At the moment, Australia has just Jason Day amongst the top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings for the carryover season of 2017 – 2018.
The number of golfers increases to two when you look down that list and find Marc Leishman in the 18th position.
Cameron Smith started the year with promise, but he has failed to vault forward by any significant degree and the latest check of the rankings finds him at 43rd.
Day has had a nice return this season, after dealing with seemingly every sort of issue that can affect any of us negatively. He has certainly shown a boost in his work rate, playing with little or no distraction.
He has won twice. The first was the Farmers Insurance Open in late January, where he overcame an opening round 73 to finish at 10 under par on solid play backing a second round 64 that moved him into contention.
In early May, Day won the Wells Fargo Championship and it started to seem as though if he had not exactly recaptured the form that saw him have his most successful season as a pro in 2015, he showed every indication that he was not far off. He has won over $4 million U.S. to this point.
Leishman looked to be starting the season as he left off the previous one, taking second place at the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges. He posted another second at the AT& T Byron Nelson, but he has missed three cuts, two coming after a good showing at the 2018 Masters. He has $3.2 million U.S. in his bag and is looking like a lock to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Young Smith is making a strong showing in terms of reasonable expectations. He finished third to Leishman’s second at Nine Bridges, but he has lost his touch somewhat, missing cuts with disturbing regularity after he was a most respectable fifth in The Masters. He has earned $2.1 million U.S. for his efforts in the current season.
