By Evin Priest
JASON Day is lucky to have remained in the all-important FedEx Cup top-five seedings despite withdrawing from the BMW Championship with a back injury after just eight holes of the final round.
At the conclusion of the BMW, both the world No.1 and compatriot Adam Scott locked up spots in the FedEx Cup’s top-five heading into the season-ending Tour Championship on September 22.
Scott carded a 12-under par total to finish the BMW Championship T4, 11 shots back of runaway winner Dustin Johnson. The 36-year-old Aussie finished the penultimate playoffs event with 3,479 points and locked up third place. Day kept his fourth-place seeding with 3,409 points, barely edging out in-form Paul Casey on 3,252. Patrick Reed bagged second place with 4,203.
Being in the top-five seedings guarantee placeholders the FedEx Cup’s $10 million ($AU13 million) bonus prize if they win the Tour Championship.
Day, 27, was putting his tee into the ninth tee box at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Indiana this morning when he tweaked his lower back –which he has injured repeatedly – prompting the defending BMW Championship winner to withdraw and concede zero points in the third event of the finals.
“He’s all right, he’s just got some back issues and is in a little bit of pain. He’s getting treatment right now. I don’t think it’s anything that he hasn’t dealt with before,” Day’s manager Bud Martin told PGA Tour.com.
“The trainer is maybe thinking it’s the same type of thing that he dealt with I think at the Barclays and last year where he picked something up in his bus and it kind of got out of line.
“But just better safe than sorry. Instead of forcing it, we just decided that it was more prudent to kind of come in, get it worked on, and deal with it.”
