THE OPEN: Failures driving Day’s motivation

BY BRENDAN JAMES at ROYAL TROON

It’s early Monday afternoon on the west coast of Scotland. It’s supposed to be the middle of summer but the low hanging grey cloud and persistent chilly wind off the waters of the Firth of Clyde have players at Royal Troon ditching sunscreen for beanies.

If the weather gurus are correct, this 145^th Open Championship might just get colder, windier and wetter before the Claret Jug is hoisted on Sunday afternoon, which suits Jason Day just fine.

Jason Day says he needs to conquer his ego and leave any heroics at home to win The Open.
PHOTO: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images.

The World No.1 spent most of the afternoon fine-tuning his swing on the practice tee having already filled his weekend with two rounds of the links. He seemed relaxed as he occasionally joked with coach and caddie Col Swatton as he worked specifically on his short irons.

Despite the obvious temptation to perhaps find a cosy armchair in front of a fireplace somewhere, Day is driven to succeed here – stung by “failures” at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational two weeks ago and The Open at St Andrews last year.

On both occasions, Day held the 54-hole lead and they are the only events he has not won in the past year when his name has been atop the leaderboard heading into the final round. At Firestone, he was seemingly in control early but he dropped three shots in two holes late in the round to card a 72 and finish third.

“It sucked. It was really bad. I hated losing,” said Day matter-of-factly. “It was a terrible way to lose, and it was frustrating and disappointing. But things like this, you can't win them all, and that's just the way of life.

“Like I've always said, we got spoilt with Tiger Woods, how he dominated so much through his years and did so well. That's what we're shooting for. That's what I'm shooting for, to be able to finish off like he did back in the day. Will I ever get to a point like that? Maybe not. But that's what I'm shooting for right now.”

Day says he has learned a lot from his failure to capitalise on his lead at the World Golf Championships - Bridgestone Invitational. PHOTO: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images.

The 28-year-old said there is always something to learn from not closing out a tournament as was the case at Firestone.

“It's more so about the learning, because obviously I learn more when I fail than when I win,” Day said.

“To be honest, we're not going to win every single one. Even though I don't like losing, it was great to be able to learn something from that and turn this into what I would say a learning experience and try to move forward and get better from it.

“At the end of the day, I'm just trying to get as good as I can and the only way to do that is to learn from failure, and the way you look at it is not in a negative way. You have to look at it in a positive light that … OK, I did this for a reason. I've got to try to get better and move on. If I can do that, then you can't do anything but go up.”

Day is using his sloppy finish at the Bridgestone as motivation this week, much like he did when he missed The Open play-off last year by a single stroke and went on his run of four wins in six weeks.

“What happened two weeks ago … that is pretty motivating,” Day said. “It's very easy to look at the negatives. After sitting down for a day or so and thinking about it and talking to Col and really going over why things went down at Firestone.

“It wasn't so much the double-bogey that obviously propelled me out of the tournament and to lose that tournament. It was more so the bogey on 15.

“Obviously, other than St. Andrews, that was more of an eye-opener that I need to get back to … even though I’m playing great golf … to get back to the process of hitting good golf shots.”

Part of that equation is knowing when to push the envelope and when to reign in the ego, Day says.

“I'm not so worried about them (Rory McIlroy or Dustin Johnson) beating me,” Day said. “I'm worried about myself, beating myself, and that's the biggest thing.

“To really try to conquer yourself and try to conquer your ego at times. If they beat me just because they play better, that's fine. But if I beat myself and let them beat me, that's what's disappointing and frustrating for me.”

To that end, he says his game plan will be to leave the heroics at home.

“Sometimes you stand up there and think you can play shots that are not percentage shots, and being able to hit away from certain locations,” he said.

“Even though you want to take them on and hit that heroic shot and turn out to be the victor, sometimes it's just not the right time. That's kind of conquering your ego a little bit.”

For example, Day says he won’t shoot at a back pin position on the shortest hole in Open golf – the aptly named Postage Stamp 8^th hole, which measures just 123 yards (114 metres) from the tips, with its tiny green guarded by a ring of bunkers.

“The Postage Stamp hole is pretty neat with regards that it's so short, but you get that left-to-right wind either in or down off the left, but it's always left-to-right. And if you get anything kind of curving on the wind, it can go down and feed into that bunker down in the bottom right there. And if you overdo it, that bunker on the top left is pretty devilish,” Day smiled.

When Day left his 72nd hole birdie putt short at last year's Open to miss the play-off it spurred him on to win four times in the next six weeks. PHOTO: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images.

“I think if there's a back pin, I don't know if I'm going to go for it. I think I'll just try to aim for ten paces on and try to stick it there and putt, because it does get a little bit narrow up there.

“I think if I can do that – if I can get through there with par or just one-under or something like that, even though it is a short hole, you can't underestimate that hole. It's going to be a difficult task this week, as the whole course is. And you've just got to be patient out there.”

Day will defend his Canadian Open and US PGA Championship titles over the next few weeks and he can think of no better launch pad into those events than being the Open Champion.

“Every year I start out, I get excited for all the majors,” he said.

“I get excited to be able to play the Open Championship, not only because of the fans itself, but because of how challenging the golf courses are and the weather.

“You have to somehow adapt your game to the weather and the golf course and really plot yourself around these golf courses.

“That's the most satisfying thing that you can get out of being able to beat the best in the world on some of the most challenging golf courses that we don't usually get to play. I'd be over the moon if I could hold the Claret Jug one day … to be called the Champion Golfer of the Year.”