Jason Day plummeted out of the lead and contention after a disastrous third round at the Wells Fargo, with brutal conditions contributing to the worst average round score by a PGA Tour field in almost two years.

Day showed signs of his brilliant best over the first two rounds at TPC Potomac to start Saturday with a three-shot overnight lead at 10-under-par, but his new-look swing was exposed in 9C temperatures and driving rain and the Australian signed for a nine-over 79 to fall to one under.

But he wasn’t the only one who struggled. Scoring average on day three was 7.662 (+3.662), the highest relative to par in a round on the PGA Tour since the final day of the 2020 US Open (+4.902) at Winged Foot. It was the worst average round relative to par excluding Majors since the final round of the 2020 Memorial Tournament (+3.959).

Day’s hopes of a first victory in four years appear over. He’ll start the final round at TPC Potomac seven shots behind 54-hole leader Keegan Bradley (67) while Max Homa (71) was six under. Anirban Lahiri, James Hahn (four under) and Matt Fitzpatrick (three under) are all in the mix at the Washington, DC area tournament. Rory McIlroy was two under after a gutsy 68.

Former world No.1 Day said he wasn’t reading too much into his leaderboard free-fall given how brutal conditions were.

“It was a tough day out there; I gave it a good crack and will be back at it tomorrow,” Day told Australian Golf Digest after his round.

Day, whose 12th and most recent PGA Tour win came at this event in 2018 although at a different course, started well on Saturday with two pars.

But he bogeyed the third before unravelling with a triple-bogey 7 at the fourth. The 34-year-old rinse his drive and because it crossed the hazard in front of the tee, he had to reload. His second drive (third shot) found the trees.

Day went five-over through his next 14 holes to sink to one under. He was the only Australian to make the cut.