Jason Day has joined an historic group of golfers to have finished second in all four major championships after sharing runner-up honours at the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.
In heavy rain on Sunday at Hoylake, the former world No.1 carded a 69 to improve two shots to seven under pa. He was six shots back from Open champion Brian Harman (70) at 13 under. Day shared second with Tom Kim, Sepp Straka and Jon Rahm.
Day became the ninth player in history to earn runner-up results at the Masters (2011), the US Open (2011, 2013), the PGA Championship (2016 but he also won in 2015) and now the Open.
Day said there was little he could have done to reel in Harman.
“No; he had to come back to us essentially,” he said. “A six-shot lead [going down the last hole] for his first major championship is pretty awesome. That just caps off what he’s accomplished here this week.”
The 13-time PGA Tour winner was was visibly frustrated he couldn’t put more pressure on the Savannah, Georgia native Harman. The 35-year-old said he was confident major No.2, to go with his 2015 PGA triumph, is on the horizon.
“I’m a little disappointed I didn’t play better today,” he said. “I wish I would have cut into the lead a little bit more. Obviously you want to win every week, but majors are the [events] you want to win. [The golf world] always look at how many major championships you’ve got, as well. At some point I’m going to get off one and get my second one.”
The T2 was Day’s first top 10 at a major since the 2020 PGA Championship during the Covid-19 pandemic when he tied fourth.
“I think just unfortunately I hadn’t played that great in the majors this year, so it was nice to be able to finish this major off and finish share second.”
After a three-year slump that saw day plummet to 175th in the world rankings, Day rises to No.21. He said contending in a major was affirmation he was back among the world’s elite after overhauling his swing with coach Chris Como.
“It’s been nice to work, especially where I was with the injuries,” he said. “Some guys out there that are battling injuries, and they lose confidence, and for me personally to be able to work through that and kind of get my game back to where I feel like it should be, I feel like I’ve done the right thing. I’ve just got to kind of tighten things up, and then maybe get myself in contention a little bit more.”
Of the other Australians, Adam Scott (69) tied 33rd at one over, tied with defending Open champion Cameron Smith (73). Min Woo Lee (75) was a shot worse at two over.
