Jason Day – How He Shot at Course Record 63 at THE PLAYERS

Here’s how Jason Day tied the TPC Sawgrass course record with his opening round 63.

Jason Day is the latest of five golfers to have posted 63 at the TPC Sawgrass during The Players. Day’s came with a nine-birdie-no-bogey score in round one.

He started on the back nine, birdieing the first three holes.  Then he was all pars until the17th where he picked up another birdie to go 4-under.  Making the turn, he recorded birdies at the 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th.  Coming in, he added two more at the 7^th and 9^th.

“Once I got to 7, then I started thinking about the course record,” Day admitted after his round. “Birdieing 7, then I’m like, okay, I think I can birdie 8 and 9, and that’ll kind of clip the course record. It would be nice to shoot 10-under.”

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Ten under par would have been 62 and would have eclipsed the others who have shot 63.

They are Fred Couples in 1992, Greg Norman in 1994, Roberto Castro 2013 and Martin Kaymer in 2014.  Couples also shot a course record 64 in 1984 when he won, and then broke his own mark in 1992 with the 63. So he had the course record twice, but one was a 64 which was not broken until he shot a 63.

Following the strategy he described earlier in the week, Jason Day used driver only five times off the tee, at the 11^th, 14^th, 16^th, 1^st, 5^th and 7^th.  He used 3-wood at the 12^th, 15^th, 2^nd, and 4^th.   He chose 2-iron at the 10^th, 18^th, 6^th, and 9^th.

On the par fives, he was strategic, hitting his second shot at the 11^th into the greenside bunker which is an easier up and down than other areas around the green for birdie.   Amazingly, at the 16^th, he hit driver-8-iron to the green. The lofts on today’s clubs make it a more like an old 6-iron, but still that’s a long way. The hole was 507 yards.

On two, it was 3-wood-2-iron to the right side of the green.  On the 9^th, it was 2-iron-3-wood, the first club to lay up short of a stream, and the second club to get close to the green in two.

“The way I was feeling, the way I was playing, I knew that I could shoot a good score, especially with how the greens were so receptive today,” Jason Day said. “They were really nice, holding on a lot of shots. That’s what made it a little bit easier coming out of the rough.”

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He holed some long putts, including a 25-footer at the 10^th to start the round with a flourish and then an 11-footer at the 17^th. On the second nine he played, he made a 12-footer at the 1^st and at the 4^th, and a 13footer at the 7^th.

He hit 15 of 18 greens, and had 24 putts.

The tee-to-green shots, hole by hole in his own words were:

“10, I hit a 2-iron, then had a wedge in my hand.

“Driver off 11, hit 4-iron just in the bunker.

“12, hit 3-wood, wedge.

“13 was 8-iron.

“14, driver, 8-iron.

“Next hole was a 3-wood, 7-iron.

“Next hole was a driver, 8-iron into the par-5.

“Then a pitching wedge at 17.

“2-iron, 5-iron into 18.

“Then I hit driver, wedge into the 1st.

“3-wood left, 2-iron out to the right on the 2nd and had a nice little up-and-down there.

“8-iron into 3.

“3-wood, wedge into 4.

“Driver, 8-iron into 5.

“2-iron, wedge into 6.

“7 was a driver, wedge.

“8 was a 4-iron because I didn’t have a 3-iron, and a 2-iron was going to go too far, so I just kind of hit a lucky little rope draw there.

“And then 2-iron, 3-wood, and then a nice little up-and-down on the last.”

Next: Jason Day on THE PLAYERS Field

Jason Day plays in the afternoon Friday and some thunderstorms are possible after 3PM.