Day to ‘play it just like Tiger’

JASON Day plans on taking a leaf from the Tiger Woods playbook and try to win the British Open without a driver.

Woods famously pulled out the big dog only once while winning the last bone-dry Open in 2006.

His breathtaking display of control at Royal Liverpool left three-time champion-turnedcommentator Nick Faldo gushing over the “sheer perfection” of the American’s ballstriking.

With Day claiming Carnoustie’s “fairways are faster than the greens” after a summer without rain, the Australian No.1 said he was likely to copy Woods’ blueprint.

“It’s definitely, by far, the driest (Open I’ve played),” the Queenslander said after playing his first-ever nine holes at the course yesterday.

“It takes out the bigger clubs and I think I’m long enough to be able to hit it.

“I feel like I play my long irons pretty well. I hit them nice and high. I can hit them low, too. So when conditions are nice and dry like this, I can use the whole golf course to my advantage with my length.

“So I’m excited in that regard, but I’ve still got to go and play the front side tomorrow and see what I’m going to do there because I haven’t even

touched my three wood or my driver yet.”

Nor did Woods touch his driver during the last three rounds in 2006.

Yet the former world No.1 still finished 18 under par to claim his third Claret Jug and the 11th of his 14 career majors.

“For Tiger, he had that low, punching stinger two iron. He used that to his advantage,” Day said. “If you get it on line, it should run pretty dang straight unless you get unlucky with some of the bounces.

“But you’re just wanting to get it low and get it running.”

Day has arrived for his latest Open tilt in a far more positive headspace than last year, when the burdens of holding down the top ranking – then losing it – and his mother’s cancer scare weighed him down at Birkdale.