CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jason Day seemingly came from nowhere.
That’s pretty difficult to do when you’ve spent as long as Day did as the No. 1 ranked player in the world.
But there was Day, surging up the PGA Championship leaderboard Friday afternoon in the second round at Quail Hollow, like a proud past champion who doesn’t like the thought of being forgotten about one bit.
Day, the 2015 winner of the PGA at Whistling Straits, lost his No. 1 ranking to Dustin Johnson in February and has since seen his ranking tumble to No. 7. And he’s not happy about it.
Entering the third round Saturday at Quail Hollow, it appeared Day was ready to do something about it. Like put himself in position to win a second PGA Championship. The 5-under-par 66 he shot in the second round got him to 6-under for the tournament, two shots behind leaders Kevin Kisner and Hideki Matsuyama entering third-round play.
“It annoys and motivates me at the same time to be honest, because I know how good I can be, because I have gotten to No. 1 in the world,’’ Day said of being No. 7 in the world.
His results of late entering this week have not been up to his standards. Day missed the cut at the U.S. Open and then the Travelers Championship in back-to-back weeks, tied for 27th at the British Open and tied for 24th at Bridgestone last week.
But he said after his 66 on Friday his confidence is “growing.’’
“To be honest, I felt like this has been slowly building,’’ Day said. “It was nice to be able to drive the way I did [Friday] set myself up with the opportunities and being able to capitalize on those opportunities felt even better. Because they were the two things that were missing pretty much the whole year — my driving and my putting.
“And being able to combine that [Friday] just felt like the old days … which is only last year. It just feels likes it’s been 10 years ago because I have had a pretty poor year. I’m very pleased to be where I’m at.’’
Day believes that having been in position to win a major before — and succeeding — will help him this weekend at Quail Hollow. As third-round play began Saturday, the two players ahead of him, Kisner and Matsuyama, have never won a major. Nor has Chris Stroud, the player he was tied with at the start of the round.
“When you’re in a position that you’ve done it before and you know what you did to finish off strong, like what I did back in 2015 and the way I finished the PGA in 2016, you know what you have to do to finish strong,’’ Day said. “So, going back on the previous experiences that I’ve had in the PGA, I know that I can do it. I’ve just got to focus on just trying to control what I can do out there.’’
One thing Day cannot control is Matsuyama, who’s the hottest player in the game right now. Despite the language barrier — Matsuyama doesn’t speak a lot of English — Day has become friends with him.
After Matsuyama won last week, he said Day sent him a congratulatory text.
“No, it wasn’t in Japanese,’’ Day joked. “I said, ‘Congrats, mate. Unreal playing. See you next week.’ It’s nothing special. He just said, ‘Thank you, JASON, see you at Quail Hollow.’ But he did put it in all-caps, so that made it feel special. He’s been a good friend for awhile now. We played a couple of Presidents Cup teams together. The language barrier is always kind of difficult, but his English is getting much better.
“I was talking to [swing coach] Sean Foley in the [Friday weather] delay, and Hideki was sitting right next to me. I didn’t think he knew that I was talking about him, but I was. I didn’t think he understood what I was saying. It just looks like that guy right now has his priority set on playing good golf.
“Last week when he was winning [Bridgestone] and even before he was winning that tournament, he’s on the range and he’s the last guy to leave. He’s always putting. He’s always doing something. He’s working hard. And I feel like he’s the hardest worker out here right now, just because he wants to win. And there’s no surprise that he’s obviously won last week and he’s up here again.’’