Jason Day is refusing to monitor the FedEx Cup Playoffs permutations after making a bright start to the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis.
The first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the FedEx St Jude Championship is reserved for only the 125 players on the FedEx Cup Points and Eligibility list after last week’s Wyndham Championship.
Day withdrew with flu-like symptoms after an opening round of 67 a week ago and has once again started well as he seeks to move inside the top 70 by week’s end.
The 34-year-old went bogey-free at TPC Southwind, his round of five-under 65 putting him in a tie for seventh heading into the second round tonight, Australian time.
Coming into the week ranked 113th in the standings, Day’s current position is projected to elevate him to 70th. Not that he’s counting.
“I’m not getting too excited about anything right now,” Day said after a round highlighted by back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th holes to make a late surge up the leaderboard.
“Just got to stay patient as much as I can because the more and more I start thinking about outcome and being able to get into next week, it just does nothing for me. At least anything positive for me.
“It actually gives you more anxiety and a lot of other stuff that comes along with it.
“I feel pretty good about the opening round and looking forward to the rest of the week.”
Day’s first-round 65 is his fourth sub-70 round in succession.
He closed with a weekend of 69-66 to finish tied for 17th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, now just waiting for the week where his game comes together completely.
“I felt like I was working on a lot of good momentum going into especially last week, from kind of Rocket Mortgage on,” Day said.
“Felt like the game was starting to show a lot of good signs, which was nice. Not only from tee to green, but also on the greens.
“Even though last week I played one round and I lost strokes to the field in putting, I actually played really well.
“You’re always just trying like to just blend everything together and hopefully it will click.
“Good start to the week. Three more days to go.”
A run of four straight birdies to round out the front nine provided the cornerstone of Adam Scott’s first round of four-under 66.
Like Day, Scott needs to enhance his position to advance to next week’s BMW Championship.
Tied for 19th, Scott is projected to move from 77th to 59th if he can maintain his spot inside the top 20 over the next three days.
Cameron Smith and Cam Davis both began their tournaments with rounds of three-under 67, Marc Leishman is flirting with the top-70 cut-off after a round of one-under 69 while Lucas Herbert hit just eight of 18 greens in regulation in his round of three-over 73.
Starting his tournament from the 10th tee, Smith began with a bogey but quickly bounced back into red numbers with a hole-out eagle at the par-4 13th:
He turned in one-under and then made three birdies in the space of four holes on the front nine, a closing bogey preventing him from making an even stronger impression in the first round.
