Jason Day ready to defend PGA Championship title

Jason Day,Jordan Spieth,Branden Grace,Justin Rose PGA Championship Final Round 2015

Matthew Florjancic, WKYC 4:59 PM. EST July 28, 2016

Australia"sJason Day is ready to defend his PGA Championship title. (Photo: Eric Bolte, Custom)

Australias Jason Day is the reigning champion for the first time in his career, and the veteran PGA Tour pro is anxious to defend his crown at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey, this weekend.

After winning the PGA Championship, his first major tournament win, at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, Day is ready to see if he has what it takes to become the first back-to-back titlist since Tiger Woods accomplished the feat in 2006 and 2007.

The PGA is the first time I"ve ever defended a major championship, so I"ll try and soak up the experience of what that entails with regards to the start of the week going to the champion dinner and having to defend that and go to the media and the press room and all that stuff, Day said. But once Thursday comes around, you have to go out there and execute and play good. Excited about that.

Day comes into the PGA Championship on the heels of a 22nd-place finish in The Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club in South Ayrshire, Scotland, where putting, typically a strength in his game, proved to be more difficult than in tournaments in America.

The back nine is difficult, but you"ve just got to play good, Day said. If you don"t play good on the back side, you"re not going to win the tournament. Obviously, I came here to try and win the tournament, and I obviously didn"t do that.

I"m just used to the 12, 13, 14 on the Stimp, and then, we get here and it"s nine. Obviously, understandable because of the conditions and the elements that you have to battle out here, how windy it is, you have to keep them at a certain speed or else they"ll blow off and it won"t be fair for anyone. So I tried to get in early, tried to get used to the greens. It just feels like I"m hitting it with a sledgehammer and it"s going nowhere.

It"s something you have to get used to, and unfortunately, I just didn"t putt really good.

The key moving forward for Day is to focus on his putting and be in contention during the final round of the PGA Championship.

Obviously, I need to improve the short game, Day said. I think the short game let me down. I didn"t hole the putts that I needed to out there, and obviously, when I put myself in opportunity situations with regards to driving greens and getting around the greens, I didn"t get up and down for birdies. When I missed greens, I didn"t really save myself a lot.

Source: http://www.wkyc.com/sports/golf/jason-day-ready-to-defend-pga-championship-title/283470932