POTOMAC, Md. — Jason Day hopped in the time machine and took golf fans back to when he was the world No. 1 in 2015 on Thursday at the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship.
Currently ranked No. 127, the 34-year-old had every facet of his game dialed in on his way to the top of the leaderboard during the first round at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. Day began his afternoon with a pair of birdies on his opening holes, added another at No. 5 then went on a feeding frenzy on the back nine with birdies on five of the first seven holes to sign for a 7-under 63 and take a one-shot lead over Joel Dahmen.
“Yeah, I am encouraged. I think it’s a good step in the right direction,” said Day after his round. “I obviously, I’ve got to give myself a pat on the back because I played some nice golf today, but we’ve got three more days after this and I think the main goal is to try and focus and get yourself in a position where you can win. Yeah, good positive stuff today.”
In 10 events this year, Day has two top-10 finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open (T-3) and Zurich Classic of New Orleans (T-10) and six missed cuts. Looking on the bright side, his round on Thursday was his third of 7 under or better this season. Want to guess how many rounds like that he played over the last two seasons? Two. Hitting 12 fairways and making five birdies from inside 10 feet sure helps.
Wells Fargo: Leaderboard | PGA Tour Live on ESPN+
More: Sergio Garcia says ‘I can’t wait to leave this tour’
Chip-in for the solo lead for @JDayGolf
pic.twitter.com/FSnvm0wNHy
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 5, 2022
Day said he was “very due” for a win back in February at Pebble Beach and Thursday’s round supported that claim.
“I mean, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that I think about the golf swing in the morning, I think about the golf swing during the day and I think about the golf swing at night. There’s been conversations at 12:00 at night with (swing coach Chris Como) just because I have an idea in my head and a certain sensation and a feel,” explained Day. “If you’ve been around me at that time, you’ve kind of — it’s interesting. I’m obsessed with it.”
That said, the 12-time winner on Tour isn’t letting today’s success cloud his vision for the future.
“Well, I don’t know,” Day said of how good this new version of his game could be. “Obviously I don’t want to get ahead of myself because I know that it’s easy in the position I am right now after a good round to get ahead of myself and start talking where it could potentially go, but I think I’ve just got to stay as present as possible because if I can swing it the way I’m swinging it and have the short game and the touch that I have on the greens, I mean, I played some really good golf today.
“I feel like I can get back to where I need to be, but that’s a total decision up top in my head if I want to climb that mountain again. I feel good about myself and I’ve just got to slowly work on the confidence,” he continued. “The thing that’s different between now and when I was No. 1 in the world, even though the technique might not have been as crisp as it is right now, I had all the confidence in the world, especially on the greens. So that’s always the goal.”