Jason Day stood atop the golf world in September 2015.
He was at the tail end of a career year, winning five times (including a major) and had finally summited the World Golf Ranking. For the first time in his career, Day was World No. 1. The Australian had made golf look easy in 2015, and it was more a question of when, rather than if, he’d win his next major title.
Eight years later, he’s still searching for it.
Despite making golf look easy at his peak, Day, as so many others have, could not continue the momentum forever. He had another solid season in 2016, winning three times, and added another couple victories in 2018. Then, he hit a wall. The injuries piled up, his swing broke down, and Day plummeted in the OWGR. By October 2022, he found himself outside the top 150 in the world.
Still, he persisted. He worked on his swing (and his body) with the intent to climb that summit once again. And he wasn’t shy with the media about his goal of returning to the top.
“It’s more of a self-motivator,” Day told Dylan Dethier in GOLF.com’s newest franchise, Breakthrough. “When you put something out there like that, you’re like, ‘OK, I need to do it.'”
This past season, Day made marked strides in that pursuit. At the Byron Nelson, the Aussie won for the first time in five years. Later in the summer, he finished runner-up at the Open Championship, his best major result since 2016. He’s now No. 19 in the OWGR.
“For me, it’s like I want to get back to World No. 1,” Day said. “I know how it felt there. I know how hard I had to work to get there. I know what it was like when I was there, and I would make certain tweaks and changes once I get back there to ultimately stay there a lot longer than I did.”
Check out the entire episode of Breakthrough below.
