On eve of Heritage, players prepare, reflect and look ahead

Favored by many to win the year’s first majors tournament at Augusta National last week, World Golf Ranking’s No. 1 Jason Day eventually had to settle with a tie for 10th.

On the eve of the 48th annual RBC Heritage, Day divided his time between playing in a pro-am, practicing and reflecting on his performance the week before.

“For the most part the first three days, I actually didn’t play that bad, overall,” he said.

“I hit it pretty decent, and my short game saved me out there.”

In his sixth appearance at Augusta National, day opened with rounds of 72 and 73, and then had his lowest round of the week with a 71. Entering the final round on Sunday, he trailed leader Jordan Spieth by just three strokes.

He would, however, post his highest round (73) and finished in a five-way tie.

“For the most part it was just really hard,” he added. “If you’re out of position at Augusta National, it’s very difficult to get any sort of momentum.”

“Yeah, I mean the last day was tough. It obviously wasn’t the way I wanted to finish the tournament. I just really couldn’t get anything going on the last day.”

When Day tees off today at 12:50 p.m. along with Bill Haas and former Heritage champion Brandt Snedeker, he will be the first No. 1 player to compete in the RBC Heritage since Luke Donald in 2012.

It will also be his fifth time competing at Harbour Town Golf Links, his last appearance being 2013.

Day, who has been hindered by back injuries at time, collapsed during the second round of the 2015 U.S Open in what was revealed to be a case of vertigo.

He also looked ahead to the competition at Harbour Town and conditions that might possibly be windy, wet or both.

“We’re going to have pretty tough conditions,” he said. “I know that we’re going to have very windy conditions as the week starts up here, starting tomorrow (Thursday).

“And with the resurfacing of the greens, the greens are bouncing very hard, tough to keep the balls on the greens sometimes. So it should be a very interesting week scoring-wise.”

He also spoke of the value of shot placement on the narrow, 7,099-yard, par-71 course.

“Obviously, it’s always fun to come back to this place because we are just so used to long golf courses, where you have to hit driver all the time,” he added. “And this golf course doesn’t necessarily take a driver out of your hands, but makes you hit pretty much where everyone else is hitting the golf ball.”

“And from there it’s positioning on the right side of the fairways and if you do that you get to the greens and hopefully make a par.”

Love celebrates birthday, dishes on Ryder Cup

Davis Love III, making his 28th appearance at Harbour Town, was presented with a cake Wednesday, commemorating his 52nd birthday.

He took time to explain how this year’s Ryder Cup team will be formed with himself as captain, mentioning those names that stand out.

Well, it’s early,” he said. “We’ve been joking that Jordan (Spieth) had enough points last year, and probably did, was playing the majors.”

“Obviously he continues to finish high in the points every week. And keeps piling them up, getting an insurmountable lead, I guess. (I’m) Just impressed with his continued good play.”

Others appear to be on Love’s radar, as well.

“And I just had a bunch of our guys play well and made points,” he added. “We had a bunch of guys in it until kind of the end on Sunday.”

“Dustin (Johnson) keeps making points, Branden (Grace) keeps making points. It’s just impressive how the group, from one to 20, really, they all keep playing well. I think Daniel Berger was the only one that really made a big jump last week. We had a lot of guys make a lot of point to keep their positions, which is always good.”

The opening round of the RBC Heritage will kickoff at 7:10 a.m. today on the first and 10th tee.