Problems? In a word, "putting!" Jason Day, the world number one, is heading into this week's US PGA Championship in familiar territory to two of his keenest rivals, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, in attempting to discover a fix for putting worries.
Day's preparations for the defence of the Wanamaker Trophy didn't go entirely as planned, finishing tied-14th behind winner Jhanattan Vegas in the Canadian Open and afterwards blamed his play on the greens for a lacklustre defence of that title.
The Australian blamed moving from slow greens at Royal Troon - where the green speeds ran at between 9.3 to 9.8 on the stimpmetre - to greens at Glen Abbey which were closer to 13, similar to the speeds that will play at Baltusrol for the PGA, the final Major of the season.
Of being unable to adjust to the difference in speeds, Day felt the extra few days before teeing off in defence of his PGA title would enable him to better adapt to the requirements on the putting surfaces. “I should have that worked out . . . . hopefully! I feel good about my game, feel much better.”
He added: “I’m hoping that once I get in there, get a rest on Monday, start practicing Tuesday, Wednesday, I should be good to go. I’ve got to try and win. Defending’s great, but I won it last year. I’d love to do it again this year. That’s all I can focus on. Just got to kind of rest up and get ready for next week. I never really look at it as defending. I always want to try and win it again, and that’s the mentality going into it.”
With temperatures expected to be in the mid- to high 90 degrees Fahrenheit in New Jersey during the championship, Day anticipates the PGA will heavily water the greens. “They obviously don’t want to lose those greens. I’m assuming that they’re on top of it.”
Day has been grouped together with McIlroy and Phil Mickelson for the first two rounds. McIlroy, who stopped off at Quail Hollow in North Carolina, where next year’s PGA championship will be played, on his way to Baltusrol, is seeking a first win stateside this season in aiming to bring his career Majors haul to five.
Shane Lowry, who has added next week's Travelers Championship in Connecticut to his schedule, has been drawn with Jim Furyk and Italian Francesco Molinari for the first two rounds, while Pádraig Harrington will have John Daly and Vijay Singh for company. Darren Clarke has been drawn with David Lingmerth and Daniel Berger.
After a disappointing missed cut at the Canadian Open, Graeme McDowell - who has been grouped with Webb Simpson and Louis Oosthuizen for the first two rounds - took advantage of a free weekend to fly straight down to New Jersey for a practice round at Baltusrol on Sunday.
