Wild driving costs Day several chances to keep the lead at Barclays

PARAMUS, N.J. -- Jason Day has one singular goal for Sunday's final round of The Barclays.

"Hit more fairways," he said, and in case you weren't listening, he quickly reiterated the plan. "Hit more fairways. Just hit more fairways."

THE BARCLAYS

Round 3 Wrap-up
Round 4 Tee Times
The Live Report
Leaderboard
FedExCup update
Johnson gets another shot
Will Laird close the deal?

Day found just four in the third round, two on each side, and ended up shooting a disappointing 70 that included three bogeys in his last six holes. But if he can put the ball in the short grass on those tree-lined fairways at Ridgewood, Day should be able to make up some ground.

"I'll be able to set myself up better at making birdies," he said. "And hitting in the rough a lot, it's harder to make birdies out of the rough than on the fairways."

Day had taken the overnight lead into the third round but promptly lost it when he -- you guessed it -- missed the fairway at the first hole and made bogey. When he was finished, the 22-year-old was three strokes behind Martin Laird and scheduled to play in the penultimate group with fellow Aussie Adam Scott.

"I'd like to be a little higher, a little closer to Martin going into tomorrow but that just shows I need to work little harder, fewer errors out there today," Day said. "I'm just very positive that I stayed in there, stayed patient and came out with 1 under. It probably could have been worse but I tried to grind it out as much as I possibly could."

Day, a three-year veteran despite his relatively tender years, won his first PGA TOUR event earlier this year at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. He's had two top-10s since, including a tie for 10th at the PGA two weeks ago where he played with the eventual champ Martin Kaymer in the final round.

"I just want to try and go out there and just ... have fun," Day said. "If it happens so that I go out there and win, that's great. If not, then, hey, there's always another week that I can go out there and try and win.

"I'm going to go out there tomorrow and just try and feel as relaxed as possible and just try and give myself as many opportunities as possible."

Day took a two-stroke lead into the final round at the HP Byron Nelson Championship earlier this year and survived a water-logged bogey on the final hole to win. He says the victory made him more "positive" about his golf game.

"Winning that and then obviously finishing top 10 at the PGA really helped my confidence; just knowing that I can compete on the top level against the big guys is a good feeling inside," Day said.

"Just to know how hard you've worked this year. So it's been a good, long journey from when I was 11 until now. And just happy to be where I am today."

And he'd be even happier with a win on Sunday.