Australia lauds ‘great Day’ after PGA win

Jason Day, of Australia, holds up the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament Sunday, Aug. 16, 2015, at Whistling Straits in Haven, Wis - AP Photo

AFP: Australians and golfing fans were celebrating Monday after Jason Day finally picked up his first major championship, with a record-smashing 20-under par at Whistling Straits.

Day held off Jordan Spieth to clinch the PGA Championship on Sunday with a five-under 67 to bring his total for the tournament to 268 -- the lowest winning score in relation to par ever in a major championship. “It’s a great day - excuse the pun -- for Jason, for Australian golf and for Australian golfers,” declared PGA of Australia chief executive Brian Thorburn.

He said Day’s emotion at the win, which had one commentator hoping the 27-year-old could see through his tears for the final shot, would have been a moment of relief and joy.

“He’s been chasing this for a long, long time and I think to have gone so close on so many occasions, nailing one was his priority and he’s done that,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Day is the first Australian to win a major since Adam Scott picked up the 2013 Masters and only the fifth to win the PGA Championship after Steve Elkington (1995), Wayne Grady (1990), David Graham (1979) and Jim Ferrier (1947).

Sunday’s victory was his eighth top-10 finish of the season and the fourth in his last five starts.

The success of Day, whose father died when he was 12 and who earlier this year suffered a bout of vertigo, was lauded by Australian sporting greats.

“Congratulations to my fellow #Queenslander and #Australian,” tweeted golfing legend Greg Norman, himself a major winner.