Jason Day is rusty. He has played just four holes of golf in a charity event in the nearly-three months he has had off since the Presidents Cup in South Korea, so he is unsure what to expect when he makes his 2016 debut at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on the US PGA Tour in Hawaii starting tomorrow.
Day, who stayed at home in Ohio over the break with his wife Ellie to spend time with their newborn daughter Lucy, travelled to Maui early and plans on having four full rounds of practice at the Kapalua Country Club before tomorrow's tee-off in a hot field that includes world No. 1, Jordan Spieth.
Day told pgatour.com : “It's just trying to get that mental sharpness back, trying to hit shots and hit shots at targets and go through the mental process of what you need to do to hit shots under pressure. That's the big deal here.”
The Australian, who is the world No. 2, also revealed that the symptoms of vertigo that troubled him at the US Open last year have continued. He told the website that they returned at the Open Championship at St Andrews, but he did not speak about it. He is on medication to control the symptoms.
“I just kept my mouth shut about it because I knew that it would open another can of worms and I didn't want to talk about it,” Day said. “Since then, I've been fine. I've been making sure that I'm staying on top of it and you can't control it. It will come back whenever it wants to.”
Day tees off at 12.40pm Hawaiian time tomorrow (9.40am eastern Australian) with Rickie Fowler.