In 2016, Jason Day reached a level of dominance on the PGA Tour that players could only compare to one man.
Jason Day took a wire-to-wire victory at The Players to claim his seventh victory in 17 starts on the PGA Tour.
During that run, Day won the PGA Championship, the BMW Championship, and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, making him the third Australian to rise to number one in the Official World Golf Rankings.
That led to Australia’s first Masters winner, Adam Scott, to make a bold comparison between Day and Tiger Woods, and Woods had some fighting talk for Day afterwards.
Adam Scott called Jason Day ‘Tiger-esque’
Scott had a stretch of dominance of his own earlier in the decade, which saw him claim a Green Jacket and a spot atop the Official World Golf Rankings.
But even he said his fellow countryman looked ‘unbeatable’, and compared the run he’d been on to prime Woods.
Speaking after Day won the Players, Scott explained: “Well, that’s Tiger-esque, that kind of a run.
“I try to imagine how good Tiger felt playing five years into his pro career and having won 50 events. Imagine how you’d feel confidence-wise? Jason must be feeling something like that at the moment.
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“That’s an incredibly nice way to walk out on the golf course, and you can see it with Jason. You can see there’s that calmness inside him, calm confidence. The way he’s walking around, he’s got that kind of unbeatable look about him.”
At that time, Woods was sidelined with an injury. It was three years before he would make his triumphant return to Masters glory in 2019. But while he was major-less for eight years at that point, he’d lost none of his fighting spirit.
The greatest golfer of all time laid down the gauntlet against the current world number one.
What Tiger Woods said privately to Jason Day during his dominant run
Day’s run was almost unlike anything we had seen in a decade, and similar to the type of run we saw from Scottie Scheffler in 2025, which drew Woods comparisons.
But while Woods is unlikely to return and challenge Scheffler week in, week out on the PGA Tour in 2026, it was a distinct possibility a decade ago that he could snatch Day’s crown once he recovered from injury.
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And that’s exactly what he aimed to do, as Day revealed: “Tiger says he’s going to kick my butt when he comes back, so I’m going to try and extend that gap. So if he does come back and he has turned into Tiger Woods again … I’ve got to kind of watch my behind.
“That’s the main goal and main reason why I’m trying to extend that lead, so that I stay on top. I look at my 10 PGA Tour wins, and I say to myself, ‘That’s not enough,’ and it isn’t enough for me. It’s just 10. I want more than 10.
“I look at Tiger, and he’s got 79, or whatever it is, and Phil [Mickelson] is up there. I’m like, ‘OK, I want to be looked back on as one of the greats in the game.’ I’m going to try my best.
“I have the opportunity to do that right now, to try and work as hard as I can to really leave my footprint in this game that has given me so much.”
Unfortunately for Day, his 2016 Players victory would be his last on the PGA Tour for the next two seasons. His next win would be in 2018, at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Life comes at you fast when you’re a professional golfer, and just when you’re at the top of the game and playing with Woods-like confidence, your form leaves you. That’s what makes Woods’ dominant run all the more impressive.
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