Jason Day had a Babe Ruth-like moment during this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Jason Day uses crystal ball at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, ‘charges’ up leaderboard
Jason Day, currently the 21st-ranked player in the world, vaulted up the leaderboard at Pebble Beach.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
After Friday’s second round, in which he carded a 1-under 71, Day posted on X, saying, “Time to make a charge this weekend.”
Indeed, he did.
Day charged up the leaderboard with a superb 9-under 63, as he now sits at 13-under for the championship. He leapfrogged almost 30 players on Saturday and now trails leader Wyndham Clark by four shots. Clark set the course record with an incredible 12-under 60.
“To be honest, I was pretty angry with myself with how I played [Friday],” Day said.
“I was [maybe the] first, second group off number one today, so we were in the middle of the pack. I [wanted] to go out there and shoot somewhere in the 60s, and I got off to a hot start, and things kind of rolled.”
The 2015 PGA Championship winner began the day with four straight birdies. All four of those makes came from inside of 10 feet, as he was dialed in with his irons early.
He then three-putted the par-3 5th but bounced back with a birdie at the par-5 6th.
Four holes later, at the uphill par-4 11th, Day missed the fairway right.
Then, he dunked his second shot in for an eagle two.
“I hit a little 3-wood down there,” Day explained about what happened on 11.
“It was okay if it missed the fairway. I mean, I want to hit the fairway, but, like, I’m not too worried. It was one of those days where you’re sitting there; if it’s in the rough, it’s fine because I’m like not having to hit an 8-iron from the same distance. Yeah, it was a nice little 9-iron. To be honest, it’s one of those shots you don’t expect to go in.”
That eagle jumped Day to 10-under for the championship.
He would make three more birdies, with two coming at the par-5 14th and the par-5 18th.
Day had a great chance to make another eagle on that final hole, but his putt just lipped out. That would have tied the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am course record, at least for a few minutes.
“The way that the conditions were today, the way that the course setup was, if you’re hitting your drives down the middle and you’ve got really good spin control, especially coming to the greens, you definitely have a good opportunity of shooting a really low one,” Day explained.
“Everyone knows that they’re going to be bumpy poa annua greens, a lot of footprints and all that stuff, so you’ll need some good breaks, bad breaks. But yeah, I think today was one of those days where you had to be slightly more aggressive to get back in the tournament.”
Like his pre-shot routine, Day visualized this spectacular round and took advantage of the wet conditions. Now, he is squarely in the mix heading into Sunday’s final round.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
