NORTON, Mass. -- When things are going your way on the golf course, you get all the breaks. Or at least it seems that way.
For Jason Day, after shooting a second consecutive 3-under-par 68 on Saturday at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the Aussie conceded it's not easy to handle the ups and downs of tournament golf.
"It's just something you've got to keep trying to [push] forward," said Day, who admitted he didn't have his best stuff in Round 2 at TPC Boston and sits tied for 10th, 6 shots behind leader Charley Hoffman.
"...There's some good breaks out there for me and some bad breaks. But once again, I just need to drive the ball a lot straighter. If I drive the ball straighter then I can get a shorter club in my hand and get some spin and be able to attack some of these pin locations."
Any golfer knows fortuitous bounces come in all shapes and sizes.
On the second hole, Day's tee ball clipped an overhanging tree enough a branch dropped to the ground from about 100 feet up. One foot in any direction, and the par he made there could have easily been a double-bogey or worse.
Then sometimes, you make your own breaks.
As Day prepared to hit on the sixth hole, several carts scurried about behind the tee box to tend to what ended up being a fan in medical distress. Day's mesmerizing pre-shot routine has been on TV screens all summer and appeared to keep him from losing his focus. Then he busted his tee ball 346 yards down the middle of the fairway.
The end result? The second of four birdies Saturday.
So what's going through his mind when he has that steely glare staring down at the hole in front of him?
"Sometimes it's just get on the fairway," said Day, who has played his past 22 rounds at even par or better on the PGA Tour. "Sometimes it's get on the green. But most of the time when I get away from what I should be doing, I hold myself back. It's what you try to feel. When I do that, I go straight in.
"When I'm really hitting at it, ripping at it, I feel like I can release the ball better and just go straight."
The difference between a good bounce and a bad bounce? It can be infinitesimally small.
Just ask Jordan Spieth, who played the first two rounds with Day but didn't make a single birdie until the 18th hole Saturday.
"I caught a lot of bad breaks," Spieth said after missing his second consecutive cut to start the 2015 FedEx Cup playoffs. "I hit a lot of good shots that hit the numbers we wanted to, and they either bounded over the green or they just ended up in tough spots."
When Day's lone bogey of the round came after a 3-putt on the par-3 third hole, he muscled up to the driveable par-4 fourth and proceeded to put his tee shot just right of the green. Day's 30-yard chip came so close to being an eagle, he tapped in for birdie with his wedge.
Even most of the breaks that didn't go Day's way still resulted in par. On the fifth hole, with his left foot well above his right in the fairway, Day flushed his approach shot. The applause from the green brought a smile to Day's face, but his ball spun back down the slope, leaving him with a 32-foot putt for birdie. Two strokes later, he had another par.
Midway through the round, Day's drive on the par-4 14th hole went well right into the woods. He punched out into a greenside bunker and needed to make a 10-footer to save par. Like so many other times Saturday, he came through with the key save that could have derailed his round.
That's not to say Day got every break. He did lip out several birdie putts, including what looked like a sure-fire 3 on the par-4 ninth. And the second putt on his 3-putt bogey at No. 3 burned the lip of the cup but stayed out.
Coming into the week, all the talk was about Rory McIlroy, Spieth and Day battling for No. 1 in the world rankings. Only Day looked the part through 36 holes. He could take over the top spot with a victory this week as long as McIlroy doesn't finish solo-second. The other requirement for Spieth's finish became a moot point since he missed the cut.
With only nine golfers between himself and Hoffman, Day might not be the overwhelming favorite to win his fourth tournament in his past five starts. But if he keeps getting those member bounces, and can tighten up his driving a bit, don't be surprised if he at least has a shot at world No. 1 come late Monday afternoon.