"I felt pretty buzzed”: Jason Day recalls classic Arnold Palmer story from 2016
Jason Day has a fascinating Arnold Palmer story from 2016. Day recalled the story to Golf Digest after his practice round on Tuesday ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Notably, Day was the last Arnold Palmer Invitational winner when the legend himself was alive, as Palmer passed away later that year.
The story goes back to the 2016 Sunday night of the Palmer event. Day had just won the tournament and the winners were required to do two things: Shake hands with Palmer after the 18th green and then come to his office to have a drink with him.
“Typically after every time you win here, you would go and have a celebratory drink with him. His drink was Ketel One vodka on the rocks. No mixer, and it was like a good dose of Ketel One,” said Day.
However, there was one problem: Day didn't know Palmer's preferred drink. It was pretty hot and he didn't have much the whole day.
“So I go in and I say, ‘I’ll have whatever he has.’ And Arnie poured me a drink and I thought, I better finish this now. After that, I had to go on Golf Channel and I felt pretty buzzed.”
The 2015-16 was a purple patch for Day as he won the 2015 PGA Championship, followed by the 2016 WGC-Match Play and the Players Championship, and went on to become the World No.1 holding the position for almost a year. However, since 2018, there has been a drought of titles on the PGA Tour for the 35-year-old golfer. Last year, he slipped to as low as 164 in the OWGR.
Day, however, feels that he is slowly getting back to his best, and his body and swing feel better after partnering with swing coach Chris Como. Improvements are visible in his results as Jason finished ninth in the Genesis Invitational, bringing him back into the top 50. Including Genesis, he has finished in the top 10 in his last three starts this year (5th at WM Phoenix Open, T-7th in Farmers Insurance Open).
“Over the last two years, I was just hoping to get through four days I'd wake up every day with pain.”
Arnold Palmer Invitational field
The Arnold Palmer Invitational starts on Thursday, March 2, at Bay Hill. The size of the tournament is $20 million. Here's the field of the API:
- Ludvig Aberg
- Tyson Alexander
- Byeong Hun An
- Aaron Baddeley
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout
- Keegan Bradley
- Joseph Bramlett
- Ryan Brehm
- Hayden Buckley
- Sam Burns
- Patrick Cantlay
- Stewart Cink
- Wyndham Clark
- Eric Cole
- Corey Conners
- Pierceson Coody
- Joel Dahmen
- Cam Davis
- Jason Day
- Thomas Detry
- Luke Donald
- Harris English
- Tony Finau
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Rickie Fowler
- Ryan Fox
- Lucas Glover
- Will Gordon
- Ben Griffin
- Emiliano Grillo
- Adam Hadwin
- Cole Hammer
- Nick Hardy
- Brian Harman
- Padraig Harrington
- Tyrrell Hatton
- Russell Henley
- Lucas Herbert
- Garrick Higgo
- Lee Hodges
- Charley Hoffman
- Tom Hoge
- Max Homa
- Billy Horschel
- Beau Hossler
- Viktor Hovland
- Mackenzie Hughes
- Sungjae Im
- Zach Johnson
- Kamaiu Johnson
- Tom Kim
- S.H. Kim
- Si Woo Kim
- Chris Kirk
- Kevin Kisner
- Kurt Kitayama
- Patton Kizzire
- Greg Koch
- Martin Laird
- Thriston Lawrence
- K.H. Lee
- Min Woo Lee
- David Lingmerth
- David Lipsky
- Luke List
- Justin Lower
- Shane Lowry
- Peter Malnati
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Rory McIlroy
- Adrian Meronk
- Troy Merritt
- Keith Mitchell
- Francesco Molinari
- Taylor Montgomery
- Taylor Moore
- Collin Morikawa
- Trey Mullinax
- Matthew NeSmith
- Alex Noren
- Ryan Palmer
- Taylor Pendrith
- Seamus Power
- Andrew Putnam
- Jon Rahm
- Aaron Rai
- Chez Reavie
- Davis Riley
- Patrick Rodgers
- Justin Rose
- Sam RyderUndisclosed
- Xander Schauffele
- Scottie Scheffler
- Adam Schenk
- Adam Scott
- Robby Shelton
- Greyson Sigg
- Webb Simpson
- Alex Smalley
- J.J. Spaun
- Jordan Spieth
- Scott Stallings
- Sepp Straka
- Kevin Streelman
- Justin Suh
- Adam Svensson
- Callum Tarren
- Ben Taylor
- Nick Taylor
- Sahith Theegala
- Justin Thomas
- Davis Thompson
- Brendon Todd
- Kyle Westmoreland
- Danny Willett
- Aaron Wise
- Gary Woodland
- Cameron Young
- Will Zalatoris