The Jason Day Air Express was on automatic pilot Sunday at Firestone. It was winging its way toward victory at the WGC Bridgestone when things went wrong on the back nine.
Day had it in cruise control, he was steady as you’d expect the world’s No. 1 player to be until he hit turbulence at the 15th hole. Day missed a par putt from just inside five feet and suddenly, he found himself in a fight with Dustin Johnson.
Two holes ahead, Johnson had just birdied the 17th to go five-under for his round and seven-under for the day, he had seized the lead from Day, though only by a shot.
Then, without warning, Day crashed and burned at the long par five 16th. An errant drive finished under a tall pine tree and he was barely able to get it out and still found himself in the rough. It was then he made his biggest mistake of the tournament. “I tried to hit it just left of the green,” Day recounted. What happened then sent him reeling. His shot came too close to the pond and drifted off course and into the water. His fifth sailed long and two putts later he walked off the green with double-bogey.
His victory marched halted, he had fallen back to four-under and seemingly out of it.
Johnson was unaware of what transpired behind him. “Not until I was on the green at 18,” he said afterward. “My brother told me what happened.”
It didn’t matter that an errant drive saw Johnson close with a bogey. He still shot 66 and his six-under par total was good enough to edge runnerup Scott Piercy, who finished just behind Johnson at the U.S. Open. A closing bogey by Day gave him a two-over par 72 and left him in a tie for third with Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Kevin Chappell.
“I played pretty good until the putt at 15,” Day observed afterward. “Disappointed but I’ve got to try and focus on what I did great this week. He (Johnson) played great golf on the weekend. You can’t really do nothing but congratulate him. Unfortunately I didn’t do the best I could to try and beat him.”
Johnson was all smiles as he followed up his U.S. Open win with a big WGC victory. “Another pretty good day. Played really solid when the course was playing tough. I feel like if I hit it in the fairway, I’m gonna be really tough to beat.”
And that was a fair warning to Day and the rest of the world’s top players.
2 Comments
beege
just saw greg chalmers win the barracuda. that is great–a true journeyman finally tasting victory. The first man over 40 to win on tour this year and a trip to Troon plus the two year exemption that is worth its weight in gold. Love seeing this story.
Tom Edrington
You are a true golf fan Bob, these “opposite field” events are just a step above the Web.com Tour, but we’ll give Chalmers a “good on ‘ya mate” for that one…..he only scored four points on the day and most of them came when he made eagle at the 72nd hole. Nice.