DORAL, Fl. — Jason Day called Tiger Woods last week. He wanted to pick his brain on mental toughness, and the two talked for nearly an hour.
“It was a good call,” Day said Wednesday from the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. “If you’re going to pick a guy’s brain, he’s the guy.
“And every time — I can’t count how many times he said effort and mindset and everything, had to do a lot with the mind.”
Last year, Day won five times, including his first major in what was a breakout season for the 28-year-old. After a three-month break, the Aussie is off to a less consistent start this year with a slow start so far this year, tying for 10th in the 32-man Hyundai Tournament of Champions, missing the cut at Torrey Pines and tying for 11th at Pebble Beach.
“Once I improve the mental game for myself, this is the last piece of the puzzle for me, I believe, and I think I’ll be able to go out there and just kind of kill it,” Day said. “Talking to him, every time that I talk to him, it’s just every time it comes up, it’s mind-set, mental, mental toughness, effort. It didn’t matter how bad it was; if it was a course that he did not like, he was just going to flat out execute you. It did not matter.
“That’s that killer instinct that I need to get back like I had at the second half of last year, get back and take it into this year and go through with it.”