Jason Day captured his second career PGA Tour victory and first World Golf Championship Sunday, rising to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

It took six hard fought matches and five extra holes, but Jason Day finally has his much-pursued second-career PGA Tour victory. Day defeated 23-year old Victor Dubuisson in 23 holes in the Championship match to claim his first World Golf Championship in what turned out to be one of the most entertaining playoffs in recent golf history.

Day dominated the match early on, capitalizing on some short missed putts by Dubuisson. He was 3-up through 12 holes, but the young Frenchman, ranked a sneaky 30^th in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) coming into the event, began to chip away. Dubuisson had to make a 13-foot birdie putt on No. 17 to stave off elimination, and then managed a spectacular up-and-down from a greenside bunker on No. 18 to send the match to extra holes.

The escape-artistry from the native of Cannes did not stop there, however. It was as if The Golf Club at Dove Mountain somehow knew that this would be its last time on television for the foreseeable future.

On the 19^th hole (normally the first), both players found the fairway. Dubuisson, playing first, juiced a 7-iron over the green and into the desert and amongst the cacti. Day, though, could not find the green from some 20 yards closer, tugging his approach left of the green and into a greenside bunker. Dubuisson then hit perhaps the year’s most amazing shot to 4 feet and Day tugged his bunker shot some six feet left. Both players made their putts.

Unbelievably, the second playoff hole unfolded in much the same way as the first. Once again, Dubuisson found himself in the desert near the green, and once again he executed an all-time shot to get it up and down to halve the hole. Comparisons to Seve Ballesteros and Harry Houdini flooded the golf-obsessed corners of social media.

Two more holes, halved in par and bogey, respectively, brought the weary pair to perhaps the best hole on the golf course for match play: the drivable par-4 15^th. Both players drive the ball pin-high and right of the green, with Day ending up in the fairway collar and Dubuisson away in the right rough. Here Dubuisson’s magic finally ran out, as his shot wandered to the back fringe some 25 feet from the hole. Day pitched to 4 feet, Dubuisson missed his putt and Day holed his putt for the victory.

Apart from an extreme case of perseverance in the face of a seemingly kismet-aided opponent, the win serves as confirmation of the progress of Day’s young career. It is only his second PGA Tour triumph—his first since his 2010 HP Byron Nelson Championship victory. As often as Day shows up on big-tournament leaderboards, one would think he would have racked up more wins by now. Instead, the young Australian has made his name with a number of very high finishes in some of the highest-profile tournaments. In only 13 major championship starts, Day has a stellar six top-10 finishes.

Adding a World Golf Championship to those near-misses gives more of an impression of Day as a proven winner. Between the confidence this win must give him and Adam Scott’s watershed victory for Australia at last year’s Masters, Day has to be considered a favorite at Augusta in a few weeks.

When it ended, it seemed that the match of the day would be the Consolation Match, which also went to extra holes. Rickie Fowler vanquished Ernie Els in 19 holes to claim third prize. The veteran Els and the young upstart Fowler traded blows all day, with neither player being more than 2-up at any point. It took an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 18 for Els to force extra holes.

The runner-up finish vaults Dubuisson into the 23^rd spot in the OWGR. He has qualified for the Masters by a comfortable margin and looks poised to remain high in the game’s ranks for years to come. With the Ryder Cup coming to France in 2018, there seems little doubt that Dubuisson will be a cornerstone of that European squad.