Before finally getting his hands on one of golf’s most prized trophies, Day had knocked on the door and been rejected time and time again.
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Jason Day’s tears started falling even before he tapped in for par at the 72 hole to win the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits August 16. That’s a big, bold proclamation to make given the original Big 3 combined to win 34 majors and Spieth, Day, and McIlroy are sitting on 7 at the moment.
His father died of cancer when Day was 12, and if not for the sacrifices of his mother to get him to a golf academy, and the nurturing of Swatton, there’s no telling where he would be now. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see Day and Spieth battling it out for many years to come.
Woods watched him do it Sunday. Just unbelievable.
With the runner-up performance, Speith took the world golf No. 1 ranking from Irishman Rory McIlroy.
There’s a lot to talk about from the tournament, like Spieth’s ascension to the top of the world ranking, but let me save it for another day and instead focus on the unbelievable outing that the tournament was for my fellow Indian, Anirban Lahiri.
“That was probably the hardest round of golf I’ve ever had to play”, Day said. “He’s been chasing this for a long, long time and I think to have gone so close on so many occasions, nailing one was his priority and he’s done that”.
When asked about the result he said: “I had no idea about the record until after it was over and someone told me about it. So, the amount of history that’s been through our game, in our sport, to be able to hold that record now is really awesome”.
“Something happened to me at the Open Championship”, he said. “All these guys that are 30 and under and playing extremely good golf and to watch them compete at the highest level”.
“If my dad didn’t pass away, I don’t think I would have been in a good spot”, said Day”. “So, he means the world to me”.
Day goes on to say, “My mom, I mean, we were poor”.
In the US Open at Chambers Bay he suffered from benign positional vertigo but finished tied-ninth and, at the Open at St Andrews, he was, like Spieth, a shot out of a play-off in fourth. He played in the final group with Jordan Spieth and never gave a glimmer of hope to the Masters and U.S. Open champion.
Going into that year, he was asked during a conference call with Australian writers if he thought Woods was aware of him.
Not since the days of Arnold Palmer parking a trailer outside Augusta National has one of golf’s major champions spent the night of their triumph in a motorhome on the grounds of the course they had just demolished. I’m still rehabbing it whenever I get back. McIlroy is the 6-1 second-favorite at the Masters, where the 26-year-old Northern Irishman will again be seeking a win to complete the career Grand Slam of all four major titles. He shot a final round 67 to win by three shots and his 20-under score for the week is a major championship record. “I feel like it would be very exciting because we’re both very fierce competitors and we both want to win so bad”.
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Last year, only one player outside the top 125 – Sang-Moon Bae – earned enough points to move into the playoffs, jumping from No. 126 to No. 120 after his tie for 14th.
