Australian Jason Day believes that the previous near misses on the golf course prepared him to keep his nerves in check so he could win Sunday’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin.
The 27-year old had finished in top four of six previous majors prior to his win on Sunday. Day told reporters he has seen a number of mental coaches, but the biggest thing preparing him for something such as Sunday’s win was the experience he has had facing failure.
Day won the event on Sunday with a score of 20 under par, breaking a major record by Tiger Woods of 19 under at the Open Championship in 2000.
However, he said, while accepting his tournament trophy that if he had not lost that day in 2013, he would not be where he is today.
The man from Queensland started the tournament’s final day with a lead of two strokes and was able to hold off every challenge from Jordan Spieth an American who has won two of the four majors this season
He called the round the hardest he has played in his pro career and was brought to tears walking down the eighteenth hole.
Day shared the lead on the last day of the U.S. Open and Open Championships this year but came up short in those two events.
He told reporters he thought he would win The Open last month.
As happy as he was on Sunday evening in Wisconsin, Day said he still had a great drive to accomplish his biggest goal in golf and that is be the number one player in the world.
He is well on his way. On Sunday, when he started the day he was the world’s No. 5 golfer, but with the win he moved up to No. 3. He trails only the world’s new No. 1 Spieth and No. 2 Rory McIlroy.
