A decade ago, Jason Day won the PGA Championship, and a year later went wire-to-wire in claiming the coveted red cardigan sweater that comes with a victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard which tees off Thursday in Orlando.
This week, Day returns to Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge along with most of the PGA TOUR’s elite players for what continues to be designated as one of eight “signature events” boasting double the typical prize money – a $20 million-dollar purse.
“It’s a bigger event, usually the guys show up for it. There’s just so many more benefits to the good players showing up. There’s official world golf ranking points, there’s another year of exemption. So, it’s instead of two years, it’s three years. And obviously the golf course is fun too. I mean, Bay Hall, goes back many, many years thanks to Mr. Palmer. So, there’s a lot of history behind it too which is great,” Day told me before teeing it up a few days ago for a practice round on Disney’s Magnolia Golf Course operated by Arnold Palmer Golf Management.
Day has the distinction of being the last champion personally congratulated by Arnold, who died in September 2016. The 13-time TOUR winner has fond memories of that tournament and followed it up by winning The Players Championship two months later. These days, The Players is held the week after API and now provides the richest purse on tour—$25 million.
“When I first started playing golf, I didn’t come from a lot of money growing up and that’s kind of what I focused on, and then I soon realized that it was all about playing good golf and trying to win big tournaments and trophies, and I was fortunate enough to win that one too,” added Day.
There is no question that the TOUR’s best are playing for massive paydays, yet Day says it is also very much about joining the likes of Palmer in the record books someday.
“Obviously, prize money does have a lot of influence on swaying guys to go and play, but at the end of the day I think when you’re looking back on your career, you’re looking at what you achieved and where the places you achieved those wins at,” Day told me.
This writer has even more reason to take him at his word as I watched the 37-year-old major champion in action last week playing for pride against the gang from Good Good Golf for some spirited competition on the same golf course where Jack Nicklaus won the first three PGA TOUR events staged at Disney World from 1971-73. Disney’s Magnolia layout is also where Tiger Woods won his second TOUR event as a rookie, and twice over a three-year span, in 1996 and 1998.
Jason Day getting some practice in at The Putting Course at Walt Disney World Golf’s Magnolia Course.
Good Good is a collective of six friends who’ve published golf content on YouTube since 2020. Their videos primarily consist of golf matches, challenges, tournaments, and more, and they’ve built an audience of more than 1.7 million subscribers.
Day has his own group of content-creating players called “The Lads,” who are also all over Instagram. The Lads were playing alternate shot contests with Good Good.
I couldn’t help but notice Day was teeing up and putting the same golf ball I’ve been using, the Bridgestone Tour B X, and asked him what he likes about it.
“It’s been a wonderful golf ball so far. I used it for a year before even becoming part of their team. And I’ve loved the ball ever since, I can’t say enough good things about the Bridgestone ball.”
If some of the shots I witnessed were any indication, there’s good reason to expect Day to be in contention to win again this week at Bay Hill.
