Jason Day just did his part in making this 2016 PGA Tour season even more exciting.
After taking three months off from golf to spend time with his family and newborn daughter Day’s game wasn’t as sharp as when we saw him at the end of 2015 when he won five times including the PGA Championship.
He’ll tell you he didn’t have his A game today but what he did have was just enough to stay ahead of a trio of players and win the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his eighth PGA Tour win.
He was trying to hold on for a wire to wire win at Bay Hill and while he wasn’t as sharp as he would like early in his round he did what he had to do on the back nine when it mattered.
His competitors did not. Henrik Stenson was in contention until a bogey on the fourteenth and then another with a water ball on the sixteenth.
Troy Merritt looked to have the right stuff with five straight birdies to open his back nine. But the pressure got to him and he rinsed his approach on the eighteenth for double bogey.
Kevin Chappell was ready to break through for his first win but a wayward drive on eighteen left him no real approach shot and his bogey dropped him to sixteen under.
Day had a clean card on the back nine with a birdie on twelve and a clutch birdie at the difficult par 3 seventeen to get him to his winning score of -17.
The last wire to wire winner on the tour? Jason Day, 2015 PGA Championship.
So as this season picks up steam and heads to The Masters in two weeks the list of players that have won in ’16 is impressive.
Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Adam Scott (twice), Jason Dufner, Charl Schwartzel and now Day are all former major champions who have notched a win this season.
Those are some big names in golf and while Rory McIlroy is off to a slow PGA Tour start we all know he is focused on winning The Masters to complete his career grand slam.
With two tournaments left before The Masters this season is shaping up for one wild showdown at Augusta.
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