Yesterday at the Wells Fargo Championship Jason Day proved the old adage “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” Professional golfers used to live by the mantra “fairways and greens” in hopes of hitting the ball in the short grass and finding the greens in regulation. But Jason Day who is known to do things a bit differently took his own route to victory at the venerable Quail Hollow Club.
Maybe Day’s fellow pros will be adding “anywhere and everywhere and putt like hell” to the lexicon of the game after Day’s wild ride to his second win of the season.
Quail Hollow is beloved by the golfers on the PGA Tour and is a true championship layout as was proven by hosting last year’s PGA Championship. Day had a good history there with a T9 at the PGA last year and another T9 in ’12. But on a tough track like Quail Hollow one would expect that hitting those “fairways and greens” so cherished by the pros would be critical to the victor. Not so much for Jason Day.
Day did anything but play from the short stuff but rather showed his own special method to skinning that cat. “I had no idea where the ball was going today, especially off the tee,” said Day, “I missed a lot of fairways, missed a lot of greens. My short game stood the test, which was nice. This was probably one of the best wins I’ve ever had just because of how hard everything was today.”
He’s was so right, he was horrible off the tee in the final round hitting only six fairways and finding only eight greens, pathetic by any standard. But he scrambled like hell and putted lights out on his way to his twelfth PGA win.
He led the field in strokes gained around the green, made 15 of 16 sand saves was second in strokes gained putting and only needed 22 putts for his final round.
Day started with a two shot lead but bogeys were as frequent as birdies on his card and after he plopped his tee shot to fourteen in the water he fell into a tie with youngster Aaron Wise. But this is where the champions separate themselves from the rookies.
Day sank a ten foot putt on sixteen for a birdie to take the lead and then hit the shot of the tournament on seventeen. On the long par 3 (231 yards) he laced an iron that ricocheted off the flag, nearly acing the hole and settling just three feet from the hole. With his hot, spider putter doing the work he dropped it in to reclaim his two shot lead and the win.
Day is as physically fit as anyone on tour and drives the ball with the longest of them but it’s his short game and his short stick that wins him tournaments. And he couldn’t find his form at a better time as he’ll be looking for his second PLAYERS Championship this week at Sawgrass.
Fairways and greens? Who needs them, not Jason Day.
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