Jason Day chases 2015 form with iron change
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LAHAINA, HI - JANUARY 04: Jason Day of Australia plays his shot from the second tee during the second round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club on January 4, 2019 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO – Jason Day knows the numbers.
The defending Farmers Insurance Open champion could not escape the glaring fact he ranked 142nd last season in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green.
He also knows it is worse right now, sitting at a dismal 205th on the PGA TOUR.
The Australian hit just 65-percent of greens in regulation last season, making his two wins more impressive.
The 12-time PGA TOUR winner clearly needed to work on his irons during his yearly trip to Palm Springs where he escapes the Ohio winter and puts in countless hours of practice between West Coast events.
In a bid return to the heady days of 2015 and 2016 when he was one of the game's best ball-strikers, Day has switched to the TaylorMade P760 irons and has made some custom adjustments to deal with a miss that has plagued him recently.
He says the switch has given him more control.
“My iron play is the one area that I've been working probably my hardest,” Day said.
“Last year I struggled with the left shot, especially with the miss. It would constantly go left and I struggled with that a lot. So with the 760s, we moved the CG (center of gravity) a little bit further to the toe with some tungsten weight in the toe.
“Doing that hopefully will straighten that left shot out a little bit. I just have to keep working and hopefully with the hard work I can slowly gain confidence and it slowly brings results.”
Day was able to mitigate a lot of his bad iron play with his work on the greens last season as he ranked second on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting.
During his great stretch through 2015-16 where he won seven TOUR events in 17 starts including THE PLAYERS and the PGA Championship, Day was playing near unconscious golf.
In the 2015 season he was 25th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green and seventh in Greens In Regulation at 71-percent while still ranking a high sixth in Strokes Gained: Putting and third in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee.
It has become his benchmark.
“It's imperative for me to be able to hit more greens,” Day said.
“I think if I can drive it straighter but hit 70-percent of greens and rank No. 1 in putting, then I'll probably have another year like in 2015, so that's the goal.”