Kevin Tway taps in to childhood Kapalua memories

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – It’s been roughly a year since Jason Day first discussed the balloon therapy that helps keep his rib cage in place, strengthens his core and loosens his back. That means a year of 30-minute sessions blowing into balloons at the gym while others are pumping iron. “Mind you, you feel self-conscious because you’re in the gym blowing up balloons and no one else is blowing up balloons,â€� Day said. On the flip side, he’s become pretty adept at it. “Got really good at farm animals and … swords and stuff like that,â€� he said. “If you need a kids’ party, I can do it for you.â€� Related: Leaderboard | Pro-am leaderboard | TOUR Insider: Five wins and Phil’s lucky silver dollar Yes, he knows exactly how that comes across. But at this point, the 32-year-old Australian is trying anything he can to stay healthy and avoid the kind of back problems that have nagged at his career. The latest example came late in 2019 when he aggravated his back during a practice session and was forced to miss the Presidents Cup in his native land. Of course, when he’s healthy, the 12-time PGA TOUR winner is one of golf’s best players. He showed that again Friday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when he shot a bogey-free 8-under 64 at Pebble Beach – tying Chris Baker’s 64, also at Pebble Beach, for low round of the day – to move into solo second at 12 under, two shots behind leader Nick Taylor at the halfway point. Both Day and Taylor will be at Spyglass Hill on Saturday in the final day of the three-course rotation. It’s no surprise that Day is playing well in this event. He has six top-10 finishes in 10 career starts, including top-5s in the previous three years. “I would like to change having the top-5s,â€� Day said. “I would like to win.â€� It’s getting close to two years since Day’s last TOUR win at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. He was ranked seventh in the world after that win, but a tough 2019 campaign dropped him to 46th entering this week. The pain in his back became so bad – and the stress to deliver on those high expectations became so intense – that he wondered if he should continue playing. Frustrating and losing confidence, he told his wife at one point, “I think I’m nearly done here.â€� But those dark moments subsided. He persevered, hoping his health and his game would improve. Even if he’s not all the way back to where he once was – he ended 2016 as the game’s top-ranked player — he feels better about things. One area that seems to be coming around is his putting. He’s doing less of it during practice rounds – instead of 200 putts that might take more than two hours, he’s about at half that amount – and that’s allowed him to focus more on it. “Hoping that kind of lowering the reps and upping the concentration … will kind of even itself out,â€� he said. Oh, and yes, the balloon therapy helps, too. It was developed by the Postural Restoration Institute more than a decade ago. Day’s trainer Kevin Duffy introduced his client to it. After his round Friday, Day explained how it works. “If I stood with my shirt off, my rib cage always faces right,â€� he said. “So I’m trying — through balloons, blowing into them; I could do it without it – and I’m trying to hold a certain position and get my rib cage back into position. “But through blowing up a balloon, it actually pressurizes everything for you because if you don’t hold that breath and exhale out, it honestly feels like you’re suffocating. That’s the feeling that I’m trying to get.â€� He wants to make sure his thoracic is mobile and that he’s not turning from his lower back. “That’s really kind of why a lot of golfers have back problems because they get too tight in the thoracic and then they get tight hips and then they get their rotation through their lower back,â€� he said. So now, of course, you’re going to picture him blowing into balloons. Smile if you will. But also take another look at the second-round leaderboard. Jason Day is producing more than farm animals this week.

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Because the Ryder Cup is not an official PGA TOUR event, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf has the week off. The fantasy game will resume for next week’s Sanderson Farms Championship for which more enhancements are planned. However, before we look forward, let’s look back for a moment. RELATED: Power Rankings | PGATOUR.COM Expert Picks The 2021-22 season-opening Fortinet Championship launched the latest iteration of PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. As expected, fantasy scoring was way down as compared to the previous version, and leaderboard finish was a strong contributor to gamer performance. JJ’sFoursome led all gamers with 315 points. That includes 101 end-of-tournament bonus points for having Max Homa (50, winner), Maverick McNealy (30, 2nd), Marc Leishman (12, T4) and Hideki Matsuyama (9, T6) rostered as starters in the final round. ChicoV1 was the runner-up with 312 points (with 111 end-of-tournament bonus points). The Golf Dons took the bronze with 305 points (with 97 end-of-tournament bonus points). The data of the podium finishers of the first completed event begs the following question: What is the balance between actual scores, end-of-round bonus points and end-of-tournament bonus points for being a high performer? (Those are the categories for fantasy scoring.) If you separate binarily between end-of-tournament bonus points and all points that are not end-of-tournament bonus points, then JJ’sFoursome scored about 32 percent of its points with end-of-tournament bonus points, which, of course, are based on leaderboard finish. ChicoV1’s split was about 35.5 percent, while The Golf Dons’ cut was about 31.8 percent. So, approximately one-third of the totals for the top-three finishers weren’t determined until the conclusion of the tournament. And that’s in an event at which the 36-hole cut landed at 3-under 141 and Homa prevailed at 19-under 269. For the week, the field averaged 71.038, or 0.962 strokes under par. As compared to all courses during the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season, the Fortinet field would have slotted just inside the top half of the easier courses and in between par-70 TPC Southwind (-0.954) and par-72 Nicklaus Tournament Course (-1.051). (Silverado averaged 70.212 last year, but last week’s average was the second-lowest of the last five editions.) Because the FedExCup points structure is static, the percentage of end-of-tournament bonus points on a harder course will increase. However, aside from maybe Memorial Park that will host the Houston Open in November – the par 70 averaged 1.025 strokes over par in its debut last fall – our takeaway from Silverado should be relatively consistent until we get into the premier events in 2022, the first of which is the Farmers Insurance Open in the last week of January. One of the slicker functions of the new platform is the ease to search for any gamer. If you executed this step for me (@RobBoltonGolf), you’d have laughed at, er, found that I totaled – totaled – 81 points at Silverado, of which 11 were end-of-tournament bonus points (about 13.5 percent) representing the only two of my six who made the cut, Will Zalatoris (6, T11) and Harold Varner III (5, T16). Because it’s golf, no matter your skill level and even if you, like I, prevailed in your fantasy league in 2020-21, you’re gonna have weeks like that. Personally, because I wanted to see how the fantasy game supported or punished, I tested the possibilities of momentum of Korn Ferry Tour graduates Stephan Jaeger and Taylor Moore, both of whom missed the cut and cost me in the vicinity of 45 points overall, if I’m projecting scoring conservatively. The moral of the matter is that there are going to be gamers who connect with the likes of Homa, McNealy and Mito Pereira (who finished third for ChicoV1), but the likelihood of them doing the same at the Sanderson Farms Championship or even again in Segment 1 is low. At the same time, because you can’t score bonus points unless your charges make the cut, shelving an aggressive philosophy is advised in favor of more reliable talent. If we can agree that we’ll develop vision in this game for targeting “safe” investments with the potential for firepower, then we’re going to be OK with accepting the sudden impact of guys like McNealy, Pereira and others who might feel, at least right now, like they overperformed. That approach should then yield nice surprises for ourselves. As you continue to familiarize yourself with the interface, new experiences will be added next week. Beginning with the Sanderson Farms Championship, you will be able to review the entire roster of any other gamer, including the bench. You’ll also be able to use the tool to compare rosters. Both of these functions have been planned since the decision was made to introduce a new format, but they weren’t guaranteed to be available for the season opener. So it goes in the world of the PGA TOUR that took only one week off. Also, live just today is the addition of “PGA TOUR Experts” to the top of the public leagues. Until it was added to this grouping, it appeared only as the featured league. You’ll note that “pga experts” also is a public league and with more members (as of Tuesday), but that’s not the same league in which those of us featured in Expert Picks are members. For the record, the only league of which I’m a member is PGA TOUR Experts. This is as good a time as any to inform or remind you that the PGA and the PGA TOUR have been separate entities since 1968. For example, the PGA of America – not the PGA TOUR – is conducting this week’s Ryder Cup. So, every time you see “PGA” attached to something, if it doesn’t have “TOUR” immediately following, it’s not a directly affiliated matter to the PGA TOUR. That goes for everything from sanctioned competitions to Twitter handles of full-time staffers to the PGA TOUR Experts league at PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Incidentally, you can jump in and out of public leagues without forfeiting points scored. You can do the same in a private league where a password is required. For private leagues using a customized schedule, the interface is sophisticated enough to retrieve points scored only in the selected events. The last enhancement to share, for now, is one that you won’t experience in real time until last next week. PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf will be uploading the field of commitments for the Shriners Children’s Open when it’s determined on Friday, Oct. 1. So, if you’ve selected a golfer for a future tournament and he doesn’t commit, you’ll receive an automatic alert when the field is uploaded, assuming you’ve selected notifications in your Account Settings. This occurred on Mondays or Tuesdays with the last version of the game, so this experience is improved because it’s faster and timely. POWER RANKINGS RECAP – FORTINET CHAMPIONSHIP Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Jon Rahm MC 2 Kevin Na MC 3 Will Zalatoris T11 4 Webb Simpson T30 5 Harold Varner III T16 6 Stephan Jaeger MC 7 Maverick McNealy 2nd 8 Taylor Moore MC 9 Mito Pereira 3rd 10 Sebastián Muñoz MC 11 Greyson Sigg T30 12 Cameron Tringale T22 13 Hideki Matsuyama T6 14 Brian Stuard MC 15 Aaron Rai MC Wild Card Cameron Champ MC SLEEPERS RECAP – FORTINET CHAMPIONSHIP Golfer Result Kiradech Aphibarnrat MC David Hearn MC Ben Kohles MC Cameron Percy T64 Chad Ramey MC BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE PGA TOUR September 21 … none September 22 … none September 23 … none September 24 … none September 25 … Adam Long (34) September 26 … Freddie Jacobson (47) September 27 … none Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ years of age or older to wager. CO, IA, IN,MI, NJ, NV,PA, TN, VA or WV only. Excludes Michigan Disassociated Persons. Please Gamble Responsibly. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700 (CO, NV, VA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI), 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, PA & WV), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), Call or Text the Tennessee REDLINE: 800-889-9789 (TN), or call 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN).

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Here is the full rundown of tee times for the final round of the 2020 Masters.

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