Day is current ace of clubs
He regained passion for golf at Augusta
Augusta, Ga. — Five years ago this week, on the eve of his first appearance in the Masters Tournament, Jason Day sat in his RV across the street from the Augusta National Golf Club and contemplated quitting golf.
He was coming off a missed cut in Houston and middling performances in the weeks before that. He was struggling with his game and frustrated at not living up to his enormous potential. Golf had been so much fun when he was “playing for pride and toasters” as an amateur in his native Australia. Now, it was drudgery.
“Once you turn professional, everything is based on results,” Day said Tuesday. “You get nitpicked by the media. Stats are always up saying he doesn’t drive it straight enough or hit enough greens or whatever it is.
“As time goes on, you
Day start stressing about (money) . . . and then you start losing a little bit of confidence. Then you start getting frustrated out there and then you don’t practice because you’re frustrated with how you’re playing and it’s a downward spiral from there.”
Day was 23 years old and he was ready to walk away. That day, across the street from Augusta National’s pearly gates, he huddled with his wife, Ellie, his agent, Bud Martin, and his sports psychologist and poured out his guts.
“I’m like, I just do not like the game right now,” Day recounted. “I’m just having a very, very hard time picking up the golf club to even just enjoy myself out there. We came to the conclusion of saying this might be my last Masters ever playing, so I might as well enjoy it.”
Who knows what would have happened if Day hadn’t caught lightning in a bottle that week? He fired a second-round 64 and went on to tie for second place, two shots behind champion Charl Schwartzel.
“And then,” Day said with a grin, “I loved the game again.”
The 28-year-old Aussie is smiling a lot these days. He’s ranked No. 1 in the world and goes into the Masters coming off back-to-back victories in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Dell Match Play.
In August, he won his first major, the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, with a record 20-under-par total. Day is one of the biggest hitters on the PGA Tour but also has great touch around the greens and is a superb putter. Three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo likened him to a “modern-day Ben Hogan.”
Day has won eight tournaments since the start of the 2014 season, despite a bulging disc in his back — which flared up during the Dell Match Play — a nagging thumb injury and bouts with vertigo.
“Right now I’m not even thinking about it because I don’t have any problems at all,” he said. “My back is fine and my health is fine and everything’s great.”
He’s come a long way since those dark days when “you’re thinking about getting rid of caddies and coaches and agents and sometimes wives.” When laughter filled the interview room, Day quickly added, “That wasn’t me, trust me.”
“It was a tough time,” he said, “but I’m glad I got through it and sitting here today No. 1 in the world.”
Day supplanted Jordan Spieth at the top when he reached the semifinals of the Match Play and went on to win, beating Louis Oosthuizen, 5 and 4, in the final. Day also reached No. 1 in the world shortly after winning the PGA, before Spieth reclaimed the top spot.
The challenge will be staying there.
Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler are uber-talented twentysomethings and Adam Scott, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose and others are keeping the heat turned up week after week.
Day wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I want the best playing against the best and fighting it out,” he said. “If I end up not wearing the green jacket at the end of Sunday but I have a fantastic, competitive match against the best players in the world, that’s what I’m there for. I enjoy and thrive on that competitiveness.
“I would enjoy a SpiethMcIlroy-Fowler-Scott-Watson-( Mickelson Sunday. That would be a lot of fun.”