Behind new swing obsession, Jason Day holds 18-hole Wells Fargo Champ lead

Sometimes obsessions can be a good thing. 

After an opening 63 at the Wells Fargo Championship, Jason Day took another stride towards getting back in the winner’s circle. 

Day, whose last Tour win came at the Wells Fargo Championship’s 2018 edition, had eight birdies en route to notching the Day 1 lead at 7 under, one stroke ahead of Joel Dahmen and two ahead of Paul Barjon, Denny McCarthy, Aaron Rai, Callum Tarren and Matthew Wolff. 

For the past few years, the former world No. 1 has been plagued by back issues. Day said it still gets aggravated and sore but added, “everyone’s sore at some point.” His improved health, plus the work he’s been putting in with swing coach Chris Como, who once worked with Tiger Woods, has his game in a good place.

But Day has really, really, been taking the work he’s done with Como seriously. 

“I think about the golf swing during the day and I think about the golf swing at night,” Day said after Round 1 at TPC Potomac. “There’s been conversations at 12:00 at night with Chris just because I have an idea in my head and a certain sensation and a feel. If you’ve been around me at that time, you’ve kind of — it’s interesting. I’m obsessed with it.”

Full-field scores from Wells Fargo Championship

And that obsession is starting to pay off. Earlier this year, Day placed T-3 at Torrey Pines and shot 68-66 in Rounds 1 and 2 at Pebble Beach. However, his mother passed away ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and he missed three straight cuts. But then the 34-year-old got back on track two weeks ago at the Zurich Classic. He and Jason Scrivener tied the event’s foursomes record Friday and finished T-10. 

But with the positive results starting to come again with his new swing, Day now wants to get his swagger back to where it was when he was among the world’s best players. 

“I feel like I can get back to where I need to be, but that’s a total decision up top in my head if I want to climb that mountain again,” he said. “I feel good about myself and I’ve just got to slowly work on the confidence” 

With tougher conditions set for Friday, Day hopes to add another reason to believe in his new swing that he’s been obsessing over. But he won’t get too ahead of himself as he knows there’s still more work to do to get that coveted comeback victory. 

“I am encouraged (after Round 1). I think it’s a good step in the right direction,” he said. “I obviously, I’ve got to give myself a pat on the back because I played some nice golf today, but we’ve got three more days after this and I think the main goal is to try and focus and get yourself in a position where you can win. Yeah, good positive stuff today. Get back, recover and try and get into tomorrow’s round.”