SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Jason Day was lost.
That could summarize the state of his game for the last few years as the former world No. 1 plummeted all the way down to No. 150 after barely scraping to make the cut at the 3M Open in July. But last month at the American Express in Palm Desert, California, Day actually was lost after making a wrong turn in his rental car.
“They had that concert on and I got lost and I just sat on the side of the road looking at the mountains for like 30 minutes,” Day recalled. “It felt like no matter what I did, I was just turning the wrong way every single time.”
Later, during an extended discussion about feeling lost and as Day put it, “being humbled,” he added: “I don’t know how to explain it but it was stress, disappointment, frustration all boiled up. You’ve done it before, and you know how good you can be but you’re playing so poorly. You go from being the best in the world to you can’t bust an egg with a hammer.”
Rickie Fowler can relate. He never quite reached the top of the mountain, but he was a perennial top-10 player in the world, who suddenly couldn’t crack an egg either.
Through 36 holes at the WM Phoenix Open, they are lurking on the first page of the leaderboard. Day held the first-round lead with a bogey-free 65 while Fowler did his damage on Friday, posting a 5-under 66. They are both chasing defending WM Phoenix Open champion Scottie Scheffler, who carded 64 to set the pace at 10-under 132 and can regain No. 1 in the world with a win, and World No. 3 Jon Rahm, who trailed by two strokes and has his own scenarios to becoming No. 1 at the end of the week.
Day eventually used Google Maps and found his way home. But it serves as a larger metaphor for the state of his game.
“I was struggling with my body, struggling mentally, struggling with my mom passing (from cancer in March), struggling with a lot of things,” he said. “I think finally over the last few months I feel like things are finally settled down where I can actually focus on golf and playing golf and really just trying to do the best job I can.”
Day and Fowler both could’ve taken the easy way out and joined LIV Golf, but instead they have doubled down on hard work to regain past form and are hot on the comeback trail. Fowler, the winner of the 2015 Players Championship, fell to No. 160 in the world late last year. He started working with instructor Butch Harmon again and tied for second at the Zozo Championship in…
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