World number one Jason Day heads into this week’s PGA Tour RBC Heritage at Hilton Head, South Carolina, hoping to put even more distance between himself and second-ranked Jordan Spieth.
The 28-year-old Australian shot back into the top spot after consecutive victories last month at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the World Golf Championships Match Play.
He followed that up by finishing tied for 10th at the Masters on Sunday.
Spieth, meanwhile, is taking this week off after a back nine meltdown at the Masters which saw him go from a five-shot lead to finishing in a tie for second.
“Just thinking about it, I’m just trying to work and trying to get better each and every week,” said Day.
“I know that winning takes care of everything else. The biggest thing for me is just trying to extend that gap between one and two, and if I can do that I’ll stay ahead of the game.
“But if you want to become a dominant player you have to be consistent, but you also have to consistently win.
“And showing that over the half of last year and early on this year, as well, but I want to make sure that I keep that level of play up.”
Day didn’t do as well as he had hoped at The Masters, but he emerged from the first major of the year feeling there were no real problems with his game.
“If you’re out of position at Augusta National, it’s very difficult to get any sort of momentum,” he said. “I just really couldn’t get anything going on the last day.
“And the changes in the leaderboard through the round, with what Jordan did on 12, it was a little frustrating, but for the most part it wasn’t all disappointment.
“I actually played pretty decent. I’m happy with how the week went.”
Day will tee it up on Thursday at Harbour Town Golf Links in a group with Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas.  This is the first time Day will play the Heritage as the top dog. The last time he participated he was 26, had just one win on the Tour and was ranked 26th in the world.
“It’s a bit of a long week but I’m trying to win the tournament, and that’s what I’m focusing on right now,” said Day, who arrived on Monday.
*Australian Minjee Lee and Thai Moriya Jutanugarn took advantage of their morning tee times to share the first-round lead on four-under-par 68 at the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii on Wednesday.
Lee, 19, a former world number one-ranked amateur who won in her rookie LPGA season in 2015, mixed six birdies with two bogeys on the Ko Olina course in Kapolei on the island of Oahu.
Jutanugarn, the 2013 LPGA Rookie of the Year, managed seven birdies, along with a bogey and a double bogey, as the pair coped with challenging morning winds that became even stronger during the afternoon.
Michelle Wie had a morning she would rather forget in her hometown event, struggling to an 80.
“I hit a lot of good shots. Just got a little bit unlucky, a couple of unlucky bounces,” the 2014 champion told reporters. “Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.”
Wie, the 2014 US Women’s Open champion, is coming off an injury-plagued season that left her languishing 49th on the money list.