Jason Day

It is always fun when we feature the player that ends up winning the tournament that week, which is exactly what happened when we featured Justin Rose last week for The Zurich Classic. We will see if we can continue that as we are featuring Jason Day this week. Day is the defending champ of the WGC Cadillac Match Play Tournament and if you recall, he had to fend off Victor Dubuisson who made several miraculous shots. This year Jason Day has played very well including highlights of a T3 at Hyundai Tournament of Champions, a T4 at AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and a championship at the Farmers Insurance Open. That win was Day’s 3rd victory on the PGA Tour. Last week Day delivered a T4 at The Zurich Classic.

Born in Beaudesert, Queensland, Day started playing golf at the age of six. As an amateur, Day was twice awarded the Australian Junior Order of Merit. He finished seventh and was the leading amateur at the Queensland Open. Day won the Australian Boys Amateur in 2004. His amateur success extended to the United States where he won the 2004 Callaway World Junior Championship. Day turned professional in July 2006 after winning the Green Jacket at the NEC Master of Amateurs, and immediately began playing PGA events. He made the cut in five of his first six PGA Tour events as a pro with a best finish of eleventh at the Reno-Tahoe Open and with official winnings of over $160,000. He entered PGA Tour qualifying school. Day failed to earn his 2007 PGA Tour card but earned conditional status on the Nationwide Tour for 2007. Day won his first Nationwide Tour event in July 2007 and ended up finishing 5th on the money list to earn his PGA Tour card for 2008. He had a mediocre season, but had conditional status for 2009. A second-place finish at the Puerto Rick Open helped Day retain his card for 2010 and he finished 69th in the money list.

In May 2010, he became the youngest Australian to win a PGA Tour event, winning the HP Byron Nelson Championship. At the 2011 Masters, Day birdied the last two holes, but came up two strokes short of eventual winner Charl Schwartzel tied for second and set the Masters record for the lowest score by a first time participant. In June 2011, Day participated in his maiden appearance in a U.S Open. Following his successful run at the Masters, Day achieved consecutive second-place finishes in the majors, this time finishing alone in second, some eight strokes behind Rory McIlroy. As a result of his major performances, Day moved into the top-10 of the World Golf Rankings for the first time in his career at ninth. Day finished as a runner-up for the third time in a major championship at the 2013 US Open. He finished in a tie for second alongside Phil Mickelson, behind winner Justin Rose.

That brings us back to last February where Day won his first WGC event at the Accenture Match Play Championship .In the final, Victor Dubuisson won the last two holes to tie, then twice scrambled halves after missing greens at the extra holes before Day finally secured victory. The win lifted Day to fourth in the world rankings.

Overall last year Day made 14 cuts in the 15 tournaments that he played, including six Top 10s, two runner ups, and the WGC win. This season he is 7 for 7 in cups made, three Top 10s, with that win at Farmers. He also won the unofficial Franklin Templeton shootout in December with partner Cameron Tringale.

He currently ranks 6th in the World Golf Rankings, 5th in driving distance, 18th in Strokes Gained Tee-To-Green, 17th in Total Strokes Gained, and 11th in Greens in Regulation. He seems to have taken the step to becoming a consistently elite player on tour this year. This week he is a number one seed in a pool that features Zach Johnson, Brandon Grace, and Charley Hoffman. We see Day easily advancing out of that pool and onto at least the semifinals. He is a great pick for all season long formats and daily fantasy golf.