It’s hard to believe that it’s been 10 years since Jason Day won THE PLAYERS. Where, I ask, does the time go?
However, it’s not hard to believe that Day won THE PLAYERS, because at his best, he was No. 1 in the world. And although he was No. 1 before he won it, he wasn’t brimming with confidence when he arrived.
“I haven't had the greatest finishes here at THE PLAYERS Championship, but with that said, I feel a lot more prepared this year than I ever have in my career coming into this event,” he said, adding that he was hoping for a different result than in the past.
Usually, sports psychologists and money managers say that hope isn’t a strategy, but in Day’s case, maybe he was onto something that the rest of us don’t know.
However, at that moment in time, he also admitted to being uncomfortable with some of the 3-woods that he usually hit off the tee at TPC Sawgrass. Unfortunately, he hit several of them in a round.
(Heck, most people are uncomfortable at TPC Sawgrass no matter what they hit off the tee. Pete Dye’s designs just do that to you. It was part of his calculating charm.)
For Day, the 1st, 2nd and 4th could be 3-woods back then, but as we all know distances have sort of migrated up for everybody in the last 10 years, so he might be able to hit something else now.
Five was a 3-wood, if downwind.
“Six is an iron. Seven is a driver, possibly 3-wood,” he said then.
Nine, he said, is driver; 10 is 3-wood; 11 is driver; 12 is 2-iron.
“And then from there on in it’s pretty much driver until 18, where I could possibly hit driver or I could hit 2-iron,” he noted. “Three-wood is just an awkward shot there because you’re still bringing in the trouble on 18 up the right side, whereas if you hit 2-iron you can lay it back.”
You remember last year when Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun both pushed tee shots out to the right in the playoff? Well, it might be inconvenient to have a drive — or in their case a 2-iron or whatever they hit — over there, but at least it’s dry. They can easily hit a shot over or under a tree and get close to it if not on the green.
Day’s 2-iron at that time had about 250 yards of carry and then ran out however far the fairways would allow.
“The 3-wood goes about 285 yards off the tee. So, there's a big difference in gap, so there’s at least 30 yards. That’s three clubs. That is a big difference,” he added. “I have to weigh out between hitting an iron or 3-wood just because if I miss it in the rough, you’re going to get fliers out of here, and if you get fliers out of the rough it’s very difficult to hold the greens. And then if you miss the greens, then it’s very difficult to try and get up-and-down because of the uncertainty of the lies that you can get around these greens in Bermudagrass.”
There isn’t going to be any Bermudagrass, so that’s one less issue. It’s all overseeded with some form of ryegrass. Rye will still produce some sort of flier but will be much more predictable than Bermuda.
A.I. says it is, if that matters.
I do know that the grass acts differently when you strike a ball to get out of Bermuda rough versus ryegrass or bluegrass rough, at least that has been my experience. (I’m half in half out with A.I. I don’t know about you.)
But if a ball comes out of the rough from any of those grasses, it’s going to be harder to get it to stop on the green than if it came out from the fairway. That’s for sure, and we don’t need A.I. to tell us that. When was the last time A.I. hit a shot from the right rough on the 18th? A.I. has no feel after all, at least not yet. It’s circuits and silicon chips. It has no idea what to do when the grass wraps around the hosel and throws your shot off line.
But Day did offer up a fact or two about playing the course for a score. He said he found out that he needed to play 13, 14 and 15 even par for the week, and that he would be happy about that. I don’t recall anyone mentioning that previously. New fact to stuff in the brain. (What fact should I take out to make room?) In addition, Cole (Colin Swafford, his golf instructor and one-time caddie) would give him stats on how he needed to play each hole. Which ones he needed to par for sure. Presumably birdie and eagle opportunities as well.
“Preparation prevents bad performance, hopefully, and that’s all I’m trying to do is prepare the best I possibly can,” he explained. “If I can prepare the best I can and so nothing really pops up and surprises me, that gives me the best shot or best opportunity at playing good golf. And from there, that mental toughness to keep pushing on, to really not stop fighting and keep pushing on and understand that you're never really out of the fight.”
What was interesting is that Day also talked about what he learned by watching other players. He recalled Sergio Garcia playing at Barclays and being in a playoff against Vijay Singh.
“I’ve never seen a guy move the ball in so many different trajectories with a wood in the first place, 3-woods, drivers, everything,” Day explained. “And then on top of it, he did nothing very — he didn’t really do anything special that day. He just kept the ball out in front of him, just did what he needed to do to get the ball in the hole, and then from there he just somehow got himself in a playoff.”
That taught Day that sometimes if he doesn’t have his best stuff, if he just hangs around and stays in contention, he might end up winning. He said it had happened to him that year at Bay Hill. However, Day won wire-to-wire, so it’s not like he didn’t have good stuff that week. Or good enough stuff when the trophies are passed out.
When it came to his play at TPC Sawgrass, Day said in years past, he made too many mistakes and not enough birdies. Seems simplistic, but he was trying not to complicate things. Golf is hard enough.
“If I break it down even more, probably don’t hit enough fairways with my 2-iron, 3-wood,” he continued. “And from there, if I don't hit those fairways, that’s less opportunities for me to hit the greens, because obviously it’s harder to judge what the grass is going to do with either flier or not flier.”
Then he talked about how difficult it was to hit the greens at TPC Sawgrass to the right places from the rough. What he meant is that he had really learned how to play professional golf.
And then he talked about the score that usually wins.
“Fourteen-under is the average score that wins here,” he said. “So, you just got to get to that, and if you can get past 14-under, then you should have a high percentage chance of actually winning this tournament.”
Day’s winning score for the week was 15-under par. He shot 63, 66, 73, 71 for 273 and a victory against the toughest field in golf.
“I’m not going to close all the tournaments out like Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus have in the past, but I’m going to do my best trying to do it,” he said about trying to improve. “I’m not going to stop fighting until the end, even if I do lose.”
