Australian golfer Jason Day has become the men’s world number one after claiming the BMW Championship in Chicago, United States.
The 27-year-old held a five shot lead heading into the final round of the tournament and maintained his composure to end with a two-under-par 69, with his total score for the four-day event moving onto 22-under-par.
His six shot victory over second placed Daniel Berger of the United States has continued to display Day’s stunning end of season form, as he has now won four out of the last six tournaments he has played, which have propelled him to the number one spot.
Day’s most memorable triumph this year though came at the US PGA Championship where he posted a record-breaking score of 20-under-par to secure his first major title, after seeing off the challenge of America’s Jordan Spieth.
Despite his recent stunning form Day admitted to suffering from nerves in the final couple of days of the BMW Championship as he sought to achieve his aim of sealing the number one ranking, having famously declared in 2007 that his ambition was to “take Tiger down”, when referring to the former top ranked golfer Tiger Woods.
“To be honest I had terrible sleep over the last few nights,” he said.
“Thinking about getting to number one, thinking about winning this tournament, thinking what I had to do to win this tournament to get to number one.
“It’s been very difficult for me to downplay getting to number one because I really wanted to reach this goal for a very long time now.”
Prior to the tournament Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy had held top spot ahead of Spieth, who had won both the Masters and US Open Championships earlier in the year, but Day’s form has seen him leapfrog the duo.
Day also becomes the youngest Australian to hold the world number one ranking following on from golf legend Greg Norman and 2013 Masters winner Adam Scott, who held top spot from May to August last year.
The Australian will hope to maintain his world ranking over the coming months and will be expected to lead his country’s challenge when golf returns to the Olympics at Rio 2016 following a 111-year absence.
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Inside the Games.