Jason Day set up for breakout year and other Farmers Insurance Open takeaways

One of the toughest early season venues showed its teeth this weekend in what had been one of the highlights of the West Coast swing. Jason Day emerged with another February victory and will again be one of the favorites heading into Augusta. Now he just needs to avoid they injuries that derailed his chances last season. Here are some quick takeaways from the 2015 Farmers Insurance Open.

Jason Day’s win this week should set the stage for a big season. The immensely talented Australian has been dealing with nagging injuries for about a year now, but he finally appears healthy.

Since 2010, Day has tallied seven top 10 finishes in majors. If this week’s Farmer’s Insurance Open is any indication, Day should add to that total, and possibly add a title. This weekend’s conditions were close to what we normally see at a major. In fact, CBS’s Peter Kostis joked that the Farmer’s Insurance US Open had broken out, referencing the brutal rough and long holes we are accustomed to seeing at the year’s second major.

A healthy Jason Day could certainly contend at all of this year’s major venues. He has finished second and third at the Masters. He has the power to compete at the U.S. Open, which will be played on the monstrously long Chambers Bay. And anyone with his skill set (he bombs it and makes birdies) should be considered a contender at the British Open and the PGA Championship. His willingness to go for the 18th green in two and his pin-seeking on the second playoff hole shows that he has the guts, talent, and now healthy body to compete at the highest level again.

I am guessing the ratings for the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open were poor, and against almost no other competing sports on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Judging by the interaction I witnessed on Twitter, even the casual golf fan was checked out on Sunday afternoon. This is going to continue to be a problem for the Tour. Without stars like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Dustin Johnson making the weekend, it’s going to be remain a major task to get the casual fan to tune in.

We’re starting to wonder if this is the beginning of the end for the Tiger and Phil era. If it is, the Tour and TV networks will need to help younger players become stars. Seriously, there are a lot of good players out there! The problem is we haven’t seen a lot of them. Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth have the potential to be superstars, but were struggling for airtime earlier in the week. Instead we saw every shot from a struggling Phil Mickelson and a Porsche driving Tiger Woods. Speith and Koepka have the game and personalities that can make them household names, they just need a little boost.

I can’t do a tournament recap that Tiger Woods entered without at least mentioning him once, right?

Well, the Big Cat is still going to be the most discussed and debated player on the Tour. Is he hurt? Is his brain scrambled? Will he ever get it back?

The questions are going to persist all season, and probably for all time. We have covered Tiger all week. And we will most likely continue to cover Tiger. The fact is, he moves the needle like no one else in this sport. Even as he was leaving the Torrey Pines parking lot Thursday afternoon, the cameras were fixed on him for a long stretch instead of showing live golf.