Jason Day is one of the players who will probably be quite happy going under the radar heading into The Masters, with the Australian having a very respectable year on the PGA Tour so far.
Jason Day had an outstanding record at Augusta National in the early stages of his career. He finished tied for second on his first appearance in 2011, while he has had three more top 10s at The Masters since.
The 37-year-old has finished just inside the top 40 in the last two years – following a two year spell in which he was not in the field. And given that he is a former world number one and has made a respectable start to the year, it would not be a surprise if he impressed over the coming days.
Day may be hoping however, that fans are talking a little more about his golf this time around.
Jason Day shares what Augusta National asked him ahead of The Masters this year
Many will remember that Day was in the same group as Tiger Woods for the first two days at Augusta National 12 months ago. But it was actually the 2015 PGA Champion that many were talking about – because of the outfits he was wearing.
Day had signed with clothing brand Malbon Golf several months prior. And one of his outfits at the first major of the year resulted in Day being asked to remove his vest by those at Augusta National.
Speaking on Dan on Golf, Day insisted that he had absolutely no problem with the decision as he was not looking to upset anyone. But it seems that the officials at Augusta National have not forgotten about the incident as he spoke about what he will be wearing at 2025’s event.
“If they would have let us do what we first put the scripting to them, it would have been a lot crazier than last year, but it’ll be a lot more toned down just because they asked to see the scripting before,” he said.
“The funny thing was they’ve never asked to see scripting of mine, because I’ve always been pretty neutral and down the middle. This year they asked because of obviously what happened last year.”
What Jason Day believes you cannot do around Augusta National if you hope to make the cut at The Masters
The last decade has definitely been a turbulent one for Day, who reached the summit of the golfing world in 2015 – the year in which he also became a major champion.
Unfortunately, injury seemed to prevent him from kicking on. And it only appears to have been in the last couple of years that he has made something of a resurgence.
Day’s first missed cut in his Masters career came in 2020, while he was also not there for the weekend the following year. And later in the interview, he explained some of the keys to playing well at Augusta.
He also shared what you absolutely must not do in order to make the cut.
“Definitely short game. Not so much driving, you still need to drive it well around Augusta. There’s only certain few penalty shots. You’re sitting there thinking about certain areas that you can’t go, like two for instance, that bunker on the right, it’s lay-up immediately, and then if you lay-up short of it or hit it long, at least you’ve got a chance to get to the green. Five, you hit in those bunkers left, lay up immediately, you’re bringing in bogey. And it’s very difficult to make par from those bunkers,” he said.
“It’s funny, Augusta, there’s always one shot a hole where you have to sack up, you have to bear down, focus, get through it, because if you don’t, it makes playing the rest of the hole really, really difficult. Like one, for instance, you hit it left, you’re hitting a low hook over the pine trees and most of the time, you’re probably not going to get on the green. And hit it right and you get it up the lip, you’re laying up. You’ve got to get yourself into position. It’s usually typically a second shot golf course, you cannot short side yourself around Augusta. But if you position yourself really, really well, tactically, and you play it the way not everyone plays it, but for the most part, the way that suits you, because you can’t be aggressive around Augusta. You try be aggressive around Augusta, you’ll miss the cut and have an early week. Being very tactically sound in your course management is huge.”
Interestingly, Day has not missed a cut on the PGA Tour since the US Open at Pinehurst last year. So he will be confident that he can find a way to make sure that he gets to play four rounds at the iconic course in the coming days.
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