Professional Career
Day turned professional in July 2006 after winning the Green Jacket at the NEC Master of the Amateurs, signing with TaylorMade and Adidas and immediately began playing PGA Tour events, principally through sponsors' exemptions. He made the cut in five of his first six PGA Tour events as a pro with a best finish of eleventh at the Reno-Tahoe Open and with official winnings of over $160,000. He entered PGA Tour qualifying, or Q-School. Placed in the second of three rounds, he tied for first in his section of the second round, advancing to the Q-School finals. However, in the six-round finals he played poorly, shooting fifteen shots higher than the score needed to qualify. Accordingly, he failed to earn his 2007 PGA Tour card but earned conditional status on the Nationwide Tour for 2007.
Day won his first Nationwide Tour event in July 2007 at the Legend Financial Group Classic, becoming the youngest man to win on any of the PGA Tour's three tours. The win jumped him to eighth on the Nationwide Tour's money list. He ended up finishing 5th on the money list to earn his PGA Tour card for 2008. He had a mediocre season, but had conditional status for 2009. A second place finish at the Puerto Rico Open helped Day retain his card for 2010 and he finished 69th in the money list.
In May 2010, he became the youngest Australian to win a PGA Tour event, winning the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Day gained entry into his first ever major championship at the 2010 Open Championship after Greg Norman withdrew. Day went on to make the cut and finish in a tie for 60th place. In August 2010, Day made his first appearance at the PGA Championship where a 66 on Saturday helped him to finish seven-under-par for the tournament and earn his first top-10 in a major. This run of form continued during the FedEx Cup playoff season where Day enjoyed top-five finishes at the first two playoff events to qualify for the season ending Tour Championship. He would go on to finish T17 at East Lake Golf Club and ended the 2010 season ranked 21st on the PGA Tour money list.
At the 2011 Masters Tournament, Day birdied the last two holes, but came up two strokes short of eventual winner Charl Schwartzel. Day tied for second with Adam Scott and at -12 set the Masters record for the lowest score by a first time participant. This was Day's best performance in a major championship and throughout the final round Day was tied for the lead on a number of occasions before eventually finishing in a tie for second after Schwartzel made four consecutive birdies to win the tournament.
In June 2011, Day participated at Congressional for the 2011 U.S. Open, his maiden appearance in a U.S Open. Following his successful run at the Masters, Day achieved consecutive second place finishes in the majors, this time finishing alone in second, some eight strokes behind runaway leader Rory McIlroy. He shot the equal lowest round of the week on Saturday, a 65, to jump up the leaderboard into a tie for third after round three. On Sunday, although he did not challenge for the lead, he was the best of the rest of the field as the Open was dominated by wire-to-wire winner McIlroy. As a result of his major performances, Day moved into the Official World Golf Ranking top-10 for the first time in his career at ninth. Despite not winning a tournament during 2011, Day ended the season ranked 9th on the PGA Tour money list.
Read more about this topic: Jason Day (golfer)
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