Forty-eight hours too late and all by his lonesome, Jason Day began competing in the 81st Masters on Saturday.
His purpose was twofold: try to become relevant to the season’s first major championship and, more important, to see what might happen when he started his backswing.
“I think that I feel like I actually, I can actually play golf again,” he said later.
After essentially eliminating himself from the championship when he shot a 76 on wind-blown Friday and fell 10 shots behind, Day was first player on the course Saturday. He posted a 3-under 69 while the greens were their softest and then hoped that field might come back to him as Augusta National firmed up in the afternoon.
By dusk, only four players — Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth, Charl Schwartzel and Lee Westwood — shot better scores and while Day didn’t shoot himself onto the leaderboard — he trails Rose and Garcia by nine — he at least knows where the leaders are.
“Guys can either melt down or guys can come from behind and win big,” he said of Sunday. “So (I) just got to try and do the best job I can and hopefully, if I can put everything together, give it a good shot. But once again, the first two days kind of put me out of it, and (Saturday) was a good round to get myself kind of back to good form.”
The likelihood of such a turnaround looked pretty iffy when he left the grounds Friday, fuming that well-played shots on No. 9 and 10 were just a few inches off the mark, turning birdie chances into bogeys in a four-shot turnaround. He was so irate on the shuttle ride from the course that his wife, Ellie, finally interceded.
“I had to slap him around a little bit,” she said with a grin. “I said, ‘You have 10 minutes. Get over it and get yourself together.’”
Forgive Day his fit of pique. He has won a major — the 2015 PGA — but he has played too well too long to have only won one. In his 25 performances in major championships entering the Masters, Day had been runner-up four times and in the top 10 13 times, over half of those events. This one was another possibility spoiled barely before it started.
“Momentum is huge in a game like this, so obviously when I’m way behind, I need to keep pressing to try to get myself a chance at getting up somewhere near a decent position going into Sunday,” he said.
Day actually had a third purpose in the third round: not to lose to Jeff Knox. Because the Masters requires that no player goes around alone, Knox, a Georgia alum and Augusta National member, has become the tournament’s designated marker. In his eight appearances, Knox has played with Bubba Watson, Craig Stadler and Steve Stricker.
Though he doesn’t officially post a score, he has outscored both Rory McIlroy and Garcia. He is regarded as the club’s best amateur player.
“(Knox) said he was nervous on the first tee, and I’m like, in my head, I’m like I’m kind of nervous because I don’t want to let a marker beat me,” Day said. “So it was kind of neck-and-neck.”
Day picked up the pace with a birdie on the par-3 6th, where he narrowly missed a hole-in-one. He later strung together consecutive birdies on Nos. 12-15, a trick unmatched by any of the leaders.
“The course is getting pretty difficult out there, not with regards to the actual shots into the greens, but more so once you get on the greens,” said Day, who finished before the last five groups teed off. “They’re starting to become a lot firmer and faster and you have to have really, really nice touch because pin locations are tough.”
Even playing with Knox, Day flew around the course in nearly three hours and 50 minutes, which doesn’t approach the fastest competition round he’s ever played.
“I had the fastest round at John Deere Classic. Hour and 55,” he said. “… They gave me a plaque, a picture saying, ‘Nothing Runs Like A Day.’ So, I mean, it was good.”
Must be nice.
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