DAY ABOUT TO DAWN ... AGAIN

Shrugging off injuries and a form slump, Aussie golfer starts to look like ‘the Jason of old’, RUSSELL GOULD writes

WHEN Jason Day holed out from the fairway on the 14th hole at Torrey Pines last Sunday morning, and tied for the lead in the Farmer’s Insurance Open, the reverberations of that magic moment were felt in his homeland.

The 34-year-old former world No.1 didn’t win the tournament, following that epic eagle with two late bogeys - which meant he missed the playoff, won by Luke List, by just a single shot.

It was still, however, a major moment for a major champion who looked like the “Jason of old”, according to fellow Aussie major winner Geoff Ogilvy.

And Ogilvy saw plenty to like in a player climbing his way back from the depths of injuries and a stark loss of form.

To put in perspective where Day - without a win since 2018 and who fell to world No.129 - had been, consider that a top-15 finish at this week’s Pebble Beach event would see the Queenslander pass $50m in career earnings.

Only 10 players in the Tour’s history have reached the $50m mark. Day is currently 11th with $49,835,755.

Adam Scott, with $57,389,329, is the only Aussie ahead of Day, who has won 12 times on the US PGA Tour across a career that includes the 2015 PGA Championship.

That’s how good Day has been.

And Ogilvy, who makes the top 50 on the all-time money list himself, said there was plenty to like in last Sunday’s surge.

“He looked a bit more like the Jason of old. He looked very comfortable. He seemed to get better during the day, except for right at the end,” Ogilvy said this week.

“When you haven’t been in contention for a really long time, and that is a brutal finish at Torrey South, he did really well.

“He’s been fighting his body, which is an awful thing to do when all you want to do is play golf and your body is not letting you do it.

“He’s had a frustrating period.

“But he looked the goods.

“Golf is a fickle game, but he looked more like the Jason of old last week.”

Ogilvy will take on his role as a President’s Cup assistant to captain Trevor Immelman when the international team pits itself against the US in September.

The list of potential Australian inclusions is long, with Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman, who are playing in Saudi Arabia this week instead of Pebble Beach, certainties. Newly minted PGA tour winner Lucas Herbert, also in Saudi Arabia, and Min Woo Lee, who is playing at Pebble Beach, could also be in the mix. But Ogilvy said having Day, who missed the previous encounter at Royal Melbourne, back in form good enough to return to the Presidents Cup could be what the International team needed to end a long losing drought.

“We’d love him to get back in the mix,” Ogilvy said.

“You get these players who are a little bit out of form.

“But if you put them on the last hole of the Presidents Cup with the whole thing on the line, he’s one of the guys you would want to have.”

After feeling the rush of being in contention again last week, feeling free, relatively, of the back issues that have held him back, Day also saw a return to the top in his future.

“I know that I’m heading in the right direction, and I know that the work I’ve been putting into my game is starting to pay off,” he said.

“Obviously if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be in that position.

“So I know that things are looking up, I’ve just got to really just keep working hard.

“I’m in that stage of trying to, you know, make these things more concrete. And then if I can do that, then I’ll be in contention a lot more, and then the confidence comes back.

“Then when the confidence comes back, hopefully I win five, 10 times a year.”

And that many wins would put $50m in prizemoney in the rear vision mirror fast. russell.gould@news.com.au