Aussie Jason Day needs to finish PGA season well to ensure card for next year

JASON Day is 93rd on the USPGA money list and still hasn't officially secured a tour card for next season.

Jason Day

HE'S short on sleep, hasn't played Bethpage Black before and is in sudden-death territory but Jason Day is confident of a deep play-off push in the FedEx Cup.

Day enters the opening round of the lucrative US PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs at The Barclays in 113th position, not far from the 125th spot cut-off, knowing full well a missed cut means his season is done.

Given his position at the back of the pack, he knows it will likely take at least a top-25 finish at the difficult Bethpage Black course in New York to move inside the top 100 and survive another week to the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.

It will take considerably more to give him a chance to be at the BMW Championship (top 70) in Indianapolis and probably no less then a win or runner-up finish somewhere along the line will get him to the final 30 and the Tour Championship in Atlanta where someone will walk away with a $US10 million ($A9.6 million) bonus for winning the FedEx Cup.

"It's simple. It's either I play well or I go home," Day says. "So I just need to prepare the best I can and go out there with a good attitude to my golf.

"I can't worry about the scores or the scenarios. I need to be out there and focused on playing golf to the best of my ability which, if I do, I know I can compete and win tournaments.

"If I start focusing on the outcomes, it is easy to become distracted. What I will be doing is going out to have fun, play my best and, if it works out I finish high, then great - I'll move on.

"I am confident I can do that."

Day has played just 13 events in the US this season with three top 10s dropping him from well inside the game's elite. While his $US842,786 ($A807,150) in prize money is more than three million behind his 2011 tally, he is 93rd on the money list and still hasn't officially secured a tour card for next season.

The 24-year-old should make it without a problem, given four of the past five seasons the mark for the 125th man on the money list has been less than his current earnings.
 
But should he fail to make the cut this week, his only other chances would be the lesser fall series events, something he'd prefer not to play after the recent addition to his family, newborn Dash.

Eight other Australians line up at the Barclays with Robert Allenby (112) and Rod Pampling (116) in a similar sudden-death scenario.

Marc Leishman (28), Adam Scott (32), John Senden (37), Aaron Baddeley (65), Geoff Ogilvy (68) and Greg Chalmers (78) should all make it through week one without a problem.