Jason Day a Winner Again After Admitting He was ‘Burned Out’
He reached the top of the game, but Jason Day’s dream struggled to match the reality.
Reaching world No.1, it seemed, was easier than staying there, and the Australian slid down the rankings from a seemingly impregnable position.
But a new-found vigor took the Australian to the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo title Sunday for his second win of 2018.
A second summit bid is under way.
Day climbed back to world No. 7 with his hard-fought two-shot win at Quail Hollow, and admitted afterward his decline had given him a “good kick in the butt.”
“I got burned out being No. 1,” the 30-year-old told reporters after his 12th PGA Tour win.
“It’s easy to get burned out in a position that you’re in the spotlight. It can be demanding at times. You’ve got to give time to people and sometimes you don’t get a lot of time to yourself.”
Day climbed to the pinnacle of the game in September 2015 after five wins that year, including his first major at the US PGA.
He flipflopped with Jordan Spieth at the top of the rankings until the following March when he took a firm grip on the world No. 1 position with three titles, culminating in a wire-to-wire victory in the Players Championship at Sawgrass — venue for this week’s PGA Tour event.
Day’s Sawgrass stroll — by four shots — was his seventh victory in 17 starts, a stretch reminiscent of Tiger Woods in his heyday.
“When you’re walking around — and there’s so many golfers in this world and you’re better than all of them — that’s an awesome feeling,” he told reporters.
But after that the pressure of staying at the top, coupled with mother Dening’s cancer diagnosis in early 2017, his wife Ellie’s miscarriage and back issues, precipitated Day’s decline.
“Last year was a good kick in the butt, not playing great and then seeing a lot of the other guys succeed,” said Day.
Quoted from : CNN
Photo : TSN
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