McIlroy and Day back in world's top 10; Rory bumps Dunne from Ryder Cup team
Jason Day's approach to the sixth extra hole finished just 18 inches away.
Australia's Jason Day hit a stunning wedge to 18 inches on the sixth extra hole to beat Alex Noren and claim the Farmers Insurance Open in a Monday finish at Torrey Pines.
The former US PGA champion and world No 1 got back into the winner's circle for the first time since he claimed the 2016 PLAYERS Championship 20 months ago and moved up four places to tenth in the world rankings.
Day (70), 54-hole leader Noren (73) and American Ryan Palmer (70) tied on 10-under par on the South Course at Torrey Pines on Sunday.
But while Palmer was eliminated after making par on the first extra hole, the 18th, Day and Noren could not be separated
Wow.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 29, 2018
Another 🎯 from Day. #QuickHits pic.twitter.com/fCF4DLhBOv
Play was suspended until Monday morning, and it was Day who claimed his 11th PGA Tour win, sinking an 18-inch birdie putt on the sixth playoff hole at a near-deserted venue — his fourth birdie on the par-five hole in the playoff.
According to reports, spectators weren't allowed in because organisers said they didn't have time to arrange for security.
Noren tried an aggressive second shot from the first cut, but his ball landed short of the green and rolled into Devlin's Billabong.
😧 😧
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 29, 2018
Noren goes for the green but finds the water while Day lays up back into the fairway.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/gmNhi8CBPR
Day, meanwhile, hit his second shot out of the rough and over some trees onto the fairway before spinning a wedge back to 18 inches from the cup.
Noren dropped in the fairway around 40 yards from the pin but failed to hole out for birdie and then missed for par before Day tapped in his short putt for victory.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Day said, who battled injury and the upset of his mother's cancer diagnosis last year.
“I know last year wasn’t the best year for me. …I worked hard in the offseason to get back in this position.”
On Sunday, Day and Noren birdied the par-five 18th all three times they played it – on the first second and fifth playoff holes – and made par on the par-three 16th and par-four 17th holes.
The top seven in the world rankings remain unchanged, but Rory McIlroy rises three places to eighth following his runner-up finish in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic with champion Li Haotong becoming the first Chinese golfer to break into the world's top 50 following his 28-places jump to 32nd.
Best finish on TOUR. ✅
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 29, 2018
Alex Noren looks back on his week at @FarmersInsOpen where he finished T-2 after an epic duel with Jason Day. pic.twitter.com/qM1m67Rbkk
Noren moved up three places to 16th but Shane Lowry fell three places to 67th following his missed cut in San Diego while Paul Dunne dropped two spots to 76th after missing the five-under-par cut by one in Dubai.
Tiger Woods share of 23rd moved him up 108 places to 539th in the world while McIlroy's second-place finish also moved him up to eighth in the European Ryder Cup World Points List, bumping Dunne out of the top eight automatic places in Thomas Bjorn's team.
Lowry is the only Irishman in action in this week's Waste Management Phoenix Open while Darren Clarke flies the flag in Malaysia in the European Tour's Maybank Championship at Saujana Golf and Country Club.
.@JDayGolf speaks to the media after his victory at @FarmersInsOpen on the sixth playoff hole. https://t.co/E6IOnAUkr6
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 29, 2018
Official World Golf Ranking
- Dustin Johnson
- Jon Rahm
- Jordan Spieth
- Justin Thomas
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Justin Rose
- Rickie Fowler
- Rory McIlroy
- Brooks Koepka
- Jason Day
- Sergio Garcia
- Henrik Stenson
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Marc Leishman
- Tyrrell Hatton
- Alex Noren
- Paul Casey
- Pat Perez
- Matt Kuchar
- Brian Harman
- Rafael Cabrera Bello
- Francesco Molinari
- Charley Hoffman
- Patrick Reed
- Xander Schauffele
- Ross Fisher
- Branden Grace
- Matthew Fitzpatrick
- Louis Oosthuizen
- Kevin Kisner
- Daniel Berger
- Li Haotong
- Kevin Chappell
- Thomas Pieters
- Satoshi Kodaira
- Patrick Cantlay
- Tony Finau
- Charl Schwartzel
- Adam Scott
- Webb Simpson
- Jhonattan Vegas
- Siwoo Kim
- Yuta Ikeda
- Bernd Wiesberger
- Jason Dufner
- Kyle Stanley
- Dylan Frittelli
- Zach Johnson
- Phil Mickelson
- Russell Henley
Other Irish
- 67 Shane Lowry
- 76 Paul Dunne
- 163 Padraig Harrington
- 209 Graeme McDowell
- 311 Seamus Power
- 361 Gavin Moynihan
- 642 Michael Hoey
- 669 Jonathan Caldwell
- 840 Dermot McElroy
- 926 Niall Kearney
- 977 Ruaidhri McGee
- 1076 Cormac Sharvin
- 1267 Brendan McCarroll
- 1321 Chris Selfridge
- 1347 Niall Turner
- 1381 Gary Hurley
- 1385 Rory McNamara
- 1385 Brian Casey
- 1410 Darren Clarke
- 1542 Tim Rice
- 1757 Damien McGrane
- 1813 Kevin Phelan
- 1891 Stephen Grant
- 1914 David Carey
