Join Now
WORLD No.1 Jason Day has revealed former No.1 Greg Norman wants the Queenslander to better his Australian record for time spent on top of the rankings.
Day enters the Zurich Classic in New Orleans in his ninth week as the world’s best player, 322 behind Norman’s career mark of 331 weeks.
For more than six years, Norman topped the rankings, introduced in 1986, after he had already won 33 international two US PGA Tour events.
The 14-time major winner Tiger Woods’ mark is 683 weeks.
Day has revealed Norman’s challenge to chase down his mark.
“It’s good to be No.1. I know I’m at nine weeks now. I just want to get to 10 and, after that, I want to get to 11 ... and so on and so on,” Day said.
“I shared a text with Greg Norman earlier this year, and he said that he would love to see me pass him. That would be great.”
Australian golfing legend Greg Norman
Of the 19 players to become No.1, Day has only spent more time at the top than three of them. He’s still two weeks shy of Adam Scott’s 11-week mark.
With a packed Olympic-adjusted schedule this season, and Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy on his tail, Day knows it will take some incredible golf.
“And if I have the opportunity to do that, I know that’s going to take a lot of sacrifice and a lot of dedication,” Day said of Norman’s mark.
“Now that I’m No.1, I have to change my mindset to trying to extend that gap between one and two. If you want to be the best in the world, you have to work harder than everyone else, and ... be in front of your competition.”
In his last start at Hilton Head, Day led only to post an out-of-character 79 in round three.
“I was a little tired and I had a terrible attitude when I was playing that round.
“On top of it, there was some certain things that had kind of crept into my game, bad habits that over time, when you’re playing a lot, you don’t get practice time to work them out.
“Last week was a good week for me to get onto the range and chipping green, putting green, and really try and work some of those kinks out. I feel pretty good about my game right now and I’m very pleased with where I’m at mentally and physically.” Day led through three rounds last year at the event before ironically fading to fourth with fatigue - later be diagnosed as part of his vertigo issues.
Robert Allenby, John Senden, Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy, Marc Leishman, Ryan Ruffels, Rhein Gibson, Rod Pampling, Aaron Baddeley and Cameron Percy join Day in a strong Australian presence at TPC Louisiana.
