Jason Day wins Callaway Junior World Championship
BY Bruce Young | World Juniors Tour | 2004 Callaway Golf Junior World Golf Championships | Wrap | 17 Jul 2004
16-year-old Queenslander, Jason Day, today added the Callaway Junior World Championship (15-17) to his growing list of victories when he took out that title at the Torrey Pines South Course in California this morning (Aust Time). The Torrey Pines course has been the venue for this event for many years and is also the home of the PGA Tour’s Buick Invitational played in February.
Earlier this season, Day had won the Australian Junior title in Canberra and a few weeks later became the youngest golfer ever to win his State Championship when he beat Justin Maker in the final at the Oxley Golf Club. During the recent Callaway Trans Tasman Secondary School Challenge at Twin Waters, Day was the leading individual by thirteen shots over thirty six holes while steering his Hills College team to a resounding nineteen shot victory over Rotorua Boys High.
The Hills Educational Foundation student led from early in the tournament in California, trailing only Thailand’s Chinnarat Phandungsil after round one, then taking the lead early on day two and maintaining and extending that lead from that point.
Day added two further rounds of 69 to his opening 69 and took a five shot lead into the final round. He added even further to that lead when he was out in 33 today to be eight ahead as he headed for home, but at that point Day’s game began to succumb to the pressures of leading for so long and perhaps the luxury of such a big lead. A double at the 10th was followed by three further bogeys over the closing holes but such was his margin, that as he stood on the final tee he was still five ahead of his closest rival, Californian Joseph Bramlett.
Bramlett eagled the last when he pitched it in from seventy yards and when Day three putted for bogey, the difference was just two. The win again highlighted this young man’s extraordinary game. A very long hitter, Day combines that significant asset with a solid all round game and excellent golf course strategy.
While it is easy to get carried away with spectacular teenage success, Jason Day looks to be perhaps Australia’s brightest young prospect for some time. He will play the Australian Open in November courtesy of the Australian Junior Championship win.
He completes his term with the Hills Educational College at the end of this season and will then consider collegiate opportunities which have no doubt been coming thick and fast while in the US.
Day and his coach, Colin Swatton, will now stay on in the US for three weeks to play the Cottonwood Classic in San Diego and then across to Florida for the Optimist International before returning to Jimboomba in South East Queensland.
