Day has been No. 1 since March 27 when he reclaimed it from Jordan Spieth.
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“Sure I would love to practice 8 to 10 hours a day, but I can’t because that doesn’t pay the bills for me”, Labritz said.
When Henrik Stenson’s putt gently toppled into the cup on the final hole of the British Open two weeks ago, there was more significance to it than the closing 63 that earned the Swede his first major triumph.
The hectic major golf season comes to a close with the PGA Championship at venerable Baltusrol Golf Club starting today, a classic course where accuracy with the driver could be the key to victory. He feels his game is improving, his swing is back and he likes the course. This week is like that. There’s a chance for an eagle-eagle, or at least birdie-eagle, finish every day.
“With the limited practice and limited prep that I’ve had this week, I’m not coming into this week expecting a lot”.
“I really don’t look at it as a title defense”, Day said after having taken his first major title past year at Whistling Straits. The mission in his limited practice will be to figure out how to play his most comfortable golf around this almost 7,500-yard course.
“So now I’m here, it’s like I want to keep pushing forward, and the first thing, the most important thing is the golf before anything else”.
“I could change that into an A-plus on Sunday”, he said. “And we’ll try to make that PGA Championship, like we do every PGA Championship, enjoyable, inclusive, and shine a great light on our organization and the game of golf”. A tie for ninth may look reasonable on paper but for one so gifted, it represented a poor return. Obviously a couple new tees here and there from 2005. At the U.S. Open at Oakmont, he started with a 76 and rallied to finish tied for eighth. This time, it was not the world No1 himself who encountered pre-tournament problems. “I’m going to go out and play golf and shoot the best score I can. I’m working hard on it”.
In contrast, Spieth, the Texan who celebrated his 23rd birthday yesterday, has admitted to feeling the burden of expectation after a spectacular 2015 in which he won two Major championships.
Lee has an afternoon tee time for Thursday’s opening round, partnering American world No. 17 Matt Kuchar and English former world No. 1 Luke Donald. “But I think the biggest thing for me is to really understand what I need to do to win each week, or get myself into contention”.
But in the grand scheme of golf-course expansion, where players are hitting the ball farther than ever and “longer” equals “tougher”, 276 yards is child’s play. Now I seem to take it a little bit easier…. Recently, I’ve addressed that. “I’m back to the level that I expect to play at”.
They spend most of the year teaching golf, not spending hours working on their own games or competing against the best from January to December. This time it is a bug picked up from son, Dash. Ellie (his wife) had an allergic reaction last night and had to go to the hospital.
Clarke, speaking on the eve of the 98th US PGA Championship at Baltusrol, reckons that McIlroy is on the cusp of a tournament win.
“We were there until two o’clock”, Day said Wednesday, “so I’m kind of running on “E” (empty) right now”.
Day said Ellie was fine Wednesday. “We both wanted it badly and we performed so well because of each other”.
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“Would I like to do this day in and day out and be treated like a rockstar like Mick Jagger?”
