Jason Day wins Wells Fargo for 12th title on PGA Tour

Jason Day won his 12th PGA Tour title with an impressive display of short-game prowess.

Jason Day splashes out of sand during the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Golf Club in North Carolina. Picture: Getty Images

Jim Ferrier grew up in the Sydney suburb of Manly. He hurt his leg playing junior football, probably at Brookvale Oval, gained a permanent limp and took up golf. He started earning some extra cash as a freelance golf writer. If he quoted the runner-up at the 1931 Australian Open, he would have been quoting himself.

Ferrier moved to California in 1940 to string a few sentences together as a full-time scribe. When he wanted to string just as many birdies together at the US Amateur Championship, he was ruled ineligible because of his salaries from putting pen to paper. So he turned professional, won a major and took out 18 events on the US PGA Tour — a feat by an Australian second only to Greg Norman’s 20 victories in a country that was not hospitable enough to give Norman a major.

When Jason Day won the Wells Fargo Championship yesterday, he was congratulated on becoming the second most successful all-time Australian winner on the PGA Tour. In truth that honour still rests with Ferrier. The third-most successful is Bruce Crampton with 14 wins and then Adam Scott with 13 and Day on 12.

Day was unaware of the real list when he accepted he was closing in on Norman and replied: “It’s something I’m trying to strive for and hopefully beat one day. Greg had an amazing career in golf. I think even more impressive was his 331 weeks at No 1 in the world. I’m trying to leave my own little big of legacy behind but I’m only halfway through my career and I feel like I’ve got plenty more wins and plenty of good years ahead.”

Day hacked it around Quail Hollow, by his standards, to nearly blow the tournament but he toughed it out over the final three holes to shoot a two-under-par 69 and win by two strokes from Aaron Wise and Nick Watney.

He beat a stacked field that included US Masters champion Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy ahead of this week’s marquee Players Championship at Florida’s TPC Sawgrass.

“I had no idea where the ball was going today,” Day said after his second PGA Tour win of the year.

“But just knowing that I’ve got a lot of fight in me — there was a lot of disappointing moments out there. I know I didn’t have my best day off the tees and into the greens but being able to fight my way through it, and finishing off strong on 16 and 17, and getting up and down on 18, was huge.”

There certainly seem to be few worries about the getting up and down part of Day’s game. During the four rounds at Quail Hollow he visited 16 greenside bunkers and made 15 sand saves. This year on the PGA Tour he has had 177 putts from inside five feet and made all 177 of them. Day also said he was no longer attempting to build the body beautiful.

“There was a moment where I was doing body building and it wasn’t really good stuff,” he said. “I looked good, but it doesn’t pan out for me because my body started hurting. That was a step in the wrong direction. Now I’m not doing that stuff. I’m thinking about actual golf. I’m doing that to extend my longevity. So I’m happy with where my body is, I’m happy where my mind is. There’s no stress in my life — that’s when you play your best, I think.”

Day’s mildly amusing Q&A about Norman’s all-time record was reminiscent of a television appearance by Ferrier in 1965. On an episode of You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx, he had the following exchange with an interviewer who was actually trying to be a comedian.

Marx: “I play golf too, you know. What is your handicap, Jim?”

Ferrier: “Well, as a pro, I don’t have a handicap.”

Groucho: “Well, congratulations. How is it a tall, handsome man like you isn’t married?”

Ferrier: “I’m married. I have a wife.”

Groucho: “You just said you didn’t have a handicap. Haven’t you got the same handicap that 50 million other men have?”

Ferrier: “Well, I don’t consider my wife a handicap.”