Jason Day hopes to break the taboo and bag his first major at the Open Championship
Jason Day, the 23-year-old Aussie, will be among the many young aspirants at the Royal St. George’s this week, hoping to bag the first major title in their short careers. Triggered by the rampaging Rory McIlroy’s recent victory at the US Open at Congressional,
the young guns have now decided to go all out in their bid for major titles at the start of their careers.
Day has been fortunate enough like the rest of his young compatriots, to have come out when the notorious Tiger Woods era has momentarily subsided and the game is now more evenly poised than it had been in last two decades. Players who have won the last
five majors are all in their 20s and none of them is an American.
Phil Mickelson’s victory at Augusta last year was the last American major victory in the sport and its aftermath unleashed a plethora of trailblazing European golfers who took the sport by storm. Day, although still a novice among the giants of the game,
is certainly qualified to win the major this week.
“Obviously if you go around to each country, each country has their own rising star coming up,” said the Aussie. “This is the start of it, and obviously Rory is leading it, and there’s a bunch of other great golfers out there that obviously we need to work
a little harder to get to the level of Rory.”
The player went on to add, “We really are going to start a new generation, and it’s really fun. I think it’s great for golf.”
Day made his major debut at the Open Championship after his stellar victory at the PGA Tour event the Byron Nelson Championship and finished for a joint 60th. He participated in the PGA Championship the very next week and posted a joint 10th
finish in the event. The player quickly attracted the media attention with his strong finish and hype around him started growing with rapid pace.
The Aussie opened up his Masters bid this year with a disappointing opening round but quickly regained his composure to finally finish as runner-up behind the winner Charl Schwartzel. Day went over to post another runner-up finish at the US Open and saw
his rankings soar to world number seven.
Apart from his individual efforts on the great arena, Day is also understandably aware of his country’s long lust for a major title. Australians have not won a major for the last five years, when Geoff Ogilvy managed to clinch the US Open title at Winged
Foot. Ogilvy’s victory brought the end to an 11-year long dearth of major titles for the aspiring Australians.
Steve Elkington was the last Aussie who won the PGA Championship title in 1995 at Riviera. Day will most certainly be the happiest man to break the taboo and win a major title for his country.
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