Jason Day Wins: At Least We Know Tiger Is Still Texting

Jason Day took the winter off and has quietly eased into 2016, picking up a huge Arnold Palmer/Mastercard win at Bay Hill just in time for the Masters.

Even better, as Brian Wacker notes at PGATour.com, Day is getting text message support from Tiger Woods.

Day, who idolized Woods as a kid growing up in Australia, has been an eager listener. When a guy has 106 wins in his career, it’s like the old E.F. Hutton commercial says: When he speaks, you listen.

“It gives me so much confidence that a person like that would believe in me,” Day said. “I was idolizing 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.”

In his entertaining game story, Gary Van Sickle notes for Golf.com:

You know it's a new era of golf when the tournament winners admit that their boyhood golf idol was … Tiger Woods.

The SI/Golf.com roundtable kicked around the idea of Day as Masters favorite now, with different opinions.

Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated (@AlanShipnuck): I loved his resiliency on Sunday. He made some costly mistakes early in the round but never stopped battling, and then he did what he had to do down the stretch to get the win. We know Day is a momentum player and when he has his A game he's going to cruise to victories. If he learns to grind out wins with his B game on Sundays that's a very potent player. Given Bubba's back and Jordan's funks, there is no clear Masters favorite, which makes it more fun. I fully expect Day to be in the mix on the back nine on Sunday. 

Cameron Morfit, senior writer, GOLF Magazine (@CameronMorfit): I disagree about there being no clear Masters, favorite, Alan. I believe Day just became the favorite, because if he can win at Bay Hill hitting it like that, then I believe he could win at Augusta—where he’s done everything but win—going away.

Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: I'm with Alan. When you can drive it like Day has been driving it, you don't need to do all that much to shoot 68 at Augusta National, except keep executing all the way around. I can see Day more likely to do that than anyone else, including Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler.

The final round highlights, including an outstanding up-and-down on 18.