Jason Day Reveals How Near He Came To Quitting Golf

For Jason Day, the last three seasons have been difficult at best, with the Australian suffering repeated back injuries which caused him to even consider retirement a year or so ago. Now though, the former world number one seems to be finding a little bit of that 2015-16 spark. Going into the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open, for example, he actually holds a share of the lead.

This is in a field which contains the world number one, Jon Rahm, as well as one of golf's future stars, Will Zalatoris. However, Day perhaps feels more content with how things are progressing swing and body-wise than he does about sharing the lead of a PGA Tour event, confessing that the last three years have been "a big ball of stress".

"It's just that you come from being the top of the world and then all of a sudden it kind of falls out beneath you", admitted Day. "I'm just happy that I'm obviously not still out of it, but I'm glad that I've given myself a chance at it tomorrow. That's the ultimate goal, to put myself in the position where I can win tournaments.

"I feel like it's been a long time. Even though I've had some good finishes here and there in the last three years, it's been difficult to know that like, hey, do you want to keep pushing it, because it's painful either way. It's painful if I walk away, it's painful if I keep pushing on, so I just had to kind of suck it up.

"You've just got to understand that it's going to take a long time for me. It may not for other guys, but for me it's taken a while and just stay patient with myself and just stay positive as much as possible because sooner or later it's going to change."

After securing just three top-10 finishes throughout the 2020-21 PGA Tour season, the 34-year-old feels ready to win at Torrey Pines and the Farmers Open Championship, a venue which has played host to two of Day's 12 PGA Tour victories.

"It's nice to be able to know that I've done it on the golf course twice, not only in regulation but also in playoffs. Tomorrow's a new day though and you don't know what's going to come. I've just got to get a good rest tonight, get into it tomorrow and just be patient.

"I can't be overly excited about it. I know I've been in the position before. I just know that everyone's going to be super pumped to be either in the final group or in and around that. I've just got to forget what other people are doing. If I can go out there and just play within myself, then I should be able to give myself the opportunities. I just can't get inside my head too much, I've just got to go out there and be patient."