Top Dog Day’s Afternoon

Jason Day was able to win the 97th playing of the PGA Championship because he discovered the secret to winning a major golf tournament in this new era of men’s golf. Yes, he played record breaking, near flawless golf under pressure in an exciting afternoon of great golf at Whistling Straits. Yes, he beat the great field of 97 of the top 100 rated players in the world, beating all of the former major champions, the other excellent world golfers and the pride of the American PGA Tour to put his name on the Wanamaker Trophy as the PGA champion. But more importantly, he played at least one stroke better than Jordan Spieth.

It is now pretty apparent that Jordan Spieth is the new standard of excellence in golf (at least in majors). If you want to win a major, you’re gonna have to play better than Jordan. Just like Jack Nicklaus used to be the man to beat when he played (if you scored better than Nicklaus, chances are you were right there either next to the lead, or in the lead), that level of competitive excellence is now demonstrated at each major by Spieth.

Let’s look at the four majors this year. Of course, Speith won the Masters (with a record tying score of 18 under) and the U.S. Open (by surviving the vagaries of a bizzare course set up at Chamber’s Bay in Washington). No one was able to play better than the young Texan. Then, in the British Open, a trio of players were able to finish one stroke ahead of Spieth (who shot a score of 14 under), and Zach Johnson won the Claret Jug in a playoff. Then, in the PGA, Jordan Spieth shot 68 in the final round and finished 17 stokes under par. To win the PGA, you had to shoot at least 18 under par (to be better than Jordan). For a frame of reference, Spieth’s  aggregate score 54 strokes under par at the four majors this is BETTER than that which was done during the BEST year of Tiger Woods’ amazing run (that would be the year 2000).

Jason Day was able to win the PGA because he played so well, he finished at 20 under par, which is more under par than any player has ever been able to play a men’s major. Thus, we can see the new metrics of playing in a major. Spieth (and let’s give some credit to Rory McIlroy for helping to solidify the standard) has pretty much made the requirements for winning a major rise to heretofore near-record breaking numbers in order to win. Otherwise Spieth will shoot that low and win it himself.

Back to Day. He is a player that can do it ALL in golf. He can hit it long (over 300 yards every drive), he can hit it straight (if his driver is off, he can hit the fairway with a three “wood,” he can hit his irons well (and far), he chips like a master, and he can putt nearly as well as anyone. All those skills were on display this week at Whistling Straits. He shot rounds of 68, 67, 66 and 67. At a world renowned course tricked up to host a major. 20 under!!

Jason Day has the entire package to be one of the stars of golf. The win in the PGA raised his win total to three on the year, and the part of his game that appeared to slow him down (inability to close), now seems to be a distant memory. He is only 26 years old and yet has every single tool of the excellent golfer as does McIlroy. He has all of the long, power game of Rory (of course the iron play, the putting and chipping too) and it seems now that when the majors roll by next year, he will likely join McIlroy and Spieth as the co-favorites in all of them.

Isn’t that going to be fun for all of the guys out there trying to win their first major? They not only have to shoot the tournament of their lives, they also have to hope that none of the new “big three” is also having a great week, because I get the feeling that if Day, Spieth or McIlroy is also having their A game going, THEY are going to beat everybody else’s A games. I think we are kind of getting ready for a new era of competitive greatness by these three young men in their 20’s that is going to shape the game going forward for the next decade or so.

A lot of people have thought for a long time that Jason Day would not only win a major, but was capable of winning a LOT of them. You have to win your first one to win a lot of them, so now Jason Day has the major monkey off his back.

So now we look forward to next year’s major season and we now know who will be the men to beat. By the way, according to the new world golf rankings, who do you think are now the top three ranked players in the world at this moment in time? That would be Jordan Spieth (yes, he just replaced the now number two), Rory McIlroy, and Jason Day. Yep, there’s a new top dog in town, golf world.