Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth had better recover their form soon or Jason Day will be out of sight
It has been the subject of a three-way fight for some time but Jason Day took control of golf’s No1 ranking with an exemplary display to win The Players Championship at the weekend.
Day demolished the field. He as good as killed off the competition with a first round of 63, and then cemented his lead with a fantastic 66 on Friday in tough conditions.
The Australian wasn’t on top of his game on Sunday – in fact he was all over the shop for a long time, playing the front nine two over par – but has so much confidence that it didn’t derail him.
Read more: The most lucrative tournament in golf
Day has a faultless swing and an incredible short game but his putting is also up there with Jordan Spieth’s among the very best. He is a great reader of greens and produces under the severest pressure.
It was his seventh win from his last 17 tournaments, and he has a happy knack of peaking at the biggest events; aside from The Players, that run includes the US PGA Championship and two FedEx Play-Off events.
A new Tiger?
Such form has led to comparisons with Tiger Woods and, while that is understandable, it feels too early. Players used to fall around Tiger; he was extra special, different from anyone we’ve seen.
Day is certainly playing like a world No1, though, and unless his previous back problems resurface, Spieth and Rory McIlroy face an uphill task to rein him in.
It’s time for the other two men to have occupied first place in the rankings over the last 18 months to get their games together – otherwise Day will pull even further away at the top.
World No3 McIlroy, who finished tied for 12th on seven under par, played beautifully at Sawgrass but could not hole anything. Danny Willett missed the cut on his first appearance since winning the Masters, although at two under par it was a very low cut.
Graeme McDowell had another good week, finishing tied for ninth on eight under after compensating for a slow start with a fine weekend. He has been a different player since winning in Mexico late last year and may be one of those who ups his game in a Ryder Cup year.
Asia's purple patch
On the European Tour, meanwhile, there was more success for Asia, South Korea and Jeunghun Wang, who won his second tournament in as many weeks by claiming the Mauritius Open.
That win, which followed his victory at the Trophee Hassan II seven days earlier, means the last three events on tour have been won by 20-year-olds, and – for the first time – the last four by Asian players.
Wang’s double came after Li Haotong’s triumph on home soil at the China Open and Soomin Lee’s win at the Shenzhen International.
Lee’s fellow Korean Byeong Hun An broke his tour duck at the BMW PGA Championship last year. With the Wentworth event just around the corner, the odds must be shortening on another Asian winner.