Day, Spieth set up Sunday showdown
at US PGA Championship
Jason Day, shown at the 2015 PGA Championship
(
Associated Press
)
Leaderboard
MOSEL, Wisconsin . – Jason Day was making it look so, well, easy. As the sun started to dip down across scenic Lake Michigan along his back nine late Saturday afternoon, the sport boats gently bobbing up and down in the water below, Day’s score was taking a big dip as well, and he was threatening to run off at the 97th PGA Championship.
Birdie at the ninth. Birdie at 10. Eagle at the par-5 11th, where he
smashed a drive so long, former PGA champion Rich Beem said Day’s golf
ball “tapped out in the fairway.” It left Day with only a wedge into the
green from 160 yards (gulp!), and he knocked it to 13 feet. Boom!
Birdie at 13, kick-in birdie at 14 … it was pretty special stuff.
Only a mishap from a soft greenside bunker at the par-4 15th, which led to double bogey, would do anything to slow him (he’d get one of those shots back with a birdie at the 217-yard 17th hole, a real bonus). But for the third consecutive round, Day (11 fairways, 13 greens, 24 putts) would tick a shot off his score, and rounds of 68-67-66 have him in terrific position to capture his first major on Sunday.
So, will it finally happen for Day, who keeps knocking so hard on the door? Well, there are some world-class players who will have something to say about that, including one Jordan Spieth, the 22-year-old wunderkind from Texas who has won two majors and nearly added a third last month at St. Andrews, where he finished just a shot out of a three-man playoff. No one has solved the riddle of the majors this year anywhere close to the way Spieth has. Through 15 rounds, he now is 50 under par.
Can we pause for a few seconds here to appreciate that? Fifty. Under. Par. At Augusta, Chambers Bay, St. Andrews and Whistling Straits. We’re not talking the old Bob Hope Desert Classic, folks.
Spieth appeared to be stuck in neutral for much of his round on Saturday, making nine consecutive pars at one point as the field was piling up birdies on a day when the wind was down (field scoring average, 70.62). And then he would go on a rip-rocket tear, thrilling those in the packed grandstands who stayed late with six birdies in his final eight holes, including three birdies as his collective finishing bow.
Spieth hit the par-5 16th in two, made from 13 feet at the 17th and 7 feet at the difficult 18th, and all of a sudden, he was signing for a 65 that pulled him within two shots of Day and places him in position to chase history on Sunday. Spieth would become only the third player to capture three professional majors in a single season, joining Ben Hogan (1953) and Tiger Woods (2000).
Most would tend to think his belly already is filled by success with what he’s done in such a magical 2015, but Spieth doesn’t quite view it that way. He looks at it thusly: Counting the 2014 Masters, which he lost to Bubba Watson, he has had four excellent shots at winning major championships, and his record is a pedestrian 2-2.
It did hit home for him this week that majors are rare, and winning them even rarer, and he knows it will be a long way until the Masters should he come up short on Sunday. That’s enough to keep him very hungry.
“I realized we don’t get to play another event like this until April of next year,” Spieth said. “And that makes you think, wow, there really are only a few of these, and they’re precious, and you need to make the most of them.”
For the most part, he’s covered that end of the bargain.
Also in the mix for Sunday: Englishman Justin Rose (68) and South Africa's Branden Grace (64), who are two shots back; former PGA champion Martin Kaymer (65) of Germany, who won five years ago when the PGA visited Whistling Straits; as well as long-hitting Tony Finau and 54-hole leader Matt Jones, an Aussie who was sticking close to Day before the wheels fell off and he played his final four holes in 4 over. Jones struggled to 73, while Finau posted 69. They’ll start Sunday five shots out.
“It would take something pretty special, a 65 at least, to have a chance, at best,” Jones said. “Jason is playing great. He’s going to be very tough to beat tomorrow the way he’s putting. Best of luck to him.”
Dustin Johnson, the tragic figure of Whistling Straits five years ago, shot 68 and is at 9-under 207.
Here’s the thing about Day: He dealt with vertigo at Chambers Bay, and he came up just a few revolutions shy of one final birdie that would have put him in the playoff at the British Open. He was gutted leaving the Home of Golf, having given so much down the stretch that he departed hastily in tears.
This week, he has vowed not to get in his own way. It means a great deal to him, yes, but he cannot treat it like that. Refreshingly, he’s having fun out on the golf course, and absolutely smashing his driver, which is putting him in many green-light situations to go at pins. He is still riding high off winning the RBC Canadian Open (where he finished birdie-birdie-birdie) the week after St. Andrews and says his belief in himself is as high as it has been all season.
“My confidence level is high, but I’m just more enjoying just being out on the golf course,” Day said. “Rather than in previous positions that I’ve had in major championships, I’ve viewed them as very stressful and kind of hard to go out and play the next day. But I’m enjoying myself so much on the golf course.”
Said Day's longtime manager, Bud Martin, "He's started to play like he did when he was a junior and an amateur, when he expected to win."
On Sunday, he’ll go eye-to-eye with Spieth, who continues to dazzle and amaze. Day knows he can’t get caught up too much in what Spieth, the best putter in the game, is doing, or somebody else might pass him by. But also admits it can be challenging to not be making putts when the other guy in your group is running them in from Kenosha to Sheboygan.
“If he goes out and wins tomorrow from putting well,” Day said of Spieth, “then he deserves it. But I’m going to give him a fight.”
Buckle up. This could be a lot of fun.
MOSEL, Wisconsin . – Jason Day was making it look so, well, easy. As the sun started to dip down across scenic Lake Michigan along his back nine late Saturday afternoon, the sport boats gently bobbing up and down in the water below, Day’s score was taking a big dip as well, and he was threatening to run off at the 97th PGA Championship.
Only a mishap from a soft greenside bunker at the par-4 15th, which led to double bogey, would do anything to slow him (he’d get one of those shots back with a birdie at the 217-yard 17th hole, a real bonus). But for the third consecutive round, Day (11 fairways, 13 greens, 24 putts) would tick a shot off his score, and rounds of 68-67-66 have him in terrific position to capture his first major on Sunday.
So, will it finally happen for Day, who keeps knocking so hard on the door? Well, there are some world-class players who will have something to say about that, including one Jordan Spieth, the 22-year-old wunderkind from Texas who has won two majors and nearly added a third last month at St. Andrews, where he finished just a shot out of a three-man playoff. No one has solved the riddle of the majors this year anywhere close to the way Spieth has. Through 15 rounds, he now is 50 under par.
Can we pause for a few seconds here to appreciate that? Fifty. Under. Par. At Augusta, Chambers Bay, St. Andrews and Whistling Straits. We’re not talking the old Bob Hope Desert Classic, folks.
Spieth appeared to be stuck in neutral for much of his round on Saturday, making nine consecutive pars at one point as the field was piling up birdies on a day when the wind was down (field scoring average, 70.62). And then he would go on a rip-rocket tear, thrilling those in the packed grandstands who stayed late with six birdies in his final eight holes, including three birdies as his collective finishing bow.
Spieth hit the par-5 16th in two, made from 13 feet at the 17th and 7 feet at the difficult 18th, and all of a sudden, he was signing for a 65 that pulled him within two shots of Day and places him in position to chase history on Sunday. Spieth would become only the third player to capture three professional majors in a single season, joining Ben Hogan (1953) and Tiger Woods (2000).
Most would tend to think his belly already is filled by success with what he’s done in such a magical 2015, but Spieth doesn’t quite view it that way. He looks at it thusly: Counting the 2014 Masters, which he lost to Bubba Watson, he has had four excellent shots at winning major championships, and his record is a pedestrian 2-2.
It did hit home for him this week that majors are rare, and winning them even rarer, and he knows it will be a long way until the Masters should he come up short on Sunday. That’s enough to keep him very hungry.
“I realized we don’t get to play another event like this until April of next year,” Spieth said. “And that makes you think, wow, there really are only a few of these, and they’re precious, and you need to make the most of them.”
For the most part, he’s covered that end of the bargain.
Also in the mix for Sunday: Englishman Justin Rose (68) and South Africa's Branden Grace (64), who are two shots back; former PGA champion Martin Kaymer (65) of Germany, who won five years ago when the PGA visited Whistling Straits; as well as long-hitting Tony Finau and 54-hole leader Matt Jones, an Aussie who was sticking close to Day before the wheels fell off and he played his final four holes in 4 over. Jones struggled to 73, while Finau posted 69. They’ll start Sunday five shots out.
“It would take something pretty special, a 65 at least, to have a chance, at best,” Jones said. “Jason is playing great. He’s going to be very tough to beat tomorrow the way he’s putting. Best of luck to him.”
Dustin Johnson, the tragic figure of Whistling Straits five years ago, shot 68 and is at 9-under 207.
Here’s the thing about Day: He dealt with vertigo at Chambers Bay, and he came up just a few revolutions shy of one final birdie that would have put him in the playoff at the British Open. He was gutted leaving the Home of Golf, having given so much down the stretch that he departed hastily in tears.
This week, he has vowed not to get in his own way. It means a great deal to him, yes, but he cannot treat it like that. Refreshingly, he’s having fun out on the golf course, and absolutely smashing his driver, which is putting him in many green-light situations to go at pins. He is still riding high off winning the RBC Canadian Open (where he finished birdie-birdie-birdie) the week after St. Andrews and says his belief in himself is as high as it has been all season.
“My confidence level is high, but I’m just more enjoying just being out on the golf course,” Day said. “Rather than in previous positions that I’ve had in major championships, I’ve viewed them as very stressful and kind of hard to go out and play the next day. But I’m enjoying myself so much on the golf course.”
Said Day's longtime manager, Bud Martin, "He's started to play like he did when he was a junior and an amateur, when he expected to win."
On Sunday, he’ll go eye-to-eye with Spieth, who continues to dazzle and amaze. Day knows he can’t get caught up too much in what Spieth, the best putter in the game, is doing, or somebody else might pass him by. But also admits it can be challenging to not be making putts when the other guy in your group is running them in from Kenosha to Sheboygan.
“If he goes out and wins tomorrow from putting well,” Day said of Spieth, “then he deserves it. But I’m going to give him a fight.”
Buckle up. This could be a lot of fun.
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Sunday, August 16, 2015
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