The case for Jason Day over Jordan Spieth as PGA Tour Player of the Year

Why not Jason Day?

Many in the golf world -- including 2014 Player of the Year Rory McIlroy as well as the hottest golfer on the planet himself -- have conceded the PGA Tour best player honors to Jordan Spieth. That’s even if Day wins this week’s Tour Championship and FedEx Cup and the two-time major victor comes in last.

“Jordan. Two majors. It trumps all else,” four-time major winner McIlroy said without hesitation on Wednesday about who will get his vote regardless of what happens on Sunday.

Day pretty much agreed.

“If I do win this, yeah, it may turn some heads, may turn some of my peers,” said the world No. 1. “But to be honest, I think he’s played better.”

Has he, though?

There’s no debate about the importance of grand slam events compared to the lucrative series of four events that comprise the postseason. Augusta vs. East Lake? No contest.

Still, when Spieth partisans suggest that Day’s five wins (so far) -- which include his first major triumph -- do not meet Player of the Year standards, it gets us ruminating about 2013. That’s the year when Tiger Woods went major-less for the fifth straight season but added five tour wins to his impressive resume and earned the nods of his peers (even if the golf writers disagreed and bestowed the honor on Adam Scott).

For sure, with four different major winners in 2013 -- Scott at the Masters, Justin Rose (U.S. Open), Phil Mickelson (British Open) and Jason Dufner (PGA) -- there was no one guy claiming multiple majors to challenge Woods. But this year it’s not as if the primary contender to Spieth’s coronation threw his golf cap into the ring on the strength of Ws at a bunch of opposite-field events.

In addition to winning at Torrey Pines in February and the Canadian Open last month, Day went back-to-back at the PGA and The Barclays and captured last week’s BMW Championship for good measure.

So, heading into the finale in Atlanta, that’s one more win for Day than for Spieth, who tied for 13th at the BMW after missing two straight cuts in the postseason openers.

With the two contenders once again going head-to-head on Thursday, Day enters the opening round with a narrow edge over young Spieth.

Of course, Spieth sweeping the first two majors of the season and finishing one shot out of the playoffs at St. Andrews and three strokes back of Day at Whistling Straits was impressive. But some elementary math shows that Day, who also missed overtime at the Open Championship by one shot, is one major shy of Spieth, which is how Woods ended his 2013 efforts.

Sure, the PGA lacks the cachet of the Masters and the two Opens, but without that tournament, Jack Nicklaus would have 13 major trophies and Tiger 10. Tell them the final elite tourney of the season doesn’t count as much as the others.

Even if Day prevails on Sunday, it’s likely his fellow competitors have already marked their ballots for Spieth. That is, unless a dark horse emerges to make things even more interesting.