Jason Day rattled after what he did on day one of The Open which was ‘actually quite horrific’

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Jason Day got his Open Championship off to an underwhelming start with a round of two-over par 73 at Royal Portrush on Thursday.

Day has been in fairly poor form of late, and he looked like a man who was lost at times during his first round of the Open Championship.

The Australian has just one top-10 finish to his name since The Masters in April,

Day arrived at Royal Portrush early to prepare for The Open, but perhaps it was a case of over-preparation for the 37-year-old.

Royal Portrush takes no prisoners, and Day found that out the hard way on Thursday.

It was a tough day out on the links for the former world number one.

Jason Day rattled after what he did on day one of The Open

Day went out in three-over par 39, but fought back with a one-under 34 on the back nine.

However, after his round, the Australian was brutally honest about his performance out on the golf course.

Day didn’t pull any punches with his assessment of his mental process on day one at Portrush.

He said: “My process out there was actually quite horrific. Usually I have a landing — like a finish spot, and just the communication wasn’t good on my half. Brucey was trying his hardest to get me kind of to steady the ship a little bit. Unfortunately, I just felt a little rattled out there, just because I wasn’t hitting a lot of fairways and just trying to get in play. We were all put on the clock. So we’re trying to race a little bit.

“After I got onto the back side, I started kind of focusing a little bit better, get the process right. Unfortunately, I three-putted the bloody par-5 at 12. I played the par-5s terrible today, just not in position.“

That is what you call incredible honesty from Day. He was under no illusions after his round that huge improvements will be required on day two if he is to contend at the 153rd Open Championship

Jason Day’s ‘unacceptable process’ at The Open

Day went on to further criticise himself after his round on Thursday.

He suggested that it was ‘unacceptable’ what he did out on the golf course during day one.

Day said: “Yeah, and that’s probably what I’ll end up doing. I’ve obviously got my performance coach. You can’t — I’ve been professional too long to get this wrong. To work hard coming into this week and then to go out there and have poor process is not acceptable, especially in my eyes.

“It’s not any — like no one else other than myself that I have to blame because I put in the hard work and I go out there and have a poor process. Don’t get the correct numbers, start making bogeys, that’s all on me unfortunately.

“I’ve got to do a better job of it and hopefully come back tomorrow and do it again, play better.“

Day also opened up on his struggles with the driver during day one of The Open.

He said: “Yeah, when you’re not hitting fairways, it just makes it hard. Hard to control the golf ball coming into it because the greens are so firm. Obviously when it starts raining now and there is going to be some wind out there. So that’s obviously going to make it harder to hit fairways because there’s going to be a lot of moisture get between the ball and the club face, it’s going to spin it off, and we get a lot of cross-winds out there too. So the ball’s going to go a lot shorter.

“Guys are going to probably struggle to control some of the bounce and rolls coming in. Now they’re going to start to most likely have that first like skid on the ground, whereas we obviously had some nice bounce and roll — especially on the chipping is going to be difficult. It’s starting to come down now, so I’m happy I’m in.“

The one-time major winner will need to come out on Friday and post a round in 60s if he is to feature at The Open Championship this year.