Day wins Farmers playoff at Torrey Pines
SAN DIEGO — Jason Day’s playoff win in the 2015 Farmers Insurance Open ignited a run of eight victories in two years, a major championship win and the ascendancy to the top of the world golf rankings.
After some rough going over the last year, the 30-year-old Australian is hoping his latest Farmers victory in extra holes will do the same.
Day needed only 14 minutes and four shots to prevail Monday over Sweden’s Alex Noren on the sixth hole of a playoff that was extended to an extra day by darkness on Sunday.
Attempting to win for the first time on the U.S. tour, Noren tried to reach the Torrey Pines South Course’s par-5 18th green with a 3-wood from 256 yards. The shot was nearly perfect, but the ball hit into the upslope of the bank in front of the green and trickled back into the water.
Day, who had to lay up after hitting his drive into the right rough, fired a lob wedge from 85 yards to 10 yards past the flagstick, and his ball came back to 18 inches from the cup. Day tapped in for birdie, while Noren finished with a bogey.
In all, Day made four birdies at 18 in the playoff, which was the longest by two holes in the tournament’s 50-years history at Torrey Pines.
He earned $1.24 million for his 11th tour win.
A couple hundred fans — mostly sitting in skyboxes at 18 — were on hand for the finish after tournament organizers, citing volunteer and security issues, decided to not allow the public to attend.
By the time Day was awarded his trophy for a second time in four years at Torrey, there were a handful of Century Club members and Day’s wife, Ellie, and their two children there to celebrate.
“It’s special for me to be able to win here again,” said Day, who recorded his first victory since the 2016 Players Championship. “I first came over here as a junior and won the Junior World Championships, and being able to win in 2015 propelled me to a really great year.
“Obviously, the preparation and the hard work over the holidays has really paid off early, so I need to make sure I stay on top of that.”
There were numerous subplots to Day’s victory.
His caddie for the week is his friend from childhood, Rika Batisbasaga, who was pulled into duty because Day’s regular caddie had visa problems.
Day was struggling with a sore back before the tournament and his prospects didn’t look good when he was 3 over on the South Course on Thursday through the first 12 holes.
Day also revealed that he had a Saturday night conversation with Tiger Woods about how to manage “momentum.”
“His piece of advice was to not make bogey,” Day recalled with a laugh, knowing full well that was a near-impossible task on Sunday, when the Santa Ana winds blew to at least 20 mph at times.
On top of all that, Day had taken a long break from competition, and was coming off a 2017 season in which he had only five top-10 finishes and saw his world ranking drop to 14th after he spent 51 weeks at No. 1.
Too, personal turmoil dogged Day. His mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, late in the year he decided to no longer have his coach and mentor, Colin Swatton, on the bag, and Ellie Day suffered a miscarriage on Thanksgiving.
“Last year was a good kick in the butt, not really being talked about ... and being talked about for the wrong reasons,” Day said. “Take my mum out of the equation. I see the guys winning — Jordan (Spieth) and Dustin (Johnson) are playing some tremendous golf. Jon Rahm’s playing some tremendous golf, and I feel like I should be there, as well, winning.