Major champion Jason Day opened up on the “humbling” experience of dropping to 151 in the world as a second straight top-10 finish served as a reminder of the gap he needs to close to achieve his goal of winning again on the PGA Tour.
Day has climbed back into the top 100 and held on to finish fifth at the $29m WM Phoenix Open, his best finish in more than a year, as Scottie Scheffler climbed back to world No. 1 with a two-shot win over Canada’s Nick Taylor.
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World No. 3 Jon Rahm was a shot further back and world No. 9 Justin Thomas was fourth, one shot ahead of Day, who declared after two solid outings to open 2023 he’d be competing with the world’s best more regularly this year, and he still had goals of being on top of the world again.
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The 35-year-old Queenslander, who opened his final round in Phoenix with three birdies to shoot a three-under 68, hasn’t won since collecting two victories in 2018.
A combination of injuries and swing issues were behind his world rankings plummet.
After nearly a decade hovering around the top of the rankings, Day reached the summit in 2015 and again in 2016 when he was No. 1 for nearly a full year.
Day revealed how hard he took the fall during a time that included the death of his mother after a cancer battle.
“It was very humbling,” he said in Scottsdale
“I was struggling with my body. Struggling mentally. Struggling with my mum passing. Struggling with a lot of things.
“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 you’re like scrapping 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.”
While a return to No. 1 seems a pipe dream for Day given the crop of emerging young stars on tour, he’s adamant that the changes he’s made to his game and his mental state will bode well for a continuation of the performances he’s put out so far in 2023.
“I just feel like that it will be just from a different place getting back to No.1. You have to have that belief in you to be able to try and at least have that as a goal,” he said.
“If it doesn’t pan out, then it doesn’t pan out. But that’s the goal in mind, try and get back to being … well, get back to No. 1.
“If I win this year, great. If I don‘t then I’ve got to keep working.”
While Day missed out in Phoenix, New South Welshman Rhein Gibson has taken a massive step towards regaining playing privileges on the PGA Tour with a four-shot victory at the Korn Ferry Tour event in Colombia.
Gibson, whose last win on the same tour came in 2019, started the final day one shot off the lead in the Astara Golf Championship before storming to victory with an eagle on his final hole.
“I Worked my butt off this fall and this wintertime, kind of got my game in shape,” he said.
“The game felt good coming here. I love the place. I knew I could contend, and a good round yesterday put me in contention.
To go out and do what I did today was just insane.”
The win should move Gibson to third on the Korn Ferry Tour points list, giving him the best possible foundation to push for one of the 25 cards to the PGA Tour handed out at season’s end.
