The title is readily transferable, according to the mood swings of an erratic game. But there is no doubt that Jason Day at this moment is the Frank Sinatra of golf’s Rat Pack.
He is not just the leader in the clubhouse, he is the leader of the clubhouse. The apex predator in the most manicured of jungles. The Man. The Big One of the Big Three.
As was proven Sunday with Day’s four-shot victory at the Players Championship it is almost impossible to stand against:
A. An immense talent unleashed. As noted Justin Thomas, who put up Sunday’s best round, a 65, and tied distantly for third behind Day, “He hits it to the moon. His short game’s ridiculous. And he has a really good mental game, too, which is more than half the battle.” And,
B. This white hot, don’t-stand-too-close-or-you-might-get-burned kind of drive to win. “I want it so bad right now. I want to win every single tournament that I’m playing in,” Day declared after pocketing his 10th career PGA Tour victory.
What, only 10? “I say to myself that’s not enough, and it isn’t enough for me. It’s just 10. I want more than 10.”
In combination, these traits might allow a man to play relatively raggedly for an extended stretch and still win a big-time tournament in a rout. Day’s front nine Sunday at the Players Championship consisted of taking more awkward stances than Bernie Sanders at the Goldman Sachs company picnic and falling victim to the par 5s rather than dominating them. Then he went 3 under on the back and easily won for the seventh time in his past 17 PGA Tour starts.
Hence, Day remains No. 1 in the world, with a bullet, if such a thing is possible.
While one member of golf’s so-called Big Three (Jordan Spieth) missed the cut and another (Rory McIlroy) labored in relative anonymity far ahead of the final twosome, Day completed a wire-to-wire victory at the Players .
All the golfers anyone’s heard of worked the fringes of this tournament. Day was left to fend off a collection of mostly plebeian pursers – only one of the nine players who began the day within seven strokes of Day’s lead were ranked in the top 85 of the world. That was playing partner Hideki Matsuyama (14th), who went 3 over on his first three holes and quickly opted out of the competition.
Oh, Day did waver. On a course playing far less severe than Saturday’s, he went 2 over on the front, at one point chunking a pair of chips on the par 5 ninth. But then he followed with a 17-foot birdie putt on No. 10 and in the end, he couldn’t have kept a safer distance from the masses if he had a police escort.
Day started Sunday with a four-stroke lead. And after posting his 71, to go 15 under for the week, he came home with a four-stroke victory over Kevin Chappell.
How are you going to lose when you have Tiger Woods in your corner and Ken Duke on your tail? (The likable Duke, the world’s 495th-ranked player, the fellow who would be voted “Looks Most Likely to Change His Own Oil” on the PGA Tour, finished in a tie for third).
Day has become a sort of proxy Woods, now that real thing is in for extended repairs.
The two are BFFs, Woods texting his buddy a steady stream of encouragement, much of it dealing with the fine points of victory.
“It’s been an amazing kind of journey for me to be able to idolize him as a junior and now I’m good mates with him and I get to pick his brain about what he did when he was dominating,” Day said.
Something’s working. He has won 41 percent of his 17 appearances since July, and nobody hits .400 in this sport anymore, either. Day has become golf’s American Pharoah – of the past three PGA Tour tournaments won wire-to-wire, Day has been holding the big trophy all three times.
Here’s the big difference between Day the young player of untapped potential and Day the indisputably best player in the world: The first seven times he held a 54-hole lead, Day won just once. Including Sunday, he is now five-for-his-past-five finishing the deal.
People are noticing.
“That’s Tiger-esque, that kind of a run,” said fellow Aussie Adam Scott.
No, a 10-month hot streak does not a Tiger make. But it certainly can make a fellow roar like one.
“I’ve never been more motivated to be No. 1 in the world,” Day said.
“This is exactly where I want to be, and I want to try and stay here as long as I can while I can, because nothing beats this feeling.”
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