He didn’t
have his A Game but after more than three months away from golf Jason Day
showed why he is the world’s best player with a grandstand finish at the year’s
first event in Hawaii.

The World Number
1 holed a 12 foot putt for eagle on the 72^nd hole of the Plantation
Course at Kapalua to finish just outside the top-10 at the Tournament of
Champions.

After a
huge tee shot and brilliant second, Day calmly rolled in the putt to post his
third 3-under 70 of the week on his way to a 13-under-par total and T12.

The eagle
was a highlight but there were several positives for Day who made an impressive
19 birdies for the week though also showed some rust with eight bogeys.

It was
Day’s first competitive outing since September last year when he withdrew from
the TOUR Championship with a niggling back injury.

It was his
second consecutive tournament withdrawal and he also missed a much anticipated
return for the Australian Summer of Golf as he worked on his recovery.

But the
29-year-old showed no signs of that injury this week and said after his round
he felt positive about his overall performance.

"I think
there were a lot of positives I need to take away from this week," he said. "I
felt like other than today, for the most part of the week, I drove it pretty
solid.

"I hit a
lot of quality shots into the greens I just need to tighten it up a little bit
with proximity."

Day said he
felt the only real element of his game that was disappointing was his putting.

"The
putting wasn’t quite there," he said, "but to finish at 13-under it was a
decent week.

"Just solid
but some soft errors out there and if I can tighten those up and give myself
the opportunities I need to, hopefully I’ll give myself a chance of winning
soon."

Day was the
best of the four Australians in the field with his final hole heroics vaulting
him two shots clear of Rod Pampling whose 11-under total was good for T17.

Aaron
Baddeley saved his best till last posting a 4-under final round to get to 6-under
and T25 in the 32-man field while Greg Chalmers went the other way with a
1-over Sunday to drop to 5-under and T28.