Jason Day’s flaming-hot stretch propels him to top of PGA Championship leaderboard

Walking off the 7th green at Baltusrol today, Jason Day was in jeopardy of not even making it to the weekend to defend his title at the PGA Championship. A double-bogey 6 had knocked him to even-par for the championship, just a couple of shots clear of the cut line.

Uh, then he went stupid. The world No. 1 reeled off seven birdies in eight holes in the middle of his second round to vault from out of the television coverage to the first page of the leaderboard in about 90 minutes. He’ll start the weekend in solo third, two shots behind Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb.

Day’s mid-round bounce-back might be judged in hindsight as the turning point of the tournament by Sunday. Immediately after the double at 7, the world’s best player notched back-to-back birdies to close the front nine to get back to 2-under where he started the round. He followed that up with five more birdies in the next six holes to get to 7-under on the tournament.

And that was all before coming to the back-to-back finishing par-5s at 17 and 18. A birdie-eagle finish would give Day one of golf’s most hallowed numbers — a 62, what would be the lowest round ever in a major championship. It’d also give him the solo lead heading into the weekend, something absolutely unthinkable just a couple of hours before when he walked off the 7th green.

Of course, golf is hard as hell even when it looks easy. Day snap-hooked his tee ball on the 17th well left near the hospitality tent — leading to a par on a hole that’s been ripe for the taking. But hey, he still got to make some kid super happy.

But an eagle on the 18th would still tie the record for best round ever in a major championship -- and vault him into a tie for the lead with Walker. But after a wayward tee shot, a par and second-round 65 would have to do instead. That left him third alone behind Walker and Streb — who himself became the 30th man ever to shoot 63 in a major championship while Day stood on the 18th green.

No player has defended his PGA Championship title successfully since Tiger Woods in 2007. Day will have a fantastic shot to do it again this weekend — at a course he hadn’t ever seen before Wednesday morning.