Day Undefeated In Being First To Qualify For Last 16 In Austin.

1 year ago by Comments Off on Day Undefeated In Being First To Qualify For Last 16 In Austin.

Undefeated former double event champion Jason Day was the first to book his place into the last 16 at the WGC Dell Match-Play Championship in Austin, Texas.

Day, 35, sent Collin Morikawa packing with a 4 & 3 defeat and with Day never behind, winning the third and fourth holes with birdies and then moved 4up with birdies at 11 and 12 before the duo each pared the next three holes for the Aussie to be 3 and 0 in his three qualifying encounters in the $20m event being played for a last time at the Austin Country Club course.

“If Collin holed some more putts we’d be going like some extra holes,” said a gracious Day.  “It was nice to be able to take advantage of some of my putts on 2 and 9. Some good quality iron shots out there again, which was great.

“Some of the shots that I didn’t feel comfortable over, I felt like I handled those pretty nicely. I wish I probably would have holed that putt on 13 and not three-putt, but no problem to finish on 15.

“My game hasn’t felt like I’ve been in a groove for a while, just because of the swing changes. I mean, I can’t fully let it go.

“But that’s okay. That’s just part of golf. Everyone’s doing something or changing or have some sort of tweak. So I’m sure the majority of the guys out there are uncomfortable as well, and that’s just part of golf.

“So I say that pretty lightly in regards to how I’m feeling”.

Day captured the 2014 hosting of the match-play in that memorable final against Frenchman Victor Dubuisson when the duo went five extra holes at Dove Mountain in Arizona while the Aussie has the credit of being the first winner in Austin, capturing the 2016 title with a convincing victory over Louis Oosthuizen.

Now Day can create history, as the curtain sadly comes down on the only match-play on the PGA Tour, in becoming the only three-time champion.

This question was also put to Day post his round.

“It’s just so hard to put an exact date on when I’m going to break through”, he said. “Every day I wake up just trying to improve and learn and get better as a player. Whether it comes early or later down the road, it doesn’t matter. I’m just trying to improve my game.

“I feel like I’m learning more and more about my overall game and how my body works, especially through the swing and obviously off the golf course too because I’ve battled injuries.

“But it’s been an interesting journey over the last two to three years. It will most likely — I’ll probably think the same way going all the way through to the end of my career. It’s more about the journey and enjoying that process, and then the wins hopefully get in the way.

“The thing is also I am not 21 anymore and I don’t recover the same way, so I have to be smart that way. Learning about the golf swing has been interesting. Then going through some of the putting stuff that I went through the last year and a half, overall just learning and trying to get better.

“When I got to No. 1 in the world back in ’15, I enjoyed the journey getting there, but when I got there, I didn’t know how I got there, which is interesting to say because I had a team of people around me that would just take care of everything. So they just kept the horse running, and I was just like, okay, I’m going to run in a straight line.

“I think this time around I’m just doing it slightly differently. At least I’ll kind of have essentially an understanding of how things are and where they’re going and where I want to be”.



Comments are closed.