Day pins hopes on better attitude, putting
For months, Jason Day was just miles from Muirfield Village Golf Club, his home course.
He might as well have been in his native Australia. Day spent the PGA Tour’s forced shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic with his family at their home in Westerville. He played a total of nine holes at Muirfield.
“We didn’t leave for, gosh, the first two months,” Day said Sunday after finishing tied for seventh at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village. “We didn’t really leave the house at all.”
In some ways, Day didn’t need to; he said his home is equipped with a practice facility that allows him to work on his game.
“It was nice to be able to … get out, even though when I first came back there was still snow on the ground, so it was a little bit cold,” he said.
That’s a pretty apt description for Day’s game the past couple of years. The world’s former No. 1 player is now ranked 58th. Some of his fall could be attributed to back issues that have dogged him for years.
But some of the issues have been between his ears. Day volunteered last week that his attitude needed an adjustment. He believes he made progress during the Workday tournament and hopes to continue it this week at the Memorial.
“When you’re going through a bit of a rough patch, you start to blame other things other than yourself,” he said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to have a hard look at yourself and understand the attitude isn’t helping the game at all, so you may as well just try and fix that.”
After finishing fourth at Pebble Beach in February,
Day made money in only one of his next six tournaments entering last week, a tie for 46th at the Travelers Championship last month.
“I felt like I was just trying to play the victim role a little bit too much, especially because I haven’t played that great coming back after the break and then a bunch of missed cuts, and my body is sore,” he said. “I just don’t want to play that role.”
In terms of his game, Day was encouraged by his improved putting last week.
“I’m the most excited I have been in a long time with my putting,” he said. “Usually, I’m in the top 10 putting every year, and this year I’ve been 171st. When there’s that big of a margin between where you usually are, there’s a lot of opportunities that are missed.
“I’ve been working very, very hard. I’ve been trying to bust my butt over the last two months.”
Day hasn’t had much success at the Memorial. His best finish in 11 tournaments is a tie for 15th in 2017.
Price’s ‘term’ extended
Nick Price will become the first Memorial Tournament honoree to serve a second term, and he didn’t even have to campaign for it.
When the Memorial learned last week that spectators would not be allowed to attend the tournament, Price said he received a phone call from tournament director Dan Sullivan saying that the 2020 honoree ceremony would be postponed until next year, and that the Captains Club would not select a new honoree until Price could be honored.
While disappointed that he could not make the trip from his home in Florida, Price said he agreed with the decision to reverse course.
“I totally understand the decision the tour made,” said Price, a three-time major championship winner. “We’ve got something going with golf playing now. Let’s not jeopardize it.”
Price would have been fine with doing a video presentation as a stand-in for the honoree ceremony, but said, “I appreciate them postponing it until next year.” brabinowitz@dispatch.com @brdispatch roller@dispatch.com
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