Four back and in a tie for fifth through three rounds, Day was unable to generate birdie opportunities on Sunday as he failed to regularly find Riviera’s narrow, twisting fairways.

The 36-year-old hit less than 43 per cent of fairways for the week and found just six of 14 in a final round of 1-over 72 to finish outright ninth, the 94th top-10 result of his PGA TOUR career.

It is his third top-10 from five starts this season and is projected to see him hold firm at No.19 in the Official World Golf Ranking, one ahead of eventual Genesis Invitational champion, Hideki Matsuyama.

“This is probably the most stressful and frustrating golf course you can potentially play if you’re just missing fairways,” Day said after his third round.

“Like it’s really difficult to hit the greens when you miss fairways.”

A two-time winner at Riviera, Adam Scott closed with an even-par 71 to earn a share of 19th while Cam Davis fell away after an opening round of 6-under 65 to finish 49th.

Making his second start of the season, Mark Hensby was denied from launching a final round charge at the PGA TOUR Champions Chubb Classic in Florida.

Four back of Canadian Stephen Ames after two rounds, heavy rain and storms forced the cancellation of the final round, Hensby left to be content with a tie for third as fellow Aussie Richard Green grabbed a share of seventh in his first start of the year.

New South Welshman Kevin Yuan was the best of a strong Aussie contingent at the Asian Tour’s IRS Prima Malaysian Open.

With three spots at The Open Championship at Royal Troon up for grabs, Yuan (68) made a late play with birdie on 15 and eagle on 17 but would have needed to make up two shots on the final hole to earn an Open exemption.

He would par the final hole to finish outright fifth at 19-under, two clear of Deyen Lawson (68) with Travis Smyth (65) the third Aussie to finish inside the top 10.

At the $US5 million Aramco Saudi Ladies International, Stephanie Kyriacou’s tie for 14th led the way for the Aussies, Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit running away with a seven-stroke victory.

Photo: Harry How/Getty Images

PGA TOUR
The Genesis Invitational
The Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, California
1          Hideki Matsuyama       69-68-68-62—267       $US4m
9          Jason Day                    65-69-69-72—275       $600,000
T19      Adam Scott                  72-68-67-71—278       $251,400
49        Cam Davis                   65-73-73-75—286       $54,000

Asian Tour
IRS Prima Malaysian Open
The Mines Resort & Golf Club, Malaysia
1          David Puig                   66-71-62-62—261       $US180,000
5          Kevin Yuan                   65-64-68-68—265       $41,000
T7        Deyen Lawson             66-67-66-68—267       $26,500
T9        Travis Smyth                68-66-69-65—268       $18,550
T22      Maverick Antcliff          67-68-70-65—270       $9,400
T31      Jack Thompson            69-68-66-68—271       $7,211.11
T31      Andrew Dodt               66-68-71-66—271       $7,211.11
T40      Jed Morgan                 68-69-66-69—272       $5,840
T40      Brendan Jones             68-69-68-67—272       $5,840
T52      Jordan Zunic                68-68-68-70—274       $3,960
T57      Ben Campbell (NZ)       69-66-71-69—275       $3,300
T57      Douglas Klein               71-63-73-68—275       $3,300
69        Scott Hend                   67-70-73-73—283       $2,400
MC       Aaron Wilkin                72-67—139
MC       Sam Brazel                   69-70—139
MC       Marcus Fraser              69-70—139
MC       Zach Murray                71-69—140
MC       Justin Warren               70-70—140
MC       Lachlan Barker              75-69—144
WD       Todd Sinnott                75
WD       Wade Ormsby              69

Ladies European Tour
Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by PIF
Riyadh Golf Club, Saudi Arabia
1          Patty Tavatanakit          66-70-69-65—270       $US697,743
T14      Stephanie Kyriacou      76-71-69-69—285       $83,147.71
T42      Kirsten Rudgeley          73-74-69-74—290       $23,897.70
T50      Grace Kim                    72-75-71-73—291       $19,846.91
MC       Gabriela Ruffels           79-71—150

Champions Tour
Chubb Classic
Tiburon Golf Club, Naples, Florida
Reduced to 36 holes due to storm
1          Stephen Ames             67-64—131     $US270,000
T3        Mark Hensby               66-69—135     $99,000
T7        Richard Green              68-68—136     $61,200
T10      Rod Pampling              70-68—138     $39,960          
T15      Steven Alker (NZ)         67-72—139     $27,990
T21      David Bransdon           69-71—140     $19,500
T35      Stuart Appleby             74-68—142     $10,170
T53      Steve Allan                   74-71—145     $4,320
T56      John Senden                73-73—146     $3,600

Challenge Tour
Dimension Data Pro-Am
Fancourt Golf Estate, George, South Africa
1          David Ravetto              68-66-71-69—274       €54,447.60
T34      Hayden Hopewell        75-74-67-70—286       €2,988.61
MC       Connor McKinney        73-72-77—222