Defending champion Jason Day admits it was 'weird' seeing his name atop the leaderboard after the Australian made an electrifying start on day one of the Players Championship.
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Few knew what to expect from Day this week. On one hand, he was returning to TPC Sawgrass as the defending champion, but he has also been far removed from that sort of form over the last year.
Day, who has been dealing with injuries and personal issues relating to his mother's cancer treatment, jumped out to a fast start Thursday. The world's third-ranked golfer was 5-under though 11 holes, and even he was surprised by the fast start.
“It kind of felt weird because I haven't really been in the position recently, actually going out there and seeing your name at the top of the leaderboard and stuff like that,” Day, who has just one top-10 finish this season, said, via golfchannel.com.
“But with that being said, you always got to start somewhere and try and build on it and it seems like it was a good start for me.”
Despite his early birdie barrage, Day did crash back to earth a bit with three bogeys on his last four holes to shoot a 2-under 70 in Round 1.
Day was still just two shots back after he signed his first-round card.
“I'm excited about where the state of the game is,” Day said. “Obviously there's some positive stuff. It's easy to get yourself out of position here, but for the most part I actually played some solid golf.”
It would be difficult to find a better story all year should Day go on to win — becoming the first player in Players Championship history to successfully defend his title — on Mother's Day.