‘Improving’: Day lifting out of dark hole but still not ‘100 per cent’

Jason Day sees light at the end of what’s been a dark tunnel as the former world No.1 fell outside the top 100.

Finishing in a tie for third at the QBE shootout in Florida could be the catalyst for Jason Day to re-establish himself among the world’s best after three winless years mixed with injuries and swing issues.

Day and fellow Australian Marc Leishman failed to fire on the final day after leading for the opening two rounds of the event, hosted by Greg Norman, and had to settle for a share of third behind winners Kevin Na and Jason Kokrak.

But while it wasn’t an official PGA Tour event, for Day it was the chance to test his swing changes and his body in competition having struggled in recent times to the point the former world No.1 has slipped to 115 in the world rankings.

Day, 34, had missed three cuts in his previous five events and said he was still playing in some pain as he tried to reinvent his swing to help cope with the back issues that have plagued him in recent years.

But the Queenslander saw improvement in Florida and hoped that after a break for Christmas he could find his best in 2022.

“It was nice to be able to come into a week like this and try a few things with my swing,” day said.

“Even though it‘s competitive rounds, I can get in there and see how the changes are going.

“It’s still not 100 per cent. Obviously, every day I come off and I’m just a little bit in pain.

Jason Day is still trying things with his swing. Picture: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images/AFP

“There was some really good shots mixed in with some kind of old stuff. It’s making a slow move to the correct stuff, but yeah, I think overall I was very pleased how the week went.

“Obviously, to have the year that I had and then obviously coming in this week with the work that I did last week, I think things are improving.”

Day said that to be at his best he should probably play less next year to try and get more rest in between events.

But he also knows he’s so far off the pace of the world’s best he probably can’t afford to do that, and balancing those ideas will be his focus going forward.

“I’m going to take some time off and then really try and work these swing changes out and hopefully come into the new year (I can) start playing some better golf,” he said.

“Sometimes you can almost feel like you’re too far behind if you don’t play enough events. The only thing that takes care of it is winning, so I’m really trying to focus on trying to get back to getting my game in a spot where I’m confident and then next step is to go out there and win and win more often.

“That’s one thing that I’m trying to accomplish this next coming year.

“I’ve just got to keep working on it and just be patient with it and let things kind of unfold on themselves, and hopefully through the patience I get that nice delayed gratification and I start showing some good results here soon.”