Jason Day is Long Overdue for a Win at Pebble Beach

Pebble Beach. It’s one of the “cathedrals” of golf according to Rory McIlroy, who finally won at the historic Jack Neville and Douglas Grant routing in 2025.

It’s seen countless legendary performances and champions over the years. Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Phil Mickelson, Payne Stewart, Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Speith, and McIlroy are just a few of the names who stood victorious adjacent to the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean.

But there’s one player who’s done everything but win along the cliffs of the Monterey Peninsula, and part of me thinks that drought comes to an end Sunday afternoon.

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Jason Day has thrived on the seaside links throughout his career. Just take a look at the Aussie’s last decade at the ole Crosby Clamback: T-13 (2025), T-6 (2024), T-24 (2022), T-7 (2021), 4th (2020), T-4 (2019), T-2 (2018), T-5 (2017), T-11 (2016), and T-4 (2015).

The only way for his record to be any better would be the presence of a W. They love to talk about horses for courses, and that resume could very well serve as the definition of it.

The 38-year-old has made two starts already this season, tying for second at The American Express and for 38th at the Farmers Insurance Open. He’s struggled with the big-stick—104th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, 102nd in accuracy—but around Pebble, driver isn’t a necessity. In 2025, the TOUR average for driver usage was 69 percent (nice). But at this event, it sat at 55. Day should have an easier time living in the short grass over the next four days.

With the winning score annually coming in around 18 under, birdies will have to be made in bunches in order to make a run. Luckily for Day, his iron play has been dialed to start the year.

To this point of the season, he’s sixth in SG: Approach and 14th in greens in regulation. But stuffing iron shots is only part of the equation when you’re trying to tally up circles on your scorecard. It’ll ultimately come down to putting, something everyone and their mother knows Day does as well as anyone in the world.

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Through two starts, Day’s 15th in SG: Putting and eighth in total putting, showing that Spider of his still has plenty of magic left in it.

Plus, when he inevitable misses some putting surfaces, he’ll be able to flash a stellar short game that he showed off in front of Skratch’s Dan Rapaport at the Farmers Insurance Open.

The field at Pebble this week is loaded thanks to its status as a signature event. Day will have to contend with names like World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who bested Day by four at PGA West last month, McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, and Chris Gotterup, just to name a few.

It will be a daunting task, but Justin Rose already showed this season that the old heads can still get it done out here.

Maybe JDay will become the latest example.