I was reading something the other day about space debris and the amount of floating, rusting thingymebobs that are cluttering up the galaxy and thought to myself, ‘crikey, it can’t be any worse than my box room office?’
If your hovel is anything like mine, then it will contain a number of fusty nooks, crannies and jam-packed drawers that are rammed with technological antiquities and relics that used to serve a valuable purpose in everyday life but now lie twisted and useless like the aftermath of an explosion in Q’s potting shed.
Obsolete chargers, tangled flexes, archaic adapters and dusty piles of whitdoyoucallthems? Neil Armstrong’s thermos flask from Apollo 11 is probably lurking in the merry midst of it all.
There’s not a lot of room for manoeuvre. It’s probably a bit like Jason Day’s mantelpiece. And given the number of trophies the Australian is racking up these days, his mantelpiece must be the size of the Hoover Dam.
His wire-to-wire win in the Players Championship at Sawgrass over the weekend was his seventh victory in his last 17 starts, an astonishing record which highlights his talents, his competitive instincts and his mental resolve. It wasn’t what you’d call a swashbuckling spectacle – he played the last 36-holes in par – but on mind-mangling greens that must have been a bit like putting on a marble staircase, Day’s resilience, composure and an unwavering will to win shone through as he tailored his game to suit the surroundings. It was a conquest that had all the hallmarks of a truly great champion.
Before you could say ‘let’s savour another momentous moment’, the comparisons with Tiger Woods were being tossed about in wild abundance. Such a reaction was as inevitable as night following, well, Day.
In the modern era, every accomplishment by the game's leading lights is going to come with the kind of additional baggage that you’d pay a fortune for at an airport. Woods may not have been seen on the course for months but his shadow continues to loom large over golf’s current frontrunners.
Last July at St Andrews, Day cut an anguished figure when he missed out on a play-off for the Open Championship and another major opportunity passed him by. A few weeks later he made his breakthrough in the PGA Championship and he’s never looked back since.
His fellow Aussie, Adam Scott, described Day’s run since then as ‘Tiger-esque’ and in these times of constant anointments and coronations, when we are always searching for a new golfing hero, it was hardly surprising that he would become the latest player to be billed as ‘the next Tiger’.
Rory McIlroy was tagged with it when he won a quartet of major championships by the age of 25. Jordan Spieth also had the sticker slapped on his back when he claimed two at just 21. In this fickle game, they are the ones now wheezing on behind and playing catch up on Day.
Of course, Day’s close relationship with Woods is well-documented and the inspiration and influence the 28-year-old draws from the 14-time major winner is considerable and he clearly welcomes the comparison. "That's great to be in the same sentence as Tiger," he said. By all accounts, Day has been picking Tiger’s brain so much he’s almost performed a lobotomy on the former world No 1. Day has a drive, forged from his troubled teenage years, that makes him want to be the best and he is clearly keen to learn from the best.
"Tiger says he's going to kick my butt when he comes back," said Day. "If he does come back and he's turned into Tiger Woods again, I've got to kind of watch my behind."
If Woods does come back – and there’s no guarantee of that – it is almost baffling to think that the man currently ranked 524th in the world could pose a regular threat to the new guard on the evidence of his previous, ill-fated returns.
The magnitude of Woods’s accomplishments, however, continues to dwarf all that the likes of Day, Spieth and McIlroy have achieved but it’s important to enjoy the present and savour watching these fine young men writing their own success stories instead of obsessing about them re-writing Tiger’s tale.
In these demanding times, it seems for all they win, it’s never going to be enough.
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