AUGUSTA, GA. — Golf is easy, especially for major winners. Just sort through the two million swing thoughts swirling through your head, and pick one, or one thousand.
If you struggle, hire a new swing instructor. The one who emphasizes swing plane, or the one who wants your weight to stay on your left foot, or the one who wants you to springboard off the ground, or the one who wants you to "feel" the clubhead.
Jason Day vaulted to No. 1 in the world golf rankings in September 2015, a month after he won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits with a stunning display of ball-striking. On Sunday of that tournament, he played with and outplayed Jordan Spieth, whose second-place finish made him the top-ranked golfer in the world.
This week at the Masters, at least before shots and on the practice range, Day and Spieth look less like former No. 1s and more like beginners who spent the weekend clipping swing tips out of Golf Digest.
Day admits his head is spinning from his latest swing changes. Spieth looks like he lost a bet.
During his practice swings, Spieth cocks his wrists, guides the club to the top of his backswing, then pushes his right shoulder out and over the ball while dropping the club shaft close to parallel to the ground — a move that, for amateurs, would produce a shank or a slice, presuming contact.
"I'm just trying to shallow the club transitionally," Spieth said.
Day's swing changes are more conventional, at least visually. This week at the Masters, one year after failing to qualify for the tournament and falling to 175th in the world, he has risen to 35th while admitting that his swing thoughts resemble a swarm of locusts.
"Right now, you know, I'm thinking about making sure that I have a good hip turn on the way back," he said. "That I have — if the right elbow flares out enough on top of the swing, that I have a little bit of a squat going into the transition, the right arm goes down the right side of my body.
"I mean, get my hands low and make sure I bow my left wrist and get my right hand on top. And you've got to compete, as well."
He admitted that there are 8,000 videos on his phone and that all but about 10 of them are of his golf swing.
"They are the things that I'm thinking about constantly on the range," he said. "Then I would say that if I can move it to the point where I could maybe have one or two swing thoughts, that would actually help a lot."
Spieth can attest to the dangers of stray thoughts. In his Masters debut in 2014, he finished second. He won it in 2015 and in 2016 led by five shots going into the back nine on Sunday.
On the 12th tee, he and his caddie, Michael Greller, decided he should play a draw. As Spieth stood over the ball, facing a 150-yard shot while holding a 9-iron, he said a voice in his head told him to play a fade.
The ball bounced into Rae's Creek. He took a drop and hit an 80-yard shot into the water.
Stray thoughts can waylay the best players in the world.
"It's been an unbelievable learning experience, a very humbling experience to go from No. 1 player in the world to 175 and then work my way back," Day said. "It's been a fun little journey.''
He seemed to be serious.
