It has undoubtedly been an exciting season this year on the PGA Tour. The best circuit in the world has not disappointed, quite the contrary, thanks mainly to the exceptional campaigns of two young men with overflowing talent: Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, who crowned the season as first and second in the world ranking, with just hundredths of a second difference.
The duel between the two titans has been a spectacle, especially at the end of a season in which each has scored five wins, including Spieth’s two majors (Masters and US Open) and Day’s PGA Championship.
The icing on the cake for Jordan, who has achieved record prize money earnings of $22 million this year (including the $10 million deferred bonus for winning the FedExCup), was provided by his colleagues on the American Tour, who voted him PGA Tour Player of the Year.
Day, meanwhile, came second in the voting of his peers, beating Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler. As a curious fact, Day is the first player to achieve five victories in a year and not be elected Player of the Year.
Spieth, 22, became the second youngest player to win the award after Tiger Woods achieved the feat at age 21 in 1997.
Thanks to his victory in the last tournament of the season, the Tour Championship, Spieth managed to snatch the throne of world golf from Day.
The Texan player’s record this season is spectacular. Out of twenty-five tournaments played, he finished in the top ten in fifteen, including five victories, four second places and one third. He achieved a sixth victory, at the beginning of the season in the Hero World Challenge, but it does not count as it is not an official tournament in the PGA Tour calendar.
For his part, Day has also starred in a season out of the ordinary, since, in the twenty tournaments he played, he recorded eleven top-10 including his five wins and a third place. His end of the season has been frightening, with four victories in the last seven tournaments, including a major.
The third in discord at the top of the world ranking is McIlroy, who has scored two victories this year on the American Tour. However, due to his left ankle ligament injury in July that kept him out of competition for a few weeks, he has lost ground and will have to sharpen his aim to try to reduce the more than one point that separates him from Spieth and Day, a real abyss if the latter continue with their streaks of good play and great results.
At the moment, to the Northern Irishman’s misfortune, the game of thrones is a two-man game.
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