Jason Day remains faithful to his debut event the John Deere Classic on PGA Tour
Despite a stronger field at the Barclays Scottish Open, which would have provided a better preparation pitch for next week’s Open Championship, Jason Day has opted to stay at the PGA Tour for the John Deere Classic.
The young Aussie's choice of event, however, may be well placed given that he kicked off his professional debut right here in 2006. For Day, it was more a matter of being loyal to his first golf event rather than being more realistic and opportunistic to
head for the Scottish Open.
“I was 18 back then, and you know, it’s the first tournament I had as a professional, and you know, it’s not the strongest field. Obviously we’re opposite the Scottish which is, you know, the warm up for the British for most guys. But you know, there’s a
lot of good solid players in the field,” he said.
Day has rattled the field twice in both the majors this year when he finished runner-up at the Masters and the US Open to climb on to world number seven in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). He opened up his Masters bid in a more disappointing fashion
but later regained his resilient form in the proceeding rounds to finish behind the champion Charl Schwartzel.
Day also posted a magnificent performance earlier in the season at WGC Accenture World Match Play Championship and made it into quarterfinal to be finally defeated by eventual champion, Luke Donald.
“[I]t’s very hard to go away from this tournament. It’s very hard to turn away from this tournament because it’s very close to my heart because it was my first start back in 2006,” he said.
Day posted a round of four-under, 67 to be tied for 19th place in the first round of this year’s John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis on Thursday, trailing the leader Kris Blanks by four shots. Deere Run happens to be one of the easiest
of courses on tour in terms of scoring averages and barely provides the tough playing conditions which would suffice for the Open next week.
Day agreed that Royal St. George's poses as one of the tougher link courses of the nine venues of the Open Championship and that he will have to beat his best to win the first major of his career.
Open Championship is one of the oldest major championships of the sport and also the most revered in the sporting circles. Turning professional in 2006, Day has done well for himself to climb in the Top-10 of the OWGR. He has won just two professional events,
both of them coming on the PGA Tour and is looking to record his first major breakthrough ever since the start of the season.
The 23-year-old Aussie is among a bunch of golfers who decided to bid an early farewell to their schools to turn professional at the age of 18.
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