AUGUSTA – So many swing thoughts.
Jason Day has them running through his head in quick succession – all to manage his way around a golf course while keeping his back intact. Gone are the days where it was all so simple. He ascended to No. 1 in the world with a free swing and phenomenal putting.
And then it all came undone.
Back injury troubles got the best of Day. His putting dropped off significantly. He dealt with the death of his mother. Suddenly, Day found himself looking up in the World Golf Rankings from a low of No. 175.
“It’s good but I would like to go out there and play with a couple of swing thoughts,” Day said Monday before the 2023 Masters. “Right now, I’m thinking about making sure that I have good hip turn on the way back. I have the right elbow flare at the top of the swing. I have a little bit of a squat going into transition. The right arm goes down the right side of my body. I rotate. Get my hands low. Make sure I get my left wrist and get my right hand on top. And you have to compete as well.
“They are things I’m thinking about constantly on the range. If I could maybe have one or two swing thoughts, that would actually help a lot. … 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. … I would say that the majority of the major issues are taken care of. It’s just the small little things, really minute, small things that you don’t really see to the naked eye or people see to the naked eye. But things are moving in the right direction.”
It’s working. Day is moving his way back up.
Now ranked No. 35 in the world, Day returns to the Masters after having to sit out last year’s tournament. Day broke the Top 50 threshold on the deadline of March 27 to qualify for this year’s Masters after missing last year’s event.
He admitted to watching it on television, disappointed to have missed the major after 11 straight appearances. He nearly won the thing twice. He tied for second in 2011, his debut. In 2013 he stood on the 16th tee with the lead. He lost to Adam Scott, who won in a playoff that Day missed. He has four top-10 finishes here.
“I didn’t watch too much of it,” Day said of watching from afar. “I think it was out of the sheer disappointment that I wasn’t able to compete being the last 11 years I’ve been playing this tournament. I think mentally, I was more disappointed in myself not being able to compete here and not playing majors, especially, because my world ranking ballooned out so far. It hit my confidence a lot.”
Day spent 51 weeks as the world’s No. 1 golfer in 2015. He is a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour, but his last victory came in May of 2018 at the Wells Fargo Championship.
Day, 35, has played 13 events this season. He has 11 top-25 finishes and six top-10 finishes. Close, but not there quite yet. He said the finishes are nice, but he hasn’t really been in contention. That, he hopes, changes soon.
In the meantime, this move up the world rankings and trying to win majors, including the Masters, is about the journey.
“When I got to No. 1 in the world, I thought I would feel a little bit different when I would wake up on Monday morning and see my name at No. 1 in the world, and didn’t really change too much,” Day said. “I think the thought process of working my way through it, and it comes from a different place this time around, whereas when I got to No. 1 in the world, it was sacrifice everything. It came from a very hard place. Sacrifice everything. Very, like, forget about how your body feels, just kind of just force it in there.
“And this time around, I’m kind of learning more about how my body is working, what I need to do to keep myself healthy and trying to understand the swing itself, and really trying to learn more about the process of getting there.”
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