Winner's Bag
The venerable putter model Jason Day used to win the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson
Mike Mulholland
It wasn’t exactly the Luke Short-Jim Courtright gunfight in Fort Worth in 1887 (Short won) but former No. 1 Jason Day stared down another former No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, and a host of others including Austin Eckroat, Si Woo Kim and C.T. Pan, in a good old-fashioned Texas shootout of birdies to win the AT&T Byron Nelson for the second time.
The Nelson was Day’s first win on tour back in 2010 and he almost won again in 2017, losing a playoff to Billy Horschel. This time, it ended a five-year winless drought and gave him his 13th win on the PGA Tour.
The top of the leaderboard was crammed all day long and as Day played the 12th, five players were tied at 19 under par. Day then chipped in for birdie with his Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks 60T wedge at the par 4, the most-difficult hole of the day, to break the logjam.
WHAT IT DOES: The SM9 builds on the SM8’s center-of-gravity position in front of the face that assists squaring the club at impact. This version slightly raises the CG vertically by adding weight higher in the clubhead. Progressive hosel lengths also raise the CG, which promotes a lower, more controllable flight.
WHY WE LIKE IT: The SM9 features the first groove revision in a Vokey wedge since the SM6. A new “spin milled” cutting process creates the entire scoreline instead of just part of it. The result is a more consistent scoreline edge radius, allowing the grooves to be sharper and closer to the USGA limit. Confused by all the options? Here’s some advice from designer Bob Vokey: Go with more bounce in the sand wedge and less bounce in the lob wedge. Read more>>
With seemingly the entire field nipping at his lead, Day drove the short par-4 14th and generated a terrific two-putt from 49 feet for birdie. He then struck a pure 6-iron from 214 yards at the following hole to 11 feet and rolled that one in center cut for a two-shot cushion. A tasty wedge after laying up at the last led to one final birdie that gave day a final-round 62 and a one-shot win.
The TaylorMade P7MC irons in Day’s bag were working well at TPC Craig Ranch as he hit approaches inside 25 feet on 11 of his first 12 holes Sunday, helping lead to a ranking of third in strokes gained/approach the green, picking up more than six shots on the field.
Day’s putter is a TaylorMade Itsy Bitsy Spider Black mallet, a model Day has favored for several years (he used a red-colored one for some time as well) with no sightline, per Day’s request. It is clearly a model Day—one of the game’s best putters—feels comfortable with.
“I feel like I've always putted pretty well, and I'm starting to find the roll again, which is nice,” Day said on Saturday after his round. “Fingers crossed everything can kind of align this week, or next week would be great.”
Fortunately for Day, it was sooner rather than later.
The clubs Jason Day used to win the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson
Ball: Bridgestone Tour B X
Driver: Ping G430 LST (TPT prototype), 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade SIM Max, 15 degrees
7-wood: TaylorMade Stealth, 21 degrees
Irons (4): TaylorMade P770; (5-PW): TaylorMade P7MC
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (52, 56 degrees); Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks (60 degrees)
Find the ideal clubs for your game with our quick test below: