Jason Day: I want to feel uncomfortable to get back to World No.1

Jason Day sees one way back to the top spot and that is to feel uncomfortable.

Day, 30, lost his world number one ranking in February 2017 and despite winning his first PGA Tour event in 20 months at the Farmers Insurance Open at the end of January, the Australian has dropped as low in the rankings to 14th.

Following a 2-under 69 on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Championship to sit four strokes off the pace, Day - who has been through a series of injuries and seen his mother go through cancer treatment - offered a frank assessment of where his head has been these last two years.

“I wouldn’t say I took things for granted. I just was like, I just kind of had enough,” said Day.

“Sometimes it’s okay to do that, but you can’t let it happen all the time. You can’t get in there and just kind of, you know, give it only 50%.

“So this year my goal was to try to get back to No.1. I know it’s going to be tough, but I’ve got to work hard.”

To overtake the likes of Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm in the pecking order, Day will need to rattle off the kind of run that got him to the top in the first place. When he won eight times in a span of 15 months, Day's run included a major, a WGC, two playoff events, and The Players.

“I think obviously you’ve got to win. You’ve got to win a lot of tournaments every year, but you have to win big ones,” he said.

And apparently you’ve got to be uncomfortable – at least with your game.

“Every year it’s easy to kind of cruise because, like, we earn a lot of money, and it’s a double-edged sword there because you can – it can actually motivate you or not motivate you in a way where you’re just kind of pretty comfortable,” he explained.

“When you’re uncomfortable and you’re kind of practicing and working, usually that means you’re heading in the right direction because you’re out of your comfort zone. … I always say I’m happy being uncomfortable because usually you’re doing something right. The work, the desire is probably the biggest thing for me to get back to No.1.”