Jason Day detailed his recent struggles on the PGA Tour as the 13-time winner looks for his first victory in over three years.
Day played alongside Jordan Spieth on Thursday and found himself clapping for his playing partner after the 32-year-old played an incredible bunker shot near the end of the round.
38-year-old Day has yet to find a win on the PGA Tour since the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson, mentioning that he’s struggling since earning a runner-up finish at the American Express at the beginning of the season.
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“I would say that a lot of the stress and pressure that I’m feeling is because I can’t get the ball on the green,” said Day following his first round Thursday. “I can’t feel like I can — I’m playing to miss a shot instead of playing to a target, just because I don’t know what the ball’s going to really do once it comes off the club face. And it’s nothing to do with the clubs. It’s all kind of me in a sense that when you’re fighting something, it’s really hard to trust it.
“Luke, my caddie, is telling me, ‘put a good story on it,’ which means that, like, you’re trying to tell yourself a good story to get yourself into the shot and visualize. And when you’re hitting it this way, it’s really hard to kind of see that story and tell yourself and really trust and believe in it.
Day carded a two-over during the first round of the signature event -Credit:Getty Images
“So I think at some point it will just — I’ll get beyond it. It’s really hard to be patient right now because I’ve had — every tournament I typically have three decent rounds and one bad round that just puts me out of the tournament. I’m in the 30 to 60 finish position-wise. It’s been a tough year.”
Day has just two top-10s this year and has not finished inside the top 15 since at T12 finish at the Masters.
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“It’s hard,” said Day. “I was on 13 because I hit it in the back left part on 12 and got up-and-down. I had a nice up-and-down. But I said to Luke, I said, ‘this is just really hard to try and figure it out while you’re playing competitive golf,’ because essentially what you want to do is you want to go out there and just be dialed and just hit the shots and not fight yourself.
“And I’m not the only one that’s fighting it. There’s plenty of guys out here that are doing the exact same thing. Some are a little bit better at hiding it, some are a little bit better at getting around the golf course, and some guys are struggling.”