Jason Day has targeted Tiger Woods’ spot above him on the world rankings this week after receiving his wish of being paired with the former No.1.
Woods returns from back surgery and has been thrown in the deep end at his own event, being paired with Day and young gun Jordan Spieth for the opening two rounds of the Quicken Loans National.
At world No.6, Day is just a fraction behind No.5 Woods and will peg it up with his idol at Congressional Country Club, the scene of his US Open runner-up finish in 2011, determined to overtake the 14-time major winner for the first time.
Woods, who lost his No.1 spot over the last few months to Adam Scott while out injured, will finally get the chance to arrest his slide at the event he hosts to benefit his foundation, but Day is confidently targeting his third US Tour win.
Day climbed from No.7 to No.6 last week when Rory McIlroy missed the cut in Europe and has made no secret of his desire to become the youngest Australian to ever hold the spot.
While Scott has a reasonable lead on Day, the 26-year-old is just over 0.1 of a percentage point behind Tiger and less than half a point from No.3 Bubba Watson.
“I am watching the rankings. When I saw Rory missed the cut it really gave me a sense of huge motivation for last weekend to play really well and climb the leaderboard to have a chance to pass him,’ Day said.
“Now I’m looking forward to contending and hopefully winning this week.”
Day said he was coming off a good finish at the US Open, where he tied for fourth.
“I am excited to play with Tiger and get a first-hand look at how he’s feeling and playing and hopefully make a move past him on the world rankings for the first time,” Day said.
“The expectations are pretty high right now, so I’ve been putting in the hard work and doing the right things.”
Woods, who is a two-time winner of the event, has lowered his usually lofty expectations.
Having been out since March and having missed the Masters and US Open Woods had initially targeted a return at next months British Open.
“If this wasn’t the foundation and our impact that we can have with kids, I probably would not have played,’ Woods said.
“I healed extremely fast, thanks to my physios, and all my nutrition and all the different things that we did … Obviously, I’m going to get stronger as time goes on.
“Winning is the ultimate goal. It’s just that it’s going to be a little bit harder this time. I just haven’t had the amount of preps and reps that I would like, but I’m good enough to play and I am going to give it a go.”
Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Steven Bowditch, Greg Chalmers, Geoff Ogilvy, mark Leishman, Aaron Baddeley, Brady Watt and Oliver Goss join Day as Australians in the field.
As an added incentive this week, the best four players, not otherwise exempt, who finish inside the top 12 will qualify for the British Open.
