Jason Day’s golden run of birdies fades in Vegas, reaching the final moments of the tournament
Jason Day of Australia missed out on the chance of securing a victory, despite making a strong charge on the leaderboard on Sunday, at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
The Australian was way back, entering the last two rounds on the weekend. A double bogey on the second hole in the third round dragged him further down on the leaderboard.
After recording a par putt on the third hole, he took a U-turn and birdied 17 of the next 24 holes that he played, including seven on the front nine during the final round.
Day was in a great touch and it seemed as if he was going to post a magical 58 to take home the second PGA Tour title of his career.
However, the magical touch was no more with him on the back nine of the course. He missed an easy three-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole, which would have earned him a share of the lead.
Thereafter, he failed to capitalize on a few other chances and parred each of the first six holes on the back nine, prior to recording a birdie on the 16th hole.
On the 18th hole, he conceded a double bogey and settled for a six-under par 65 in the end. His final score, at the end of the tournament, was an 18-under par 266.
"The only blemish was obviously the missed green on 18, but I thought I was going to shoot 59 today just the way things were going,” he said. "I was hitting it good; I was putting it good, too. I just didn't capitalise on the opportunities I had on the back
nine”.
According to Day, he knew that he had very few chances of winning the tournament because of the huge margin between the leaders and himself, while entering the final round.
Still he had a target in his mind to at least give a tough competition to his rivals on the course, which he did in the end.
"Probably 58 I'm guessing that I had to shoot," he said. "We picked 24 (under par as the winning total). Yeah, I was thinking 58 to try and at least have a sniff at it”. "But I'm very excited the way I played over the last two days, even the last four days”.
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