The Australian executed his gameplan to perfection, well almost, on Friday at the Nicklaus Tournament Course by shooting a six-under-par 66 to jump to 14 under for the tournament.
As predicted the day before, his six-under target for the round kept him right in contention and is just two behind leaders Charley Hoffman and Rico Hoey - both of whom fired brilliant 63s on the same NT course.
Day had seven birdies with just one blemish on his card - surprisingly on the par-five seventh - when he mishit a six-iron after a great drive that rolled into a sand-filled divot.
"It's very difficult to hit a high flop shot out of a sand-filled divot that's got soft grass underneath," said Day. "I did my best, nearly made a good par in the end, but overall very solid from tee to green.
"Putting feels good, so really kind of getting those last two rounds out of the way is nice, and then getting into the tough test starting tomorrow."
The examination Day is talking about will come on the trickier Stadium Course, one of three layouts being used in the tournament.
He played a practice round there earlier in the week and plans to show the course plenty of respect.
"They're saying that it's playing around even par. That's definitely a big change compared to the last two days. So the game plan's probably going to have to change a little bit, going to have to play a little bit more conservative to some of the pin locations.
"Hopefully bomb in maybe two or three of those long putts that you kind of usually get when you're playing pretty well."
The golfing Gods smiled on the former world No.1 in his opening round when he chipped in three times on his way to 64 on the La Quinta course on Thursday.
But he believes that is no real co-incidence given the hard yards he's put in, and is confident heading into the weekend.
"I worked really hard on the short game and it paid off obviously in the first round. Nearly chipped in again, well, out of a bunker, lipped out today.
"I know that the short game stuff is working ... the next two days are going to be tough. Obviously it feels like, yeah, we're going to go into a total different golf course tomorrow, which you got to mentally prepare yourself for that."
Fellow Australian Cam Davis followed his 69 on the Stadium Course  with a five-under 67 at La Quinta Country Club.
Davis, who had seven birdies and two bogeys, jumped 25 spots to tied 40th, eight behind PGA Tour veteran Hoffman and Filipino Hoey at 16-under.
Justin Lower (66, Nicklaus) and Mark Hubbard (64, Pete Dye Stadium Course) are one behind.
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