Miami: Jason Day’s wire-to-wire four-stroke victory at the Players Championship on Sunday earned accolades from his fellow competitors, but some perspective as well Adam Scott described the performance by fellow Australian Day as “Tiger-esque” but another player said it was not really appropriate to compare anyone with 14-time major champion Woods.
Jordan Spieth, who vacated the world No. 1 spot for Day recently, weighed in on Twitter, complimenting his fellow competitor.
And former world No. 1 and Players Championship winner David Duval said Day was in a class of his own.
Day’s win on Sunday was his seventh in 17 starts. By comparison, Woods won seven times in a row in 2006-07.
And Woods has 79 career wins on tour, while 28-year-old Day, for all his brilliance, has 10.
“Well, that’s Tiger-esque, that kind of a run,” former world No. 1 Scott said of 28-year-old Day.
“It’s that thing I always try to explain how good you feel after one win and I try to imagine how good Tiger felt just playing about five years into his pro career having won like 50 events and imagine how you’d feel confidence-wise.
“You can see it with Jason. I played with him one day this week in practice. You can see there’s that calmness inside him, calm confidence, and the way he’s walking around, he’s got that kind of unbeatable look about him.”
Spieth, who missed the cut at the Players Championship, was particularly impressed with Day’s six-foot bogey putt at the ninth hole on Sunday.
“JDay bogey putt on 9 was possibly most underrated shot of the day. Gathered emotions knocked it in and led to a clutch back nine. Great win!” Spieth tweeted.
Duval, meanwhile, is in no doubt who is the top dog right now.
“You watch him [Day] hit golf balls now, there almost has become a discernible pause at the top of his swing, where you can see that transition getting better and better,” Duval said on Golf Channel recently.
“If he does that, there is nobody who is going to beat him. He is that good ... We’ve talked about Jordan Spieth, we’ve talked about Rory McIlroy, we’ve talked about the talent of Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson, but day in and day out this is as sound as it gets.”
But American veteran Ken Duke, 47, warned not to get carried away by Day’s form.
“I don’t think you can ever put Jason in Tiger’s league right now,” said Duke, who tied for third on Sunday. “Jason’s playing great. Jordan [Spieth] had a wonderful year last year. Tiger is Tiger. I think that’s enough said about that. He set the bar and his stats show it.”
