Jason Day plays for the International Team in the Presidents Cup for the fifth time later this week.
Despite that healthy number of appearances, the Royal Montreal Golf Club match in Canada will be his first since 2017, when the team lost to the US at Liberty National, and he has admitted that he has occasionally lacked the drive for the contest in the past.
Day, who qualified automatically for Mike Weir’s side, began by telling reporters he sees plenty of passion in the current crop, which was sometimes lacking in the past – including from himself.
He said: “It’s nice to be able to get into a room and have guys very passionate about trying to win the Cup, which is, I think - back in my day, maybe not a lot of the guys were maybe bought into the Presidents Cup as what I'm seeing now, myself included. I felt like I probably could have done a little bit more.
"But it's nice to be able to sit in those team rooms, hear the guys talk. The tournament has improved dramatically since I first started. The way when you walk into the player area, having the locker rooms, everything like that, it means so much more now than what we had before."
The International Team has a woeful Presidents Cup record, having only one won and tied one other in the 14 editions so far. Day has yet to experience a positive result in his four appearances, while his overall record of 5-11-4 is also underwhelming. The 36-year-old, who made his debut in 2011, admitted that at the start of his career, he was more focused on the PGA Tour.
He said: “I think in my younger days I didn't really look towards the Presidents Cup as something that I wanted to play in because it's such an individual sport, and I never really cared too much to play in the Presidents Cup because all I cared about was playing on the PGA Tour and trying to win.”
He also revealed that he didn’t always feel some of his teammates were fully invested in the match either. “I've really wanted to play in the Presidents Cup,” he said. “My first Presidents Cup I was excited. I'm not sure the team environment was as passionate as we have now.”
Day then admitted that had affected his own motivation further on, notably in 2015, when he won just 0.5 points from his five sessions. He said: “That kind of hurt my drive to want to compete because I'm like, 'well, if some guys aren't wanting to push, then why do I need to push?' That happened when I wasn't as driven in, like, Korea. I wasn't as driven there to compete.”
During the summer, Day finally made his Olympics debut at Le Golf National after he had opted out of the 2016 Games citing concerns over the Zika virus, and he revealed that experience had helped reignite his passion for the Presidents Cup.
“It definitely opened my eyes when I played the Olympics and how much more it means to playing the game of golf and what the game of golf has given me,” he said. “And then obviously seeing the guys and how they are, that definitely opens my eyes to wanting to play as hard as I can for these guys.”
Day is also confident that the Internationals have what it takes to compete this week. He added: "I feel like we have a tremendous team right now from top to bottom. In the past, I'm not sure if the numbers kind of stacked up as well. But this week I think the guys are more than prepared."
