His lone major championship victory is close to eight years distant, the dominating performance he put in at the 2015 U.S PGA Championship at Whistling Straits preceding his win in the Players Championship by seven months or so. 

So, most of the best things in Day’s professional life happened a while ago. Hang on though. The good news is the Queenslander is, by the look of things, on the way back. On the course at least, he is definitely trending upward. 

The tie for 10th he posted at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational was but the latest in a heartening run of close-to stellar form. This year already, Day has been T9 at the Genesis Invitational, fifth at the WM Phoenix Open and T7 at the Farmers Insurance Open. Since the turn of the year, he has risen 79 places to 43rd on the world ranking.

At least so far at TPC Sawgrass, the good news is continuing. Day wasn’t perfect on day two of the Players Championship, but his second two-under par 70 of the week has him nicely placed at four under going into the third round. When weather called a halt to round two, Day was four shots behind co-leaders South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout (through 14 holes) and Canadian Adam Svensson (11 holes).

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“I’d like to think this is like the old days when play like this was sort of standard,” he said after completing his round with a birdie at the par-5 9th, his 18th. “I'm coming off the back end of some really good golf, which is nice. I've got my coach, Chris Como, here this week. He’s trying to help me through some of the swing stuff that I have been struggling with. And I feel like that is coming around nicely.”

Two things Day wasn’t getting too much assistance from were his playing partners, fellow Aussie Lucas Herbert and American Aaron Wise.

Jason Day says his putting has "drastically improved" in recent times. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Adding to his nightmare 82 on day one, Herbert’s second round was, unbelievably, four shots worse. Wise - who hit three balls into the water left of the 18th en route to a closing ten and a score of 80 on the opening day – was at least a little better than that horror show, but a 76 left him well outside the cutline. 

"...I feel like the level of golf the three guys at the top of the world ranking – Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy – are playing is very difficult to beat." – Jason Day.

None of which is going to help the third member of a group when it comes to concentration. 

“It can be tough to stay focused if you let that affect you,” admitted Day. “I just tried to not pay attention too much to how those guys were going. I know they struggled. I just feel bad for them. Aaron was obviously trying to play his hardest. He had a bit of a struggle on 18 yesterday that kind of kicked it over the edge. Lucas just looked like he was just struggling with his overall game.

“I just kept on telling myself to be patient,” he continued. “I knew that if I could get it in – at one point I was at five-under – I knew I wasn't going to be too far away. We've still got a lot of golf to play.”

As for what we can expect over the next 36-holes, Day’s recent fine play has been built more round putting that has at times approached the unerring quality of his halcyon days. His experience has told too; “managing my game” he called it. In contrast, however, Day’s long game remains a work in progress. And, if the sloppiness of his play at the 7th hole – his 16th – on day two is a guide, brief lapses in concentration are not unknown. From the middle of the fairway on the 451-yard par-4, Day contrived an annoyingly careless double-bogey six.

"You have to be really patient around this golf course, especially in the wind,” he explained. “I was walking up seven talking to Luke, my caddie. I said, ’it's really easy to make a quick double here.’ And, of course, I ended up doing just that. But that's my point. It doesn't take much to get out of position on this course. And when you are out of position, it's not like it is easy to make bogey. Most of the time you're staring at a double.”

Still, that lapse was uncharacteristic of a round where Day hit 12 greens in regulation. Not too bad, but not too great either.

“I’ve not been happy with how I’ve been hitting it over the last few tournaments,” he confirmed. “But I’ve done a really good job of leaving myself in the correct positions, then getting up-and-down. My putter has improved drastically since the last two years. That’s all positive because obviously I'm losing strokes to the field tee-to-green. Last week at Bay Hill I was losing strokes to the field in the ‘approach to the green’ category, yet still finished inside the top-10. So, if I can tidy that stuff up and still keep the putting the way I have been, I'm not going to be too far away.”

How far away remains to be seen. Asked to rate himself now against an arbitrary ‘ten-out-of-ten’ when he was World No.1, Day modestly gave himself a ‘modest five.’

“I would say that I'm not too far away,” he said. “But I feel like the level of golf the three guys at the top of the world rankings – Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy – are playing is very difficult to beat. But if I can keep putting in the work, hopefully it'll pay off over time.”