won his first tournament since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship and his 13th PGA Tour title overall, emerging from a tense final round battle at the AT&T Byron Nelson in Dallas.
Day began the day two shots off a three-way tie for the 54 hole lead but after four birdies on the way to the turn he was locked in a six way share of the top spot and then edged clear of a very congested leaderboard with five birdies over the closing nine for a round of 62 and a one shot win over Si Woo Kim and Austin Eckroat.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” said Day. “I came into the week after missing last week’s cut, and I was kind of fed up with having to go over like a lot of technical thoughts with my swing. So I just decided I’m just going to go out and just try and play some golf.
“The first three days were great, and then I was really calm. I was saying earlier, I was really calm last night. I woke up, had a great sleep, and just things felt calm.
“For some reason, I just thought that I was going to win the tournament. It’s easy to say that now because I won it, but that’s just — for some reason I just had this sort of calmness about it. I had a really good warmup this morning and felt good.
“It’s weird because when you’re playing golf and you’re in the hunt or around the lead, sometimes there’s moments in your round that you think, oh, it’s kind of not my time.
“I really never had that thought at all this week, even in the last round. I was just kind of plodding along and got a couple early, which was nice, and just felt like you had to press, and funny enough, you have to shoot 9-under to try and win a tournament, which is kind of crazy because I do remember back in the day Charley Hoffman shot 9-under to beat me. It’s nice to be able to finally do that and win one.
“Today however I didn’t really think I about winning until I birdied the 14th and 15th as I knew there were so many guys in contention and so many opportunities remaining (for those behind).
For a range of reasons there was a lot of emotion attached to the victory. “I was in tears for a little bit there, and to think about what my mom went through from 2017 on to her passing last year and then to know that — it was very emotional to go through and to experience what she was going through, then I had injuries on top of all of that going on in my life.
“To be honest, I was very close to calling it quits. I never told my wife that, but I was okay with it, just because it was a very stressful part of my life.
“Ellie (wife), she never gave up on me trying to get back to the winner’s circle again. She just always was pushing me to try and get better.
“Yeah, I don’t know. It feels strange to be sitting here. I don’t know how else to explain it. To go through what I went through and then to be able to be a winner again and be in the winner’s circle is very pleasing, and I know that there’s been a lot of very hard work behind the scenes that a lot of people haven’t seen. But that’s just the competition part of the journey and trying to strive to get better. It’s nice to be able to get my 13th win.”
Day’s work with his coach over the past two or so years, Chris Como, has obviously been a key part of his rebound and he explained how the relationship works.
“When it comes to coaching, it’s not so much about — yeah, it is about the technical aspect and trying to get your game better, but it’s more about a supportive role, knowing that you are doing the correct things and being able to not only visually see the flights that you want and especially on video see the swing change dramatically over the last couple years, for him to be more than just a coach, to be a friend, be someone that can support me in a way that is on a deeper level.
“We’re growing together in regards to like stuff off the golf course. He goes through things just like I go through things.
“We were just talking about this, how golf has led me down a path of trying to better my life off the golf course, whether that’s through the mental stuff that I’m trying to do, the physical stuff that I’m trying to do. It’s funny because when you do go down that journey of trying to better yourself in that sense, once you start to unravel things, it’s like an onion. You start peeling back things and then more things come up and you’ve got to try and connect the dots.”
Day will move close to the top 20 in the world as a result of the win, and while the world ranking does not carry the same significance as was the case prior to LIV Golf, the progress he has made since being outside the top 160 less than a year ago has been stunning.
The victory comes on top of five top ten finishes in nine starts this year on the PGA Tour, a stat further highlighting the consistency that has been building especially over the last eight months or so.
The win and the accompanying US$1.7 million takes his career earnings on the PGA Tour to beyond US$56 million.
After narrowly missing the cut at the Wells Fargo event last week, the bounce back further confirms the amazing amount of work Day and coach, Chris Como, have done in getting his game back somewhere near the level it was when he won his first major (PGA Championship) in 2015 and became World Number One soon after.
Adam Scott also had his chances of a second win the event but despite a near flawless final round of 63 he would finish in a share of 8th place and now he and Day head to next week’s PGA Championship in the sort of form that might well see another major title heading down under, especially with Cameron Smith also a consideration.
Scott summed up Day’s recent progress just a few minutes before the victory was confirmed.
“Well, I think the point he’s at in his career, it’s really all he’s trying to do,” said Scott.”He’s obviously set out and really worked hard on his golf swing the last couple years, and he’s stayed incredibly patient, I think, and chipped away at it and got it to a place where he may not say he’s not satisfied, but it’s looking pretty good.
“The validation of sticking with it, I think, is something at this point that he’ll take a lot out of, and when you’re as talented as Jason, the sky’s the limit, once the confidence comes through winning like that.”
