Jason Day goes backwards with stunning 79 at Harbour Town

Golf is hard, and Jason Day is the latest top player to prove that even the world No. 1 is not immune from a rough afternoon inside the ropes.

In the final pairing on Saturday at the RBC Heritage, Day moved way back in difficult scoring conditions – the toughest, by average, of the week – after shooting an 8-over 79 that is his career-worst PGA Tour round.

Day, the top-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking, had the proper perspective.

“It happens,” he said.

It does, and not just to him. When Jordan Spieth was still No. 1 in the ranking, he opened with a stunning 79 at the Northern Trust Open. While it wasn’t the score he wanted to shoot, it clearly wasn’t an indication of some kind of erosion of his talent. After all, barring two bad swings on Sunday at the Masters, Spieth would have won a second consecutive green jacket without his best stuff all week.

Day seemed to take a bad break on the third hole at Harbour Town Golf Links as a sign that Saturday wasn’t his.

“I knew something was up when my ball on the third hole hit a tree and bounced 80 yards right into the hazard,” Day said. “And then from there just got a couple of bad breaks. And then kind of the head wasn’t quite there after that. And it’s really tough to fight that.”

On a golf course where placement is everything, Day continued to find himself in bad spots where getting up-and-down for pars turned out to be very difficult.

The bad news is that Day now finds himself at 2-over 215 and nine shots back of 54-hole leader Luke Donald.

The good news is twofold, believe it or not: He has plenty of room to improve on Saturday and the Harbour Town winner has been four or more shots back of the Saturday night lead in four of the last five years.

“Just got to come out and try to shoot low, something low, at least,” Day said, “and give myself opportunities.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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