Jason Day has overcome a series of injury issues and enjoyed a return to form in 2023. A winner of the PGA Championship in 2015, Day looks to challenge for more major titles in 2024 at venues where he has previously enjoyed success. Garrett Johnston caught up with Day in the weeks leading into the US Masters.
Jason, how do you feel about your familiarity with major venues where you’ve played well for 2024?
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I know I’ve had a lot of success at some of these courses. At Pinehurst in 2014 I finished fourth when Martin (Kaymer) won. I was in the final group with Rory McIlroy on Saturday at Valhalla at the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla. I’ve played Troon before and really enjoyed that test, so I’m looking forward to getting back to some of the courses that some of the younger guys haven’t played yet. It will be an advantage for me for sure. That was right in the era when Rory was winning a lot of the major championships and had just joined Nike. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the changes they’ve made. I know there’s new ownership which has taken over Valhalla, so I know the clubhouse is different and the place will have a slightly different feel, but for the most part I think layout is going to be very similar to what we had.
Have you seen much online about the changes to Valhalla?
I haven’t seen much on YouTube but I know it’s going to be a great major championship regardless and it’s going to be a fun week. The PGA Championship week is always an important one for me because it was my first major win in 2015.
Jason Day is fit and ready to fire in the biggest tournaments on the 2024 schedule.
What do you make of Pinehurst for the U.S. Open this year? A place you played really well at in 2014.
Yeah obviously there’s a dramatic difference between those two courses that we’re talking about, Valhalla and Pinehurst. Different types of grass and much different design of the golf course with those turtle-back greens. I think you’d have to have a great short game anywhere but around Pinehurst there’s different styles of play that will be shown that week and you’ll have to bring out a little more creativity around those greens. I’d imagine at Pinehurst that you’d need different types of clubs in and around the greens.
The 2024 Jason Day versus 2014-15, what’s different when it comes to playing in majors?
Not too much. I don’t think there’s a crazy amount of difference. I just think that the preparation is pretty similar. I’ve played pretty decently in the major championships, I’ve finished second in all of the majors now and have won one of them. Now my goal is to get the wins in all of them. I wouldn’t say there’s a dramatic change from when I first came out and started playing in majors. I will say that I worked a little bit harder back then. What I do now is I work hard but I don’t exhaust myself before Thursday.
How so?
Well, I’m a little bit older and I’ve got a bunch of kids and I’m not as fit as I used to be, even though I still feel very fit. I’ve just got to be cautious of recovery and how my body is. I can’t work as hard as I used to, even though I want to. So I’ve got to be very cautious of that. Everything has got to be more efficient.
What is the challenge like of getting back to world number 1 for you this time?
For one I think I have a better understanding of my body and my golf swing. I think I have a better understanding of what causes pain and I’m trying to make sure I don’t get into that rut again. I think the biggest thing is once I get past those things, is how hungry do I want to be to be number one. I know I’ve said I’m hungry to be number one, but it will be interesting to be slowly building layer upon layer. Sooner or later, I’ll find more confidence in my game or you’ll get your putting back and practice a little but more because your body feels better. So it’s little bit by little bit. It’s difficult to go ‘hey I want to be world number one, let’s do it tomorrow.’ That’s just not how it works. It’s just got to be slow little incremental improvements over a long period of time.
Speaking of building layer upon layer, where have you seen the most improvement in your game of late?
I would just say my body. I’ve gotten to the point where I can play 72-holes of golf without any pain, which is good. I’ve got my little times here and there where I catch myself falling back into an old pattern, but for the most part I’m very, very happy that I’ve stayed very disciplined on what I do with my body.
And the pain being mostly in the back?
Yes, it’s mostly in the back. That’s just wear and tear. It’s my 17th season on the Tour, you do something one way for a long period of time. You typically do some things one way and it catches up to you. With my back, it caught me early. I know for a fact that the golf swing can be healthy for your body. You’ve just got to technically swing it in a certain way for that to happen and you need to have a body that’s stable enough to handle all of that, so body and health is crucial for me.
What’s helped your back?
It’s a number of things. Being able to get deeper into my hips and make sure that I’m elongating my spin and not being able to laterally slide and dump the club underneath. Obviously when you dump the club underneath and have a lateral slide then you tend to back up on the shot and that usually crunches down really quickly. That early extension is no good. So just being able to stay in the spine angle and being able to elongate the spine through the swing and have better hip mobility through the swing is crucial as well.
Tell us about Malbon, your new apparel sponsor?
It’s been great for me. Working with Steven, Ryan, Luke, Erica and all of them. It’s been tremendous being a part of their team. Obviously, they’re very new to the golfing world. 2017 is when they first started everything. They’ve got a big footprint in Korea and they’re really getting things going around here. So, it’s kind of nice to be able to come out to an event and wear something that no one else is wearing, which is great. It’s also so nice to listen to Steve and hear his vision of where he wants to take it. It’s going to be exciting times going forward because I’m going to wear, not crazy stuff, but crazy for the golf world. but it looks very, very good.
Australia. When do you think you’d go back and visit? Have your kids been yet?
Yeah, there’s something always in the cards. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. I haven’t really looked at it too far but I’m assuming if I’m able to get back there this year, that would be nice. It’s definitely been a while. It would be nice to get the whole family over there, for sure. They’ve never gone. It would be nice to be able to get the crew out there, even if it’s just Dash, because I know he wants to travel, see the world and see Australia.
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