Day has been dominant lately

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLA.

» Nothing is good enough for Jason Day.

He won The Players Championship for his seventh victory in the last 10 months, and all he could talk about was winning more. He is No. 1 in the world by an increasingly large margin over Jordan Spieth, and his points average is the highest of any player since Tiger Woods in the late summer of 2013. Day wants to go higher. “Keep pushing,” he said Sunday after his four-shot victory. “Yeah, keep pushing, because Tiger says he’s going to kick my butt when he comes back, so I’m going to try and extend that gap. So if he does come back and he’s turned into Tiger Woods again, I’ve got to watch my behind.”

Woods hasn’t played since August. He hasn’t won in three years.

Part of his time appears to be spent on sending text messages to Day, who never fails to mention how much he has leaned on his idol for advice on how to play, how to think his way around the golf course, how to close out tournaments.

At the moment, Day looks like a suitable replacement.

His work ethic is fierce. He hits it long, straight and can hit a 3-iron higher than the pine trees lining the fairways. His iron play is among the best. His scrambling? He got up-and-down 85 percent of the time, the highest rate of anyone at The Players Championship. And, for the most part, he felt as if he could make anything with his putter.

“It’s no coincidence he’s No. 1 in the world,” Justin Thomas said. “He drives it extremely far, extremely straight. He hits it to the moon, so he can access pins that most people can’t. His short game is ridiculous. I think I’ve pretty much covered it all there when it comes to the golf.”

Adam Scott played with his fellow Australian during a practice round and saw him oozing with confidence. Scott knows that look. When he was an amateur, Scott played a practice round with Woods in Las Vegas before Woods went over to Pebble Beach for the 2000 U.S. Open, which he won by 15 shots. What always stood out about Woods is not that he won, and won big, but that he did it for so long.