Jason Day Goes Wire-To-Wire At Bay Hill
- Dan Hauser
- 21 Mar, 2016
For two days, Jason Day seemed to be using Bay Hill as his own personal playground. After rounds of 66 and 65, Day was making it looked easy and it seemed like nobody would get even close to him.
Then the weekend happened.
Saturday came and brought the rain. Despite the PGA Tour moving up tee times to the early morning, and going off split tees, there was no avoiding it. Rain came down in spurts, borderline monsooning at times and just coming down in light sprinkles other times. Each rain storm brought significant temperature changes. The constant climate and weather changes messed with Day’s rhythm. Constantly taking the rain gear on and off, he had trouble getting comfortable, and as a result lacked any sort of momentum.
“It was hard to get any sort of momentum out there especially with taking umbrellas up and down and rain wear on and off,” Day said after his round Saturday. “It was cool and then it was hot and then — strange, strange day.”
Day managed to grind out a two under par 70 on Saturday and still found himself sleeping on a two shot 54-hole lead.
While Sunday brought perfect weather, Day once again failed to get comfortable early in his round. After back-to-back birdies at three and four, Day’s lead, which at the end of the day Friday was as high as six shots, was suddenly gone. Day continued to grind, but those early bogeys let Henrik Stenson, Troy Merritt, and Kevin Chappell back in and they all took advantage. At different points on the back nine all four had at least a share of the lead. It seemed as if whoever made the least mistakes coming down the home stretch would get the win.
Stenson was the first to falter. After failing to save par at the 14th, he hit his approach at the par-5 16th in the water and settled for another bogey. Merritt, after recording two double bogeys on the front nine and seeming to be all but done, ripped off five straight birdies to start his back nine, not just getting back into contention but even taking getting into a tie for the lead. He went on to double bogey the 18th after his approach found water and finished in a tie for third with Stenson at 14-under.
Day’s biggest threat on the back nine though was Chappell. Despite playing one group apart, the two seemed to trade blows down the stretch. Chappell, playing in the group ahead, was the first to get to 17-under when he birdied 16. After hitting into the deep rough on 18, and having to lay up, Chappell hit his third shot to about 25 feet and had that for a par save. As he got ready to hit his putt he heard the crowd erupt behind him. Day had just made birdie on 17 and tied Chappell. Chappell left his par putt short and suddenly Day found himself with the lead again heading to 18.
“I obviously heard that roar when I was on the 18th green,” Chappell said. “I guess Jason made birdie, and right before I putted and so I kind of figured and I mean being honest, kind of had me rattled a little bit.”
Day also put his tee shot on 18 into the gallery. Looking to take the water out of play, he hit his 2nd into a green side bunker to the left of the green. After taking several minutes assessing the situation and studying the break of the green, Day hit seemingly a perfect bunker shot, leaving himself a four footer for par and the win. He made the putt for his first win since the BMW back in September.
”I knew it was a good shot,” Day said. ”It was exactly what I wanted to do.”
Despite the struggles on the weekend, Day just kept thinking about a text he got from someone that knows Bay Hill like the back of his hand: Tiger Woods.
“Traded texts last night and this morning,” Day said. “It’s the same thing. For some reason when he sends the same stuff to me,’Just be yourself and stay in your world’ and for some reason it just means so much more. It gives me so much confidence that a person like that would believe in me, especially as a kid I was idolizing him ever since I was a kid and watching him in ’97 win the Masters for the first time and all of a sudden I’m playing the Tour and I’m pretty close with him now.”
One of the biggest difference makers on the week for Day was his play on the par 5s. Day was 10-under for the week on the par 5s and said that you have to be aggressive on those holes if you want to win.
“You have to come to a golf course like this and just crush the par-5s,” Day added/ “That’s more where all the scoring is. If you can get on the fairways, give yourself an opportunity to get to the green or around the green, let the short game take over and make birdies.”
After Day walked off the 18th green victorious, he stopped to talk with tournament host Arnold Palmer before heading to the scoring trailer. As for what they talked about?
“I just thanked him for what he’s done to the game and what he’s done for us as players. It’s obviously very quick and brief but to be able to walk up there and in the past be able to watch people walk up there and have that special moment with the King, it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and especially watching Tiger in the past do it a lot, I’ve wanted to do that and it’s great to be able to finally do that and on a golf course where it is tough, it is one of those tournaments that, you know, the biggest guys usually win and just very pleased to shake his hand.”
While Day has looked up to Tiger for so long and has become friends with him over the years, he has now done something that Woods never has at Bay Hill. While Tiger might have eight wins at Arnie’s track, he has never gone wire-to-wire in route to the victory. In fact, Day is the first to do it since Fred Couples in 1992. Day said he plans on mentioning that they next time they talk.
“I never knew that and I will text him that tonight,” Day said with a smile. “You know, regardless if you win wire to wire or you win pretty or you win ugly, a win is a win. Like I said, he’s been a big influence in my life ever since I was a kid and to have his advice to be able to go see him and practice with him and pick his brain about numerous things that I want to try and improve my game has been a big credit to him.”
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
