Friday 16 June 2017 22:49, UK
Jason Day has admitted to struggling to react to Rickie Fowler's fine first-round brilliance at Erin Hills after he failed to make the cut for the weekend's play at the US Open.
Day played with world No 1 Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose for the first two rounds but the glamour three ball could not bring their best golf to the course as their combined score was a surprising 17 over par.
The Australian followed a disappointing seven-over-par 79 on Thursday with a three-over-par 75 to finish at 10 over par and accepted that Fowler's fine seven-under-par 65 had surprised the 2015 PGA Championship winner.
"At the start of yesterday, when Rickie shot seven-under, usually that's not the case in most US Opens," said Day.
"Usually it's three, maybe four-under. You've just got to kind of take it easy. But when you see someone that shoots seven-under and the guys in the morning tear up the golf course, I've got to try to be a little bit aggressive.
"But then again you sit there and it's the US Open, things can turn pretty bad, which they did for me."
Day also said that he had struggled to navigate the Erin Hills course in Wisconsin, blaming his driving off the tee and accepted that the course had provided the players with a good challenge.
"If you hit the fairways, the scores are out there," he added. "You can shoot low numbers here. Yes, there are some long holes mixed in with some shorter ones, but actually it's playing pretty fair.
"Being out of position off the tee does not help. The execution was not there."
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