Jason Day’s stellar 2018 campaign has come to a close with a tie for 11th at the World Golf Championships–HSBC Champions tournament in China.
With wife Ellie expecting the couple’s third child next month, Day had indicated that the final WGC event of the year would also be his last, completing a year in which he claimed wins at the Farmers Insurance Open and Wells Fargo Championship along with six top-10s and 16 top-25 finishes on the US PGA Tour.
Blustery winds made scoring difficult on the final day at Sheshan International Golf Club in China, American Xander Schauffele producing the best round of the day – a four-under 68 – to tie Tony Finau at the top before winning with a birdie at the first playoff hole.
Starting the day just inside the top 10, Day made early inroads on the leaderboard courtesy of a 25-foot birdie putt at the fifth hole but gave it back immediately with a bogey at the par-3 sixth. A birdie at the par-5 eighth again brought Day under par for his round but again it was short-lived, a bogey at the ninth and further dropped shots at the 11th and 13th holes adding up to a final round of two-over 74 and a productive two-week Asian swing.
Picking up where he left off after a Sunday 63 in Korea the week prior, Adam Scott made a bright start with a round of three-under 69 to begin his week in China but as the scoring became more difficult he struggled to make further headway. Tied for 16th heading into the final round, Scott dropped shots at the first and third holes and then made double-bogey at the par-3 sixth, late birdies at 14 and 17 moving him up to a tie for 18th.
Kiwi Ryan Fox again emphasised his world-class credentials with a tie for 30th in what was an otherwise tough week for the Australasian contingent.
Jason Norris held his own among the world’s best before a final round of five-over 77 saw him drop to a tie for 50th, Cameron Smith, Adam Bland and Jason Scrivener all a further shot back in a tie for 54th.
West Australian Brett Rumford, who spoke of his struggles in the lead-up to the tournament, was 21-over for the week to finish in 75th position.
David McKenzie’s late charge not enough
David McKenzie’s best result in more than six months wasn’t quite enough as the Victorian failed to qualify for the PGA Tour Champions’ season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
McKenzie put together a bogey-free final round of two-under 70 at Sherwood Country Club to finish the Invesco QQQ Championship in a tie for third but still outside the top 36 players in the season-long points race who advance to the final event of the year in two weeks’ time.
At the start of the week, McKenzie was 54th in the Charles Schwab Cup rankings and in need of a finish near the very top of the leaderboard. He almost delivered, but his tie for third – three shots behind victor Scott Parel – only elevated him 12 spots to 42nd in the standings, bringing to an end his first full season on the Champions Tour.
• It was a difficult week for the Australians on the PGA Tour with just two players making the cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson, won in convincing fashion by Cameron Champ in just his ninth start on tour. Curtis Luck’s tie for 50th was the best finish of the Aussies, with Stuart Appleby (T-68) and Kiwi Tim Wilkinson the others to qualify for the weekend.
Brendan Jones creates Japan Tour history
The sting of not replicating his first win on the Japan Golf Tour 16 years earlier has been softened somewhat for Brendan Jones, who has become the first foreign player to pass the ¥1 billion mark in career earnings.
Starting the final round of the Mynavi ABC Championship at ABC Golf Club in Hyogo tied for second, Jones’s push for a 15th title in Japan came unstuck late in the final round with bogeys at 14 and 17 and a double-bogey at the par-3 16th.
His four-round total of eight-under par was seven shots behind winner Yuta Kinoshita, who prevailed in a playoff after he and Masahiro Kawamura finished tied at the top at 15-under, Kawamura making an eagle at 15 and birdies at 17 and 18 to qualify for the playoff.
Tied for sixth, Jones picked up ¥4,788,750 for his week’s work, moving him to 13th on the Japan Golf Tour career moneylist with ¥1,002,554,591 (approx. $A12,636,662), the first foreign player to reach the billion Yen mark.
Top-10 at the Japan Open two weeks ago, Jones spoke to Japan Golf Tour media prior to the Mynavi ABC Championship about his looming milestone.
“Not that I think of it all the time, but I’ve been reminded of it because I’m so close but that would be a huge honour,” Jones said of his career money milestone. “I feel like I’ve been a good player over the years but to be the first foreigner to do that would be a feather in my cap.”
It was a roller-coaster round that ultimately carried Jones to his record-breaking feat with a bogey at his second hole quickly followed by birdies at four and five and an eagle at the par-5 sixth to sit just one off the lead. Bogeys at seven and nine took much of the momentum out of the Canberran’s charge and then another at 10 gave him too much work to do over the closing holes.
Scott Strange began the final round looking to record his first top-20 result of the season but struggled to a four-over par round of 76 to finish tied for 43rd, the highlight coming late as he made an eagle at the 72nd hole.
David Bransdon finished two shots behind Strange at three-over in a tie for 52nd with Won Joon Lee and Anthony Quayle a further shot back in a tie for 54th. The result marked the end to Quayle’s rookie campaign in Japan, the Queenslander announcing on social media that he would concentrate his energies on the PGA Tour of Australasia for the remainder of the year having already secured his status in Japan for 2019.
Matt Stieger roars into form in India
New South Welshman Matt Stieger can look towards the looming Australian summer with renewed hope after recording his first top-10 of the season at the Asian Tour’s Panasonic Open India at Delhi Golf Club.
Tied for seventh at the SP PNG Golf Open earlier in the year, Stieger’s best result on the Asian Tour this year had been a tie for 19th at the co-sanctioned ISPS Handa New Zealand Open in March but a late flurry in India should provide a timely confidence boost.
Three birdies and a sole bogey on the front nine on Sunday got Stieger off on the right foot and he followed it up with his fourth birdie of the day at the par-4 10th. A double-bogey at the par-3 12th was a setback before he made birdies at the 14th, 17th and 18th holes to post 12-under par and tied for sixth, five shots behind winner Khalin Joshi. The result moved 27-year-old Stieger up from 104th in the Habitat for Humanity standings to 90th.
Steven Jeffress also recorded his first top-10 finish on the Asian Tour this year courtesy of a final round of four-under 68 to end the week at 10-under par with Maverick Antcliff tied for 27th and Terry Pilkadaris tied for 31st. Jake Higginbottom’s final round of two-over 74 saw the Novocastrian finished tied for 47th with Andrew Martin and Adam Blyth finishing 53rd and 57th, respectively.
Asian Tour veteran David Gleeson was the only other Australian to make the cut, a final round of six-over 78 seeing him finish in 71st position.
