After firing rounds of 65-71 (-6), Jason Day is right in the mix at the 2023 WM Phoenix Open. He’s four shots off the lead at the tournament’s halfway point, seeking what would be his first win in nearly five years.
The 35-year-old Australian has been open about his struggles to regain his world-beating form. He’s been plagued by injuries, which forced him to re-work the swing that won him a major championship and launched him to No. 1 in the world.
After posting Friday’s second-round 71, Day revealed how difficult his swing changes have been for him, even when things appear to be going well.
“I feel like some weeks the body is reacting perfectly to what I’m trying to do in regards to changing certain patterns in the golf swing. Then there’s just been pretty much like a learning curve with regard to changing,” Day said. “It’s been really difficult to change the swing and compete out here.”
Day then mentioned two players with swings he wishes he possessed.
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“I would love to have a swing like a [Jon] Rahm or Rory [McIlroy] that is tested over time and it’s been successful,” he said. “But for me I’ve had to make those changes because of my body. Unfortunately, I’m just through that, I’m going through the testing phase right now of trying to change that as I compete. That can be difficult. Because you wake up some days it’s like absolutely good and perfect and some days it’s just, you know — like, I mean, first round to second round here, it’s just totally different. It’s amazing. But I’m just grinding away trying to do the best job I can.”
So what exactly is Day working on these days with coach Chris Como? A lot, as it turns out.
“Over the last couple of days I’ve been talking about shallowing the club,” Day explained. “It’s just, unfortunately, like I was doing it a little bit wrong over the last couple days. I was just kind of getting the club stuck underneath me and extending up and just doing it from — shallowing it for all the wrong reasons, I would say.
“But we did a lot of work, body work for like the first, like for a year and a half. Just trying to get the body motion correct. Now it’s like all like the small little minutia of small, tiny, little changes that are really difficult to make. Like keeping the left arm internally rotated at impact. But also just making sure that the forearms kind of turn over, but keeping that left arm in and the right arm underneath. But then it’s all of that release pattern stuff and getting it up and out of the way.”
Day is conscious of the fact that he’s hyper-focused on his swing’s progress.
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“I could talk for hours and hours,” he said. “I’m so obsessed with the swing and getting it to a certain point that I call Como at 1 o’clock in the morning just because I have an idea. But I think things are progressing in the right way. Right now I have to deal with kind of a wipey fade. And that’s okay. I’m okay with that. But, yeah, at some point if I can get the release pattern the way that I want it to it will come out like a, kind of more like a Jon Rahm bullet fade. Which would be nice. But I feel like there’s a lot of work left to do.”
Day has seen his game rebound somewhat over the last year. He led the Farmers Insurance Open through three rounds last year, ultimately finishing T3. At this year’s tournament, he was T7 — one of two top-8 finishes he’s posted since October.
Still, the former World No. 1 is currently ranked 91st in the world. And he’s well aware of the difference.
“It was very humbling,” he said of bottoming out at 175th in the world last year. “Yeah. I was telling Luke my caddie last week, or at AmEx, I sat — I got lost going out of the golf course because they had that concert on. And I got lost and I just sat on the side of the road looking at the mountains for like 30 minutes. Because I just, it felt like no matter what I did, it just, I was going in, I was just turning the wrong way every single time.
“I was struggling with my body. Struggling mentally. Struggling with my mom passing. Struggling with a lot of things,” he continued. “I think finally over the last few months I feel like things are finally settled down where I can actually focus on golf and playing golf and really just trying to do the best job I can.
“I mean, it’s hard. Because like you go from being the best player in the world, everyone kind of knowing you and doing this. Then all of a sudden like you’re kind of, you know, you’re like scraping it around trying to make cuts. That can be a difficult process. It’s not an easy fall, but I feel like I have been nice enough to a lot of guys out there that the fall wasn’t too bad. Now I’m just trying to work myself back up.”
For Day, the quest for win No. 13 continues on Saturday in Scottsdale.