Day’s moving day a roller coaster that hits bottom
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jason Day reeled off three straight birdies and took a remarkable gamble that didn’t pay off.
This Day was moving at the PGA Championship — both up and down.
Day’s quadruple bogey on the par-4 18th finished off a 6-over 77 on Saturday that left him at even par through three rounds of the tournament, in a tie for 16th place and seven strokes behind leader Kevin Kisner.
Day declined to speak to reporters as he left the clubhouse following an anything-but-boring back nine that included three birdies, two bogeys, a double bogey and that eight on the 18th.
His final hole was tough to explain.
Day was just four strokes back when his tee shot on the 494-yard hole veered behind a tree in some pine straw on the right side of the fairway. He tried a high-risk shot to hook it around the tree , and it landed in a bush, winding up unplayable.
After taking a drop near some portable toilets, he hit a flop shot over some trees into the fairway rough. His shot from that thick grass stopped 65 feet shy of the stick, and he three-putted .
“I didn’t even know what he made. I wasn’t keeping his score,” said Kisner, who was in Day’s group along with Hideki Matsuyama. “I was pretty consumed with what the heck I was trying it do on the second shot. I had never seen a hole location short of a false front before. It’s unfortunate. He played good coming in and then gave it all away, so that’s tough.”
Matsuyama said through an interpreter that he had “no words of advice” for Day, “but let’s go get them tomorrow.”
By his high standards, Day has called this a poor season with only two top10 finishes in 15 starts.
The world’s former No. 1 player has dropped to seventh in the rankings, but he came to Quail Hollow Club with what he described as slowly building confidence after finishing in a tie for 24th last week at Bridgestone. He’s also had two consecutive strong showings at this event, winning it in 2015 and finishing second to Jimmy Walker at Baltusrol.
The 29-year-old Australian finished tied for 22nd at the Masters, missed the cut at the U.S. Open and was tied for 27th at the British Open.
Spieth: This isn’t the slam for him
Jordan Spieth went for it. It just turned out not to be his week to make golf history.
The 24-year-old Spieth walked away from the third round of the PGA Championship with his head held high, knowing he’ll have many more chances to complete golf’s prestigious career Grand Slam.
It just won’t happen Sunday.
“I didn’t have it written in a diary from when I was young that I need to win a career Grand Slam as the youngest player ever — that wasn’t the goal,” Spieth said after an evenpar 71 left him at 3-over 216 for the tournament and 10 strokes out of contention entering the final round.
The goal, he said, was to get on the PGA Tour and “see what happens from there.”
Spieth acknowledged that the PGA Championship is the toughest for him to win. It is the one major that doesn’t particularly play to his strengths perhaps because it typically favors longer hitters.
“If we look historically back on my career, I think I will play this tournament worse than the three majors just in the way that it’s set up,” Spieth said. “I feel like my game truly suits the other three majors more than the PGA Championship.”
That said, Spieth still believes he can win it someday.
“It’s just a matter of having everything in sync at the right time,” Spieth said.