Tuesday 10 May 2016 20:58, UK
Jason Day fears his lack of confidence with a three-wood could hamper his chances of victory at this week's Players Championship in Florida.
Day is one of the longest and most consistent players in the world armed with a driver, but the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass features several holes that take the driver out of play from the tee - particularly for the bigger hitters.
At his pre-tournament press conference ahead of golf's "fifth major", Day admitted to being out of his comfort zone when opting to hit his three-wood, which perhaps explains his disappointing record in the event.
The Australian has missed the halfway cut three times in five appearances, including last year when he followed an encouraging, opening 69 with an error-strewn 81 in which he carded sevens at both the second and fourth holes.
Day will consider hitting a two-iron instead of his three-wood, although that could create a "three-club difference" for his approaches into the notoriously hard and fast greens at PGA Tour headquarters.
But he vowed to put in extra practice with the three-wood as he looks to build on his remarkable run of form which has yielded six victories in his last 16 starts worldwide.
"If there's one club in the bag that's uncomfortable for me at times, it's the three-wood," said the world No 1. "Everyone has an uncomfortable club in their bag, we just don't talk about it. But I'm okay with talking about it.
"I have to weigh out between hitting an iron or three-wood from the tee, just because if I miss it in the rough, you're going to get flyers out there. And if you get flyers out of the rough, it's very difficult to hold the greens.
"Then if you miss the greens, it's very difficult to get up and down because of the uncertainty of the lies that you can get around these greens in Bermuda grass.
"When I feel good about my three-wood and I feel comfortable with it, then I've got all the confidence in the world that I can get up there and stripe it down the middle. The only thing is I'm not comfortable with it, the only thing that I have to do is practice harder with it.
"And if I start practicing a lot harder with it, then I start seeing results and I get more confident and then that gets out of the way. But obviously that's one club that I've always been uncomfortable with - and I'm okay with it."
