Family comes before golf for Day

Bob Weeks

TSN Senior Reporter

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There are times when golf doesn’t really matter. For Jason Day, this is one of those times.

After six holes of his opening match in the World Golf Championship event in Austin, Texas, Day walked off the course. At first, many thought the defending champion’s back issues had recurred.

Instead, he walked into the press room and, through tears, told reporters that his mother, Dening, was battling cancer and would undergo surgery this week.

It was his mother’s wish that he keep playing, that he continue to ply his trade. But in the end, Day’s love and concern for his mother was too much.

“She's going in for surgery this Friday and it's really hard to even comprehend being on the golf course right now because of what she's gone through,” he stated. “It's been very, very emotional, as you can tell. I've already gone through it once with my dad. And I know how it feels. And it's hard enough to see another one go through it, as well.

Dening was the rock who guided her son to his future path. Day grew up in less-than-ideal conditions and without much wealth. He lost his father, an abusive alcoholic, to stomach cancer when he was 12. As a wayward teen, he began drinking, missing school and getting into fights. His life could have easily taken a different path. Sensing the potential trouble for her son, it was Day’s mother who rescued him, somehow putting together some money from their meagre savings to send him to boarding school. The two have been as close as any mother and son living a continent away can be.

Dening Day was given just 12 months to live after a diagnosis in Australia. However Jason refused to accept that and flew her to the United States, where test have shown a three-to-four-centimetre long mass on her lung. The latest prognosis is more positive, but there is still a long way to go, Day said.

“So I just need some time away with her to make sure that everything goes well,” he stated, “because this has been very, very tough for me. So I'm going to do my best and try and be there the best I can for her because she is the reason that I'm playing golf today. And family is first and it's just -- it's just a hard time.”

No one would expect anything different from Jason Day, in the way he handled himself or in the decision he made. He is simply made of the right stuff, a stand-up guy with a big heart who has his priorities right.

It’s easy to see how important family is to him by looking at his ever-present wife Ellie, who he clearly adores. His son, Dash, has become a mainstay of his father’s victory celebrations, running on to the green and hugging his dad. A daughter Lucy joined the family in late 2015.