UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Jason Day played yet another practice round with Tiger Woods on Monday at the U.S. Open. He thinks Woods is close to be a dominant again, although he added one caveat. ADVERTISING UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. —
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Jason Day played yet another practice round with Tiger Woods on Monday at the U.S. Open. He thinks Woods is close to be a dominant again, although he added one caveat.
And it’s a big caveat.
“Tell you what, if he could get on the fairway, he’d probably be back to where he was,” Day said. “His iron play is just ridiculous how good it is right now. It’s really special. The driver and the 3-wood … the 3-wood is OK, the driver gets a little wide sometimes. But I think that’s the biggest thing for him right now is to really kind of get on the fairway. His short game looks pretty good.”
The fairways are the widest of any U.S. Open, though there is plenty of trouble because of the slopes and contours and massive bunker complexes.
More telling about the driver, however, is that Day wondered about Woods’ desire or whether he was troubled by anything off the golf course.
“You could have all the tools in the world, but if you really don’t want to be there or if there’s something that’s off course that’s playing on your mind … the game of golf is so mental and if you don’t have everything in the right order, it’s very difficult to win golf tournaments,” Day said.
“I’ve learned that very early,” he said. “It really is amazing that some days you’ll come out and you’ll feel like you can beat anyone, and then some days you come out and you’ve got no confidence in the world and you can’t break an egg with a hammer.”
Woods has gone 18 months since his last victory, and he hasn’t posted a top 10 since the end of 2013. He missed most of last year because of back surgery. He missed two months earlier this year trying to get his game up to his standards.
But after having to make key putts just to make the cut in his last two tournaments — and shooting a career-high 85 at the Memorial two weeks ago — it appears that Woods has taken more than a few steps back after his tie for 17th at the Masters.
Day said most fans know what Woods has done — 79 wins, 14 majors and No. 1 in the world longer than anyone — and that expectations remain high.
“We’re just waiting for him to come back and win those tournaments like it was nothing,” Day said. “But will we see it? I’m not sure. It just totally depends on the person, how hard he’s working, because you don’t get anywhere … especially the top guys in the world, they’re working their tails off.
“It’s tough,” Day added. “He dominated the game for so long, and that’s what I admire about him the most. He dominated the game so long, and he was so motivated to win.”
