A Flagstick Helps Jason Day Win The Wells Fargo Championship
Jason Day won the Wells Fargo Championship in part due to a fortuitous shot hitting the flagstick on 17 yesterday. Otherwise, the shot came in hot and could’ve bounded into the water behind the green. Sometimes Lady Luck has to wink your way.
What a shot 😱! This set up a second straight birdie for Jason Day, who heads to the 18th with a two-shot lead. pic.twitter.com/RZvQBQtniz
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) May 6, 2018
That puts him high on the list for the most Tour wins since 2010.
Jason Day: 12th career PGA Tour win; since 2010, only DJ (15) and Rory (14) have more victories.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) May 6, 2018
But as Golfweek’s John Turner reports, it was that 231-yard 7-iron on the 17th that propelled Jason to victory.
Walking up the 16th fairway to begin Quail Hollow’s infamous Green Mile closing stretch, he’d made more bogeys in his last 15 holes (four) than he had the first 54 (three). To make matters worse, across the lake, a scoreboard confirmed what Day had feared since his bogey two holes earlier – 21-year-old Aaron Wise had caught him at 10-under par for a share of the lead.
That’s when Day, staring down the course’s two most intimidating holes, made back-to-back birdies to earn his 12th career PGA Tour victory in a way befitting of a former World No. 1.
The most stunning shot of the tournament came at its toughest (playing more than half a stroke above par Sunday): the par-3 17th. Following his birdie at 16 to pull one ahead of Wise, Day opted for 7-iron staring down at a green he said looks “real tiny” from 231 yards away with water short, left and long. The plan was to fly the ball into an upslope on the green, killing the momentum and letting it settle near the pin.
“When I hit it, it was on a cracking line, it was beautiful,” Day said. “And then it just had this massive bounce, hit on the downslope and fortunately hit the pin, which was nice, and went to about two or three feet. Things like that are what you need to win golf tournaments.”
“I said earlier I was fighting demons out there, because when you’re not hitting it good, it just feels like the life is getting sucked out of you,” Day said. “Just feels like you don’t have – the confidence is starting to dwindle, but you know that you’ve just got to keep pushing. I know that I have a lot of fight in me.”
