Jason Day – image Getty Images
Jason Day returns to the venue for his 2018 victory at the Wells Fargo Championship, the scene of his last PGA Tour win, hoping that a return to a golf course he enjoys so much might prompt a return to the winner’s circle.
The winner of 12 PGA Tour titles and US$54 million in prizemoney which has him in 9th place in over career earnings, spoke at a pre-event media conference in Charlotte today and discussed the event and his current form.
“Yeah, obviously this is a premier golf course to be a part of and obviously the tournament is huge. Obviously, this year even more so, but in the past they’ve always had a pretty big field, which has been great.
“I thoroughly enjoy the way that the course layout is. Not only on top of that, but the way that the grass is and the sand and everything as well, it’s just I feel like it sets up well for my game.”
Despite what has been an outstanding return from the golfing wilderness in the last eight or nine months, 35 year old Day is still struggling with one of the issues that has plagued him at various stages of his recent career, namely vertigo.
“So last round of the Masters I had vertigo, so that was obviously not fun to play in that final round. We had to finish our third round Sunday morning and then I was sitting in the caddie hut and that’s when I got vertigo.
“I mean, I was supposed to play RBC, that was on the schedule to play and then pulled out because of that and had to go back and run some tests. I think it’s just hard because when you feel like you’re running on all cylinders, you’re making a lot of birdies, you’re doing a lot of good things, it’s difficult when sometimes the health plays a factor.
“If it’s a back, I understand, but I feel like I’m kind of beyond that now, which has been great because I worked really hard on it. So it’s just one thing after another where I just kind of have to peel it back a little bit, kind of understand a little bit more, get a little bit better.
“And then I am under a lot more stress this year than what I was in previous years just because of where I am week in and week out. I’ve been playing a lot better so there’s obviously more stress and when you have more stress, your immune system can get compromised and for me it was just unfortunate that happened in the last round.
“But I’ve had three weeks off and I feel like I’m getting a handle on it, which is good, so it will just take some time.”
Day was asked what had happened at the Dell Technologies Match Play Championship where he let a 3 up lead against Scottie Scheffler slip from his grasp to lose 2 up and then a weekend demise at Augusta National.
“I’m going to say it was vertigo, but I just I didn’t want to talk about it too much, especially the Match Play because it was just like a small bout of it, but it really kicked my butt at Augusta. That was like kind of the time where I had to take a step back.”
Day began the Masters well with an opening round 67 but eventually finished 39th after a final round of 80.
“I think for me personally, I’ve always put myself in a position where I’ve just like worked really, really hard, I made a lot of changes in my swing so I’m always constantly going and pushing it.
“It’s never really the mental side or the actual me going out there and trying to work harder that stops me from golf, it’s typically my body saying no, you can’t do that anymore. But overall I know exactly what happened.
“It is obviously the stress of playing the game, and I understand there’s obviously competitive stress and there’s stress outside the game that is totally separate that everyone goes through as well.
“When you put yourself under stressful conditions all the time, sooner or later your immune system gets compromised. I wasn’t eating as healthy as I should have, so I made some changes to my diet.
“Then, yeah, it’s a virus that attacks my inner ear, which is the vestibular nerve in the ear, so when that happens you can’t get rid of a virus obviously, the only way you can do it is suppress it. I just needed to take some time off, that was pretty much plain and simple. And then obviously on top of it just rework how I come to the golf course and work as well.”
Day is very much aware that it has been five years since his last PGA Tour title and knows more than anyone else how much he wants to return to that level.
“I mean, I need to get back into the winner’s circle, I know that. I feel that my game is starting to round into some really good form where I know that I can win more consistently, it’s just a matter of putting myself into contention a little bit more. Not too worried about it too much.
“To be honest, I’ve got past the point of like thinking about winning and more of the point of just trying to go through the correct process every single day and then at some point it’s going to yield more confidence and better play. When that happens, it’s going to happen a lot, which would be nice.”
Day had some interesting comments on the designated events such as this week which provide significantly increased prizemoney and a week where everyone gets to play the weekend.
“I like having the cut. I’m like on the other side of what most people think. I don’t know all the facts about it, but I look at it and I say if the best players are supposed to stick around for the weekend, we should play better, and I understand that. If we don’t play better, then we have to re-evaluate why we didn’t play better and get ourselves in contention.
“To keep guys around for four days, I totally understand that side as well, but if I was looking at it, I’d rather have a cut and then — granted, I know that like West Coast to right now, there’s daylight issues so there’s certain types of fields that we can only handle. Yeah, I prefer a cut, I think that would be much better.”
When it was suggested to Day that it such events are designed to provide guaranteed money Day responded; “Why do we need guaranteed pay?”
“I think a lot of the decisions we’ve made, the Tour and the policy board has made over the last year, there obviously has been a reaction to what LIV has brought to the table. To be honest, I think everyone’s better for it. I mean, we’re playing for more money on both sides. What’s more sustainable, I’m not sure, but I’m looking at the picture right now and it feels pretty good. I’m just trying to get back to winning at the end of the day and leave the decision making to Rory and those guys.”
Day was also asked his thoughts on how the LIV event in Australia went?
“I think Australia is kind of starved for an event with big players. We have the Presidents Cup that goes down there every so often and typically that has a good large field, but we’re talking a total different type of golf, total different type of scene.
“I mean, if you watch it, there’s music playing in the background and if you understand Australians, we tend to typically like to have a good time. Yeah, I think it was nice to be able to see that.
“Obviously I wanted to see how it would — what would it be like down there with the Australian crowds and how it would be received. I feel like it was well received down there.
“If we went down there as the PGA TOUR, it would be a total different vibe, so I don’t think there would be music playing and all that stuff. It would be a lot more professional in that sense.”
Steve Alker – image Getty Images