It's Day by a mile after 36 holes

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Friday, September 18, 2015

Day by day, it’s becoming clear: It’s going to be hard for someone to catch Jason Day.

He shot the Daylights out of Cupcake Farms Golf Club – it used to be called Conway Farms – on Friday afternoon, after, in his words, “everyone was disappointed” that he didn’t finish off an improbable 59 on Friday morning.

No, Day didn’t pitch in from 44 yards for eagle on the par-4 ninth to wrap up his first round. He settled for par, for 61, and for a four-stroke lead going into Round 2.

Now, after an 8-under-par 63 capped by a 43-foot eagle putt on the 18th green, he leads by five strokes at 18-under-par 124, and has a great chance to win the BMW Championship on Sunday.

Oh, wait, there’s a third round to play on Saturday. Moving Day, as Ken Venturi so dubbed it once upon a time.

Anyone can make a move on the morrow, but first, consider what Day has done in his first 36 holes:

• His opening-round 61 is the best in Western Open / BMW Championship history, knocking George Fazio’s 63 from 1951 at Davenport Country Club out of the box.

• His 36-hole aggregate of 124 is the best in tournament annals as well, a stroke better than the 125 posted by Morgan Hoffman in the final two rounds at Cherry Hills last year.

• The 124 is seven strokes better than the previous record opening 36, a stylish 65-66 for 131, scored by Camilo Villegas at Bellerive in 2008.

• The 124 ties the PGA Tour record set by Pat Perez in 2009 and matched by David Toms in 2011.

• His 18-under-par reading is also a 36-hole tournament mark. The previous mark was 13-under, Vijay Singh at Crooked Stick in 2012. Only once was a player 18-under through 54 holes. That was Tiger Woods at Cog Hill in 2003.

• His five-stroke lead, while not a Western / BMW mark, is the best in the tournament since Tom Watson led by four at the halfway mark in 1983, and matches the best this season, Jordan Spieth’s five-stroke bulge at the Masters.

Spieth donned a green jacket on that Sunday night in April. Day is the favorite to lift the J.K. Wadley Trophy. He’s won the Canadian Open, PGA Championship and the Barclays since falling just short of drinking from the Claret Jug at St. Andrews.

Day’s dazzling display took place on a day the 69-player field averaged 67.928 strokes, albeit on a day when the PGA Tour went to the “lift, clean and place” mode because of 1.5 inches of rain overnight. The average is another tournament record. Take the two-day average of 68.775, double it, compare it to Day’s score, and you find he’s 13.5 strokes ahead of the field average.

What causes this? It’s not just the TaylorMade M1 driver he’s switched to. That appears to be the Saturn V of drivers, capable of sending a ball to the moon, but others are using them too. It must be the Indian, not the arrow.

“You mix in good driving with some good iron play and good touch around the greens, it’s a good formula for success, and that’s what it’s kind of been like for me over the summer,” Day said. “I feel like I’m in the zone. ... I couldn’t even tell you what the zone feels like.”

He’s missed five fairways each day, and four greens each day, and still has nines of 32, 29, 32 and 31. He has two bogeys. So he’s not perfect. But whose swing and putting touch – 50 putts over 36 holes – would anyone else in the field rather have since the return from the Old Course?

“I feel like I should be paying to watch some of this,” said Jordan Spieth, grouped with Day and Rickie Fowler the first two days. “It was special. What he’s doing on the course is something I haven’t witnessed, watched in my life. If he continues this pace, then he won’t be caught.”

“He’s playing very, very well at the minute,” said Rory McIlroy, the world No. 1, tied for ninth after a 6-under 65 for 9-under 133.

Catching Day is possible, of course. Watson didn’t win that 1983 Western, Mark McCumber did. But considering Day’s consistency – he’s 97-under in his last 26 rounds – they’ll need help from him as well. And with the No. 1 ranking out there for him if he wins, why help?

Brendon Todd and Tour rookie Daniel Berger are tied for second at 13-under 129, Todd via a 63, Berger scoring 64.

Todd was just hoping his wife wouldn’t be mad, since he forgot to add her to the hotel reservation in advance of her Friday afternoon arrival.

“She’s been sitting at the bar waiting for me to finish,” Todd said. “She told me, ‘Good playing,’ so I assume she caught a little bit.”

Undoubtedly, she saw the coverage of his 83-yard eagle hole out on the 18th that cemented the 63.

“It was just the perfect lob wedge,” Todd said.

Berger merely birdied, but that meant a 64 and, with threesomes in order Saturday to dodge weather, a date with Todd and Day on the first tee at 12:01 p.m.

“I think the funnest part of about playing with Jason is the crowds,” Berger said, thinking back to his experience in Boston. “You’ve got thousands of people watching you.”

He needed a few more watching on Friday, when his snipe hook on the 14th hole went into the hay and was never seen again.

“At one point I offered the crows $500 if they could find it,” Berger said. “I don’t know, maybe they don’t like money.”

In Lake Forest? You can tell he’s a rookie.

Spieth and Kevin Na are tied for fourth to 11-under 131, with rookie Justin Thomas, George McNeill and Scott Piercy at 10-under 132. McIlroy, Harris English and Dustin Johnson, tied for ninth at 9-under 133, complete the top 10, with Johnson’s 30-32–62 the day’s best round.

That trio is nine strokes behind Day. Moving Day? They hope.

Day’s Round 1 romp

Jason Day settled for par to conclude the first round early on Friday morning, after a cumulating 1.5 inches of rain was absorbed by Conway Farms, but that par at the last earned him a 10-under-par 61, a career best score to go with three 62s earlier this year.

Day needed to pitch in from the rough, 44 yards out, to score 59. He knew it was a long shot, but gave it a try with his 60-degree wedge. The ball hit short and skidded 10 feet by. He nearly made the birdie putt.

“Selfishly, you just try to get it as close as possible and give yourself a birdie and shoot 11 under,” Day said. “No matter how many shots you hit out there practicing, you can’t really simulate what kind of lie you’re going to get.”

The final scoring average was 70.176, so Day beat the field by nine strokes, and his four-stroke lead after 18 holes matched Emmett French’s similar margin after the first round of the 1921 Western. As far as positive records go, that was the third-oldest in the Western Open / BMW record book, behind the best comebacks to win after the first and second rounds.

Behind Day was the sixsome of Jordan Spieth, Daniel Berger, Harris English, Kevin Na, Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson at 6-under 65, and the trio of Brendon Todd, Kevin Chappell and Brian Harman at 5-under 66. Thirty-nine of the 69 players broke par, and another 10 matched the par of 71.

Spieth, playing with Day, birdied his final hole and matched the inward (and front) 29s of Day and Berger. Spieth’s 29 was aided by the ace he made on the second hole on Thursday.

“That’s the only way I could win a hole,” Spieth quipped.

Around Conway Farms

Parking for everyone the rest of the weekend is at Great America, where a fleet of shuttle busses will ferry fans to the front entrance. The alternate entrance for fans arriving by Metra and shuttles from the Lake Forest train stations remains open. ... Former world No. 1 Jordan Spieth endeared himself to many volunteers and not a few reporters when he shipped pizzas and beer to the groups to commemorate his hole-in-one on Thursday. Former world No. 1 Tiger Woods, who underwent a second back surgery on Wednesday to remove a disc fragment pinching a nerve, would likely not have done so. Woods will miss the Frys tournament that opens the 2015-16 season as well as his own Hero World Challenge while recovering. ... Jim Furyk’s doctor reports Furyk’s left wrist injury is a bone contusion. A decision on whether or not Furyk will play in the Tour Championship will come on Tuesday.

– Tim Cronin