Day eyes return to No. 1

Jason Day wants to get back to No. 1 in the world, and he’s willing to lose sleep over it. “There has to be some kind of sacrifice,” Day said in the Bahamas before shutting it down for the year. “I was reading the Kobe Bryant book, and he knew there was something he had to sacrifice, so he sacrificed sleep. Because he couldn’t sacrifice family, he couldn’t sacrifice competing, and not working.

“What can I sacrifice?” he added with a smile. “Sleep.” Day knows the cost of being the best golfer on the planet because he already reached that summit.

He first reached No. 1 in the fall of 2015 after winning five times that year, including his first major at the PGA Championship. The following spring, he won three more tournaments in a span of six starts, capped by a wire-to-wire victory in The Players Championship that gave him the highest points average in the world ranking since Tiger Woods. He stayed No. 1 for 47 weeks and looked to be the dominant player he always wanted to be. Getting back might be even tougher. The 31-year-old Australian thought he was on the right track when he started the year by winning in a playoff at Torrey Pines, his first victory in more than 18 months. He talked that day about how his victory at Torrey in 2015 propelled him to his best season.

“I’m hoping to do much of the same this year,” Day said.

He won again in early May, hitting a towering 7-iron that bounced off the pin on the treacherous par-3 17th at Quail Hollow that sent him to a two-shot victory in the Wells Fargo Championship.

The end of the year brought a sobering reality: Day started at No. 13 in the world, won twice, and finished at No. 14.

“I wasn’t as consistent as I should have been,” Day said. “If you have a couple of wins, finish with around 10 to 12 top 10s, typically you’re in the top-five region. That’s why I was disappointed about this year, even though I had two wins.”

There’s one other part of the equation.

Along with adding two PGA Tour victories, he and wife Ellie added a third child. A son, Arrow, was born in November.

AP PHOTO In this May 6, photo, Jason Day poses with, from left to right, his daughter Lucy, son Dash and wife Ellie after winning the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.