Jason Day matched Jordan Spieth for the number of wins this season on the PGA Tour, but when it came to the crunch time of nailing the FedEx Cup Playoffs, his game failed to reach the levels fans have gotten accustomed to lately.
The 27-year-old Australian, who led the FedEx Cup standings going into the Tour Championship at East Lake, needed to win the tournament to ensure he banked the $10 million bonus cheque that comes along with the FedEx Cup.
But Day, who started the week ranked world No1, could only finish tied 10th, seven shots behind eventual champion Jordan Spieth. It also meant he lost his rankings crown to the 22-year-old American.
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Day had said it was his life-long wish to become the world No1 after winning the BMW Championship, but he insisted there was no disappointment now that his stay at the top lasted for just one week.
“Everyone thinks that it’s going to be a massive low, but it is not. I mean, it’s good to be No1, but it never changed me anyway, the way that I was as a person, the way that I worked,” said Day.
“It was always a goal of mine, whether I got there for a week or whether I get there for 300 weeks. To get there to No1, I know no one can take that away from me.
“I was the best player in the world, I felt like for the most part of this summer. And all that good play finally caught up to where it should be and after winning last week, it was great to finally get my name up top. But it’s not going to remain like that, so it’s not a letdown at all.
“Actually, it’s more of a motivation to really understand what I need to do to get to that No1 spot, and how hard I need to work for next year to keep that.
“I want to be more of a dominant player and I want to be at the top of the world ranking list for a long, long time. So I know how hard I had to work this year, so I got to work extra hard next year.”
Day said as good as he has played this summer – starting from the Open Championship where he finished one shot out of the play-off, and then winning four times in his next six starts – there was enough to learn from his finish.
“I was a little flat (at East Lake). That’s something I’m still trying to learn… how to back-up a win with another win, or at least with the same level of play, explosiveness off the tee, remain as sharp off the tee and from tee to green. That’s something I just have to learn,” he added.
“I have to learn to understand what I need to do to rest and recover, because it is huge especially coming from a high to a low and back to a high on Thursday.
“So I think overall, it was a solid week but it was just an okay week for me. It would have been nice to kind of challenge that FedExCup win. But it’s something that I just need to look back on and work harder for next year.”
