Jason Day (Australia) moved to No. 4 in the World Golf rankings following his victory over Victor Dubuisson (France). This match play tournament, unique in its own right compared to traditional stroke play tourney’s, was held at the always pristine Golf club at Dove Mountain. The field included notable names such as Stenson, Furyk, Fowler, Mcllroy, Walker, Garcia, Watson, Mahan, Westwood, and McDowell to name a few. The turnout of the pros-pros was phenomenal, but when it was time to tee off Sunday, the final four for the semi-finals matches had been set with Ernie Els v Victor Dubuisson and Ricky Fowler v Jason Day. Ernie Els, a golfer who is not unfamiliar with winning tournaments was ousted by Dubuisson after he took down rising star Jordan Speith. Ricky Fowler would find himself playing for third place against Els after losing to Day.
As for the final, Day had a comfortable lead through 12 holes of three strokes, but after 18 holes the scores were tied leaving the decision to the always entertaining playoff holes. Typically in this situation, the victor is decided by sudden death, where the golfer with the lowest score on the hole will win the tournament; if tied, then they will continue through more playoff holes until it was decided. An easy correlation of playoff golf would be to that of overtime periods in most professional sports. Although, this playoff would continue on for 5 holes until the eventual winner had his ‘Day’.
Dubuisson did not go down without a fight, grinding back on the first playoff hole from a seemingly impossible lie. His ball was at the base of a cactus, and without a sweat on his brow Dubuisson chipped within a few feet to secure an easy par. On the 20th hole, Dubuisson coincidentally hit another ball that found its way directly under a cactus setting up another difficult chip. Dubuisson would go on to stun the crowd again with a great shot and finish for par. Fast-forward to playoff hole 5 (23 overall), they would play hole 15 on the course, typically a short par 4 with the benefit of being able to drive the green. Both players went on to drive to the right of the green; but Day went on to finish in 3 to Dubuisson’s 4.
This was Day’s 2nd career PGA Tour win, moving him into 11th in the FedEx Cup Rankings and moving him to $1,909,200 earnings on the year so far.