Clawing His Way Back Among Golf's Elite, Jason Day Contending Again at the Players

The 2016 Players champion, armed with a swing that's much easier on his back, has surged this year and is in a good position going to the weekend at TPC Sawgrass.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — It was not so long ago that when Jason Day walked on a golf course, he was one of the favorites.

His length, irons and short game were lethal and the combination produced 11 wins in a five-year stretch from 2014-18 including the 2016 Players Championship.

After winning the 2015 BMW Championship, the Australian moved into the top spot in the world for the first time.

Occupancy of the top spot lasted just a week and Day dropped to second the following week at the Tour Championship, but Day would reclaim the top spot after consecutive wins at the 2016 Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC-Dell Match Play—and he'd stay on top until February 2017.

Day has not sniffed the top spot since then and, after a missed cut at the 2022 Fortinet Championship, had fallen to 164th in the world.

That was the bottom but Day has clawed his way back, sitting at 43rd in the world this week and now in the mix to win his second Players Championship.

“I'm coming off the back end of some really good golf, which is nice,” Day said after his second consecutive 2-under 70 that has him T8 with others yet to finish the second round. “I've got Chris Como, my coach, here this week, so trying to help me through some of the swing stuff that I have been struggling with.”

In his early years, Day was a right-to-left player, hitting a draw better than most and going after the ball with the fervor of a tiger going after its prey, but that could not last and his back gave way.

For a three-year period, Day’s back was unpredictable as was his golf game and confidence. It was a time that Day called two years ago at the Farmers Insurance Open, “a big ball of stress.”

The changes are ones that Day is still working to implement, specifically learning how to play golf with a different swing, a swing that goes from left-to-right, producing a fade, that is not only easier to control but takes the pressure off his back.

Working with Como, Tiger Woods's former swing coach, Day has found success as the calendar turned to 2023. He has four top 10s in five events, with his best finish a fifth at the WM Phoenix Open and worst a T18 at the American Express.

With 11 previous Players and 36 rounds under his belt, Day knows what is required to win at TPC Sawgrass. Considering the lack of Players experience around the top of the leaderboard, Day sitting at 4 under par and in the clubhouse, four shots off the lead, puts him in a good position for the weekend.

“It's strange, it's just like you have to be really patient around this golf course, especially with the wind,” Day said. “I was walking—stupid enough, I was walking up 7 and I was talking to Luke, my caddie, I said, 'it’s really easy to make a quick double here,' and I ended up doubling the hole. But that's my point, that it doesn't take much to get yourself out of position, and when you are out of position, then it's not like an easy bogey.”

Day’s stretch of consistent play has come down to managing his game better.

Even when he was not hitting the ball as he’d like, he was happy how he left himself in the correct places to then get up-and down with a putter that has improved drastically the last two years.

Day’s technique got to a point that he couldn’t get the putt online from the start and every time he looked down at the hole, he said, "I'd look down at where I was aiming, I'd hit the putt and it would start half an inch to an inch left every single time.”

He eventually got that sorted, and then now believes his technique itself is what he calls “really nice."

Day is not where he was during his heyday, saying he is still a little bit away.

“I would say that I'm not too far away,” Day said. "I just feel like the level of golf that the three guys are playing right now up in the top of the World Rankings with Jon, Scottie and Rory, the way they're playing, it's very difficult to beat.”