Jason Day has followed up his win at Torrey Pines with a tied-second place in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am in California, franking his surge back toward the top of the official world golf rankings.
Day began the final round at Pebble Beach today within two shots of the lead, but his challenge faltered on the front nine.
The Queenslander then rallied with birdies at the 15th and 16th holes, but runaway leader Ted Potter junior of the United States did not falter.
Potter ended up winning by three shots at 17-under par, with Day, world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Chez Reavie at 14-under on the next line.
One of the highlights of Day's round was his par from the pebbles on the beach at the par-five 18th hole.
“Well as I was walking down, I know Phil (Mickelson) has walked down there before and slipped on his bum, so I didn't want to do that,'' said Day. "My big thing was when I was standing out there, there was a big wind in from right-to-left on the second shot and I'm trying to win the tournament, I'm trying to get into a playoff somehow.
“If I can get it on the green, hit this nice cut driver into the green, I'll be able to get at least put a little bit of pressure on him. You never know what's going to happen. But unfortunately hit it a little fat and kind of flipped over and went left. It was down on the beach, I said I'm either going to play right now and man up and play right now or head back another 200 yards and play from there and I didn't want to do that. So I just went up and I guessed on the line.”
The Australian leapt back into the world’s top 10 after the win in Los Angeles a fortnight ago and should move up a couple of spots after his performance this week.
He has said openly that his target this year is to scale back to No. 1 in the world, a position he held for 51 weeks in 2015 and 2016.
The 30-year-old had a winless 2017 but his lead-up to the first major of the season at Augusta National is looking highly promising.