Jason Day wins inaugural Greg Norman Medal
Jason Day has capped a remarkable season by taking out the inaugural Greg Norman Medal for Australia’s best-performing international golfer.
It is the world No.2’s second national award in short order, after winning this year’s Don Award from the Australian Sports Hall of Fame in October, and comes on the back of arguably one of the best ever years in golf by an Australian.
The 28-year-old Queenslander won five times on the US PGA Tour in 2015 – including his maiden major championship title at the US PGA Championship – and rocketed to the world No.1 ranking in September, although he has since relinquished that position to Jordan Spieth.
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Day, the clear frontrunner for the gong as one of eight male and female nominees, also finished tied for fourth at The Open Championship and finished third on the FedEx Cup rankings.
Outside of his win in the PGA at Whistling Straits, his most heroic effort came in the US Open at the much-maligned Chambers Bay course.
Throughout the tournament Day battled a debilitating case of vertigo, collapsing multiple times during his second round and needing to lie down on the grass to recover.
At the end of the thirds round he had the lead only to once again succumb to the illness as he battled in the final round to finish in a tie for ninth.
Day, a US resident, was unable to attend the gala dinner held at the Royal Pines resort on the Gold Coast on Tuesday night, ahead of this week’s Australian PGA Championships, but appeared via video link while his mother Dening accepted the award personally on his behalf from Greg Norman.
“It’s an honour and a privilege to win the Greg Norman Medal, it caps off an amazing year,” said Day.
“I’d like to thank the PGA of Australia for launching this medal with Greg Norman and their support over the past 10 years.”
Day beat out fellow nominees Adam Scott, Matt Jones, Marc Leishman, Steven Bowditch, Karrie Webb, Minjee Lee and Rebecca Artis for what the PGA of Australia is hopeful will become the country’s most prestigious golf award.
“Jason is a wonderful ambassador for golf and it’s fantastic to see him add the Greg Norman Medal to his list of successes,” said Brian Thorburn, CEO of the PGA.
– AAP