Preparing for his first title defence of a PGA tournament in five years, Australian Jason Day said that he hadn’t been “pleased” with his game of late, and said his iron play was “letting me down”.

Day made the comments on Wednesday at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, ahead of this week’s Byron Nelson tournament.

Day ended a five-year winless drought last year at this tournament, a “little too long if you ask me,” and is now a defending champion.

While he spoke of how “mentally tough” he can be in general, right now it’s his irons giving him issues.

He has finished 30th or worse three times in his last five tournaments, with a missed cut mixed twice.

“In regards to my play, I hadn’t been that happy with it or that pleased with it,” he said.

“My short game has been great. Putting has been great. Off the tee has been great. The iron play has been kind of letting me down,

“So just working on a few things with (coach) Chris [Como] to try and like alleviate some of the stress and pressure that the iron play is putting on the rest of my game.

“I feel like I’ve kind of turned a corner now, which has been great.”

Day said he didn’t celebrate his win last year, the 13th of his career.

The Australian also said he was wanting to play golf for the right reasons, something that was not happening a few years ago.

“Right before last year when I was playing some nice golf I was kind of playing golf for the wrong reasons I thought,” Day said.

“You know, like I feel like looking kind of in the future and understanding that golf is like more of a marathon and it’s a long career if you want it to be; kind of playing from more of a position of like love and passion of the game is I think far healthier to play from than having a chip on your shoulder.”

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Reuters/ABC

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