Fellow PGA Championship winner Tiger Woods said he could not be more proud of Australia’s Jason Day who finally broke through to win a first major last Sunday at Whistling Straits.
Woods and Day have become good friends in recent years and that was no more evident during the opening two rounds of last month’s Open Championship at St. Andrews.
Louis Oosthuizen was a virtual ‘passenger’ for the two days when it came to conversation with Woods and Day chatting at every opportunity.
And when I asked Woods today how pleased he was for Day, and if the 27-year old Queensland-born golfer could now go on to win further Majors, the 14-time Major winning Woods could not speak highly enough of Day.
“I could not have been more proud of Jason,” said Woods.
“The progress he’s made and, you know, the times he hasn’t gotten it done, they all hurt. As a player and competitor, those instances really do hurt but he built on them.
“He learned from them and now he’s a Major champion and it wasn’t like he backed into it. He went out there and earned it. I think that’s what’s more impressive than anything else is that Jordan put up one hell of a fight and it wasn’t – it wasn’t like these guys were throwing up on themselves making bogeys down the stretch.
“They both were making birdies and they were pushing each other but Jason just flat out played great and obviously Jordan really pushed him hard but it was neat to see both of them play at that high level.
“I’ve had a couple of times where we’ve been able to that at a high level. It is so much more fun that way than having two guys throw up on themselves coming down the stretch.”
While Day is enjoying becoming golf’s newest Major Champion, Woods will tee-up for a first time in this week’s Wyndham Championship.
And the pressure in on Woods to win this week, thus ending a two-year winless drought, and that would see him qualify for the up-coming FedEx Cup Play-Off Series.