Jason Day’s Impressive Win at The PLAYERS

Jason Day continued his dominating streak of golf today with his wire to wire win at The PLAYERS Championship. Since his win at the RBC Canadian Open last July Day has won in seven of his last seventeen starts. That’s a 41% victory rate, a number rarely seen in golf.

It’s also his tenth PGA Tour win and that earns him membership in a special club. Since 1980 only four other players have won ten times before their 29^th birthday: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Rory McIlroy. That’s some serious company.

After Saturday’s disaster on the greens which saw scores skyrocket the PGA Tour was able to get the greens back to a familiar speed but Day was unable to take advantage of the “normal” speed. He failed to card a bogey on the front nine and when he took three chips to get on the ninth green for his second bogey it looked like he may begin to falter. His four shot lead had been cut to two and he needed to take charge of his game. He certainly did.

With a solid gameplan and an even more impressive execution he bounced back with three birdies on the back nine to finish at fifteen under par for a four shot win over Kevin Chappell.

Day didn’t try to overpower the TPC Sawgrass with his driver but rather hit a mixture of irons and three woods off many tees to put him in a good position to attack the green. When you can hit a two iron over 300 yards and control it you can still overpower a course even Sawgrass.

Day’s tee game was impressive. His putting magnificent but it was his chipping and short game that may have won this for him. With the exception of his three chip ninth hole today he constantly chipped the ball in close for kick-ins time and time again.

He is known for his superb driving game and goes after the ball at 120% but his touch around the greens and his ability to get it up and down earned him this championship.

Since 2013 Day has eight wins on the PGA Tour the most of any player.

Back in his day Jack Nicklaus won at a 12% clip. Tiger Woods in his prime at 24%. I’m not saying Day’s in their class yet but he’s off to a good start. Hey, 41% is very impressive. So is Jason Day.

Click here for Doug Ferguson’s game story.