‘ Crazy’ Day crashes out
Quadruple bogey madness kills off Aussie star’s PGA hopes
JASON Day flushed away his shot at a second US PGA Championship with an ugly quadruple bogey eight after a “crazy” gamble which confounded golf great Nick Faldo.
Fittingly, the Aussie needed to take a drop near a row of portable toilets after his punt with a one- in- a- hundred shot backfired disastrously.
Day is always mesmerising viewing but he simply stuffed up on the tough 18th hole yesterday at the end of a mentally draining five- hour round at the Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina.
Day lost the radar on his driver midway through yesterday’s wild third round but fought back brilliantly with three straight birdies.
With one poor decision the former world No. 1 was out.
Instead of being immersed in this morning’s final round shootout, Day’s tournament and majors season disappeared into the sunset.
He signed for a six- over- par 77 and in that one hole crashed from sixth to 16th at level par, seven strokes behind Ameri- can leader Kevin Kisner ( 67- 67- 72) instead of just three.
The trouble began when Day ( 70- 66- 77) flayed his drive right from the 18th tee into pine straw behind a tree.
Instead of a high percentage punch back to the fairway and a likely bogey, Day went highrisk by trying a low hooking iron around the tree and along the line of a cart path.
His landing area of concrete and trees gobbled his miscue in a hedge.
It meant an unplayable lie, a penalty drop, a flop shot into fairway rough, a putt lipping out and the wheels coming off.
“You are kidding me? ( That’s) one of the craziest decisions I’ve ever seen,” said Faldo, the six- time major champion- turned commentator.
“I’d love to know what he thought he could really do.”
When the dust settled, Day’s final seven holes included three birdies, two bogeys, a double bogey, an eight and not a single boring par.
Day will feel it more than anyone that this PGA has drifted with one horror round just as the Masters ( 76), US Open ( 79) and British Open ( 76) were ruined.
The creek- lined 18th punished the field, including compatriot Adam Scott ( 71- 76- 74) who had a double- bogey as did British Open champion Jordan Spieth when finding the water.
At least Day had the adrenaline of contending, something Spieth ( 72- 73- 71) never felt chasing the career Grand Slam of majors or favourite Rory McIlroy.
Kisner had his own palpitations with a bogey on the 18th when his second shot bounced high out of the rocky creek.