Day’s world ranking edge ‘bothers’ and ‘motivates’ Spieth
Jordan Spieth had a front-row seat last week to Jason Day’s dominance. The two played together for the opening rounds of The Players Championship, which Day opened with a course record-tying 9-under 63. Day went on to a wire-to-wire, four-shot win, while Spieth missed the cut in his first start since his Masters meltdown.
Now, Day has clearly staked out a position atop the Official World Golf Ranking, ending a back-and-forth between the two that began last July.
That fact concerns Spieth, but he’s hoping to also draw energy from it.
“Certainly didn’t have it last week. And I’m looking to get that back and it is definitely there’s some motivation there,” Spieth said Tuesday ahead of the AT&T Byron Nelson in his hometown of Dallas. “He’s playing his game. He believes his game is better than anybody else’s and he’s on his game and so it is better than everyone else’s.”
Spieth, who is in the second event of stretch of four tournaments in as many weeks, knows the gap is so large that he can’t catch Day even if he can win this week in Dallas and next week’s Colonial in Ft. Worth.
The good news is that dangles a clear carrot in front of Spieth, who is trying to fine-tune aspects of his game.
Spieth said, “He’s separated himself and that bothers me and it motivates me.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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