By Frank Pingue
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) – Jason Day has enjoyed a resurgence after a frustrating stretch and the Australian former world number one said on Monday his march back to competitive relevance had a lot to do with him refusing to be patient.
The 35-year-old Day, who won the most recent of his 12 PGA Tour titles in 2018, has made huge strides since he slid down the rankings due to a mix of back issues, swing changes, putting woes while also dealing with the death of his mother.
But late last year, Day, growing ever more aware of the slew of rising young talent on the PGA Tour, did not want to waste any more time and insisted to instructor Chris Como that they speed up plans to bring changes to his game.
“He’s always talking about slow bringing stuff in,” Day said during his pre-Masters press conference. “And I said ‘look, I don’t have a lot of time and I need to make these changes and I’m going to force them in there’.”
The results have been rather staggering for Day as he has five top-10 finishes in seven events this year, the most recent coming in his last start at the Match Play event in Austin where he lost to Scottie Scheffler in the quarter-finals.
Day feels he could see even greater improvement if he can limit the many thoughts that run through his head before each swing, including hip position, legs, elbows, rotation, hands and wrists to name a few.
“I would like to be able to go out there and play without any — with a couple of swing thoughts,” said Day.
“I’m kind of physically forced to have to think about this stuff out on the golf course because if I don’t, then I go back into some bad habits, and that can potentially harm my back.”
Day, who missed out on an invite to last year’s Masters, has three top-five finishes at Augusta National, including a runner-up showing in 2011.
Now ranked 35th in the world, the 2015 PGA Championship winner is convinced his game is headed in the right direction and has enjoying the journey much more this time around.
“The first time that I got to No. 1 in the world, I didn’t know how I got there. I know how I got there, but it was just through sheer great putting, hit it okay, but I just putted off the charts, and the mentality wasn’t sustainable,” said Day.
“So this time around, I’m enjoying the journey and I’m learning each and every day, and I’ve actually got a lot of love and passion for it.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Augusta, Georgia)
