‘I was lost’: Inside Day’s rock-bottom hell and the $2m sign he could reach golf’s summit again

Buoyed by a string of positive results, former world No.1 Jason Day is aiming high.

“The goal is to try and get back to No.1,” Day told Australian media on Wednesday. “And whatever wins come in that, that’s trying to get back to No.1.

“If it happens sooner, great. If it doesn’t, I’m just going to keep working hard and hopefully it happens somewhere down the road.”

It might feel like a lofty ambition for a player who started the year ranked No.112, hasn’t won a PGA Tour event in nearly five years, and has endured countless injury setbacks and swing adjustments.

Australian golf fans will be eager to point to the false dawns along the way, such as last year when Day finished T3 at the Farmers Insurance Open, but missed three of the next four cuts and didn’t qualify for the Masters.

But those fleeting moments of hope never progressed beyond the stage of cautious optimism.

Off the back of a sustained run of form, however, cautious optimism has upgraded to genuine belief that Day can mix it with the world’s best once again.

And soon he might do more than simply compete.

The Australian’s past 10 starts on the PGA Tour have seen him finish no worse than T21, and miss just one cut.

More recently, he’s claimed three-consecutive top-ten finishes, including at elevated PGA Tour events the Phoenix Open and Genesis Invitational, where his combined winnings almost topped A$2 million.

Remarkably, Day’s scoring average this season of 69.309 is the fourth-best, behind only the three most recent world No.1s Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.

The numbers are promising, but they’ve arrived via means that cannot be measured.

Day has worked tirelessly to implement major swing changes, aimed at keeping him healthy after repeated back injuries.

When Day wasn’t injured, however, there were other issues holding him back. Day hit rock bottom last year when his mother, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, passed away.

At war with his body, swing and mind, all looked lost for Day who was unsure if he’d even play again.

“For a moment there I was lost, I didn’t know what to do,” Day said.

“I was not only lost swing-wise and body-wise because I was injured, and then on top of this my swing wasn’t where I needed to be, I was lost mentally and all the confidence had kind of just disappeared.

“It’s a very humbling experience going from No.1 in the world to No.150 ... for a moment there I didn’t know if I was going to play golf again just based off my injuries and what that was doing to my body and how I was not competitive for a good two, three years.”

Day hired renowned swing coach Chris Como in late 2020 and has backed his processes, while Tiger Woods — no stranger to reinventing his swing — has always been just a text away for the Australian.

Things have taken a long time to come together but Day said he’s finally reached a place where his major swing changes “are starting to cement”, leaving only minor tweaks to get on top of.

And, crucially, he’s healthy again and in a far better head space.

“I feel like for the first time in probably four years or so that I can actually focus on golf again, which is kind of strange to think about,” he said. “The only thing that I focus on is my family and golf, whereas before I had my injuries and my mum passing and just other personal stuff that was going on.

“I can safely say that the only thing I’m focused on right now is playing good golf.”

He added that talking about winning on the PGA Tour again “doesn’t feel normal right now”, saying that he’s still a way off from taking down golf’s biggest names.

Even so, having climbed to the heights of world No.1 in 2015, before spending 51 weeks at the top, Day is once again dreaming big.

“In regards to being there (No.1), knowing what I had to do to get there and achieving that was, I don’t know, it’s so addicting to go through that journey and that process,” he said.

“Me being a competitor and knowing that I definitely have the game to get back there, it’s just a matter of staying healthy and trying to make these correct changes.

“I’m obsessed with it.

“I know saying you want to get to No.1 in the world is a big task, but you have to say it and voice it so people can hear it. That way you know that ‘okay, that’s my plan, that’s where I want to go’.

“Overall I feel that by voicing it -- I’ve voiced in the past before I got to No.1 back in 2015. I used to say it all the time -- You’ve just got to speak it into existence a little bit.

“It’s a good time to start talking about it again.”

The way Day’s play has been trending is undeniable.

The best putter in the world in his pomp, Day has gained some confidence back with the flat stick and is now ranked 22nd in the PGA Tour’s ‘strokes gained; putting’ category.

Meanwhile, he’s ranked inside the top-35 for driving accuracy and greens in regulation, while he’s fourth in scrambling.

Day has now skyrocketed himself into the world’s top-50 which, should he still be there in nearly six weeks’ time, will secure his return to the Masters.

The timing is noteworthy given it’s been 10 years since the 2013 tournament, in which Day shared the 36-hole lead, and finished just two shots out of a playoff that Adam Scott ultimately won.

Asked if he still thinks about that near-miss, Day said: “Every now and then, like when I get asked a question about it.

“You know, every now and then it feels like, ‘dang, man, I was close, I could have been the first (Australian to win the Masters)’.

“It’s amazing to me that it’s been 10 years already. Does it spur me on to win Augusta? Yeah, every single -- this is the only major that growing up that I wanted to win was Augusta National.

“So every single time I get the chance to compete in it, I’m doing everything I possibly can to prepare and try and win that event.”

As things stand, Day will in April go back to Augusta where he had four top-ten finishes in the space of eight campaigns.

Now at No.46 in the world, he’s in a precarious position though.

His exemption from winning the PGA Championship in 2015 has expired, meaning he’s down to two main avenues to play at this year’s Masters.

The first is to win a PGA Tour event before the Masters or, more likely, stay inside the world’s top-50.

Day said his ‘Plan A’ is to play the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship and a WGC Match Play event before the Masters, but he’ll add the Texas Open if he has slipped outside of the top-50.