Tiger Woods’ texts inspire Day to victory

• Text from Tiger inspire Jason Day to victory at Bay Hill
• The Aussie pulled through despite not being at his best
• Has leapfrogged Rory McIlroy back to world No.2

Jason Day revealed that he was messaging Tiger Woods the morning before his Arnold Palmer Invitational win – with the 14-time major champion’s words a motivating factor behind his success.

Not at his best throughout the final round, Day – who started the day with a two-shot lead – birdied the 17th to get to 17-under-par as nearest challenger Kevin Chappell had bogeyed the last to fall back to 16-under-par.

That marked the Aussie’s eighth PGA Tour win, and at an event which Woods won at eight times, Day revealed that his good friend and idol’s words were an inspiration to him.

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“ traded texts last night and this morning,” said Day. “It’s the same thing. For some reason when he sends the same stuff to me, ‘Just be yourself’ and, just be sure — I can finally concentrate.

“’Just be yourself and stay in your world’ and for some reason it just means so much more, you know, that you can do this and start your own legacy here.

“It gives me so much confidence that a person like that would believe in me, especially as a kid I was idolising him ever since I was a kid and watching him in ’97 win the Masters for the first time and all of a sudden I’m playing the Tour and I’m pretty close with him now.

What they said

Kevin Chappell: “To be in contention that long and really have a chance was just icing on the cake. Not necessarily those are the emotions but you had to stay present and really not get ahead of yourself and I did a pretty food job of it. Probably could have done a better job but, you know, all in all, I guess it was a good week.”

Rory McIlroy: “I’m beating myself up over mistakes that I’m making on the course and then I’m not letting myself get over it so that it sort of lingers there for the next few holes.”

Henrik Stenson: “I’m happy with the progress. I came in to play golf and I did even though I don’t feel I’m on top of my game. Still hit a lot of good putts today and that’s really what kept me in the ballgame and scrambled well throughout the whole week.

Key stat

.@JDayGolf: 7 PGA Tour wins since beginning of 2013-14 season, most of any player during that span

— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) March 20, 2016

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Jason Day :: Tiger Woods friendship

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