When it comes to playing the week before a major, most of the top players in the game follow the Tiger Woods model and that model was drawn up by Jack Nicklaus.
You don’t play the week before a major. Get some rest, get in a little early and spend more time putting your game plan together for the major.
That’s one school of thought.
The other says play your way in. Phil Mickelson has done it with the Masters, he did it with the Open Championship in 2013, almost did it again this year at Royal Troon.
This end of the season has taken a beating, thanks to golf in the Olympics, which a lot of people tell us is a great thing but if you think about it long enough, it really isn’t. But that’s for another day.
What the Olympics have done is screw up the schedule for everyone.
Best example is that next week is the PGA, a mere two weeks after the Open Championship. Typically, after the travel and the time changes and the beating you take physically and mentally from a links course, you NEED a week to recover.
Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy and the new Champion Golfer of the Year Henrik Stenson are off this week, getting themselves ready for the PGA.
No. 1 Jason Day is playing at Glen Abbey. He has no choice, it’s a double-whammy. He’s the defending champion AND the tournament sponsor — RBC — is also one of Day’s big sponsors.
Which begs the question: would Day be playing if he wasn’t the defender and if it was someone else besides RBC with a logo on his shirt collar?
Answer is easy — probably not.
Day won’t say that, we’ll say it for him. He could probably use a week off to get himself together after an unimpressive tie for 22nd at Royal Troon. He didn’t have any sub-70 rounds, he shot 73-70-71-71. Not what you would expect from the No. 1 player in the world.
Now you can also add that Day is the defending champion next week at Baltusrol after he rolled the field last year at Whistling Straits. He beat Jordan Spieth by three, Branden Grace by five shots.
He was well rested and ready that week.
This time around, you wonder if he might be a bit weary after traveling to Scotland, then back to Canada then on to New Jersey.
It’s easy to wonder out loud how he’ll be able to perform next week after grinding it out and traveling thousands of miles?
With Spieth, McIlroy, Watson and Stenson sitting this one out, the only other player from the top six with Day is No. 2 Dustin Johnson so the Canucks have a couple of strong guys to follow.
Johnson’s appearance is by his own choice, no obligations like those of Day.
Day opened with a 69, it was up and down, he was three-under after four holes after he holed a pitch shot for eagle at the par five second. But he struggled the rest of the way with three bogeys and three birdies.
“It was a little tough, definitely firm and fast,” Day pointed out.
What will be tough is his turnaround time.
No rest, on to defend at Baltusrol.
Blame it on Rio.
