Life’s sometimes a sequence of unfortunate events. However, sometimes unfortunate events lead to a huge opportunity. Jason Day is the perfect living example of this.
In February 2017, Jason Day was the best player on the planet. Winning eight times including a major in a 15-month stretch. But since then Jason has had no win in three years.
At 33 years old he should be at the prime of his career. But Jason opened up about his struggles in the Bunkered Golf Podcast and said “I can’t keep playing the way I am.”.
But first, let’s start from the beginning. Born on November 12 in 1987, in Beaudesert, Queensland, to a Filipino mother, Dening, and an Australian father, Alvin.
Jason started from humbling beginnings as his family was poor. He grew up on a farm raising cattle and sheep and his family would often go down to the landfill to search for the stuff that they didn’t have around their house.
It was there that his father found an old 3-wood golf club and gave it to Jason who was only 3 years back then.
He managed to hit a tennis ball with it and his father said: “This guy’s going to be a champion one day”. Jason loved the game, but he was also forced by his father to play.
His father brought Jason every day to Beaudesert Golf Club where he played till it got dark every day after school.
His talent was noticeable but also brought out the worst in his dad. His father an alcoholic used to beat Jason whenever he played bad golf. But then tragedy struck when his dad died.
He was only 12 years old when he lost his dad and that’s when he started to get in trouble, drinking, smoking, and getting into fights.
His motivation for golf was gone and now he saw nothing but pain. This is when Dening, his mom stepped up, she did not want so to see him waste his talent.
She took the matters into her hand and borrowed money from the relatives to sent Jason to the Kooralbyn International boarding school.
She chose this school as it had a golf team. This is where his life changed for the better. From a classmate he borrowed a book about Tiger Woods, which inspired Jason and got him addicted to the process of getting better.
It was also here where he met Colin Swatton, his golf coach. Colin saw his hunger and motivation to not let his mother, sisters, and dad down.
He was hungry to take the opportunity! He worked harder than anyone else! He got up at 5 am and was always to first to arrive at the driving range and the last one leaving.
All the hard work was paying off and at age 13 he got his first real win in 2000 at the Australian Master. He then won the Australian junior order of merits and won the Australian amateurs in 2004.
Jason was now a rising star. His success was not slowing down. He won the Calloway boys junior world Championship for boys between the age of 15 to 17.
And in 2006, he won a green jacket at the NEC Masters of Amateurs which gathered a lot of attention from the other players.
Brands started to line up to sign with Jason as Adidas and Taylor-made became his sponsorships. This was a huge accomplishment for Day, but he wanted more.
He began playing for the PGA tour racking up serious money. That’s when he started to struggle. Playing with amateurs was a simple game for Jason but playing at PGA seemed a little tough for him and he lost fifteen shots compared to the winner.
He’d never had the feeling of being unsuccessful before and now he could either back off or work even harder to become the number one player.
After he failed to get the PGA Tour card, he signed Colin Swatton to become his coach. In 2007, Jason became the youngest man to win a PGA tour at the Legend Financial Group Classic.
In 2008, Jason ended up finishing fifth on the money list to earn his PGA TOUR card and finally won the PGA TOUR card by scoring a second place at the Puerto Rico Open.
Jason married Ellie Harvey in 2009 and In 2010, Day was the youngest Australian to win the PGA tour winning the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
He was on top of the world. And had a great season finishing up in the top 10 rankings. In the years that followed Jason dominated the world of golf.
And back in 2015 and 16 he won eight times including a major in a 15-month stretch. But what happened then?
Fast forward to 2021 and he fell out of the top ranking and even outside the top 60 in the World Ranking.
Jason had always struggled with back pain his whole life but he’d always had treatments or painkillers to keep him going.
But unfortunately, Jason wasn’t recovering as in his 20’s and it was impacting his game. Even so severe that in June 2021 Jason Day even withdrew from the Memorial Tournament due to his back injury.
And was not able to play the US Open. Jason said this about it: “It was killing me to watch the U.S. Open sitting at home,” But don’t write him off yet.
Jason admitted that he was battling a slump in his success over the last couple of years and is now at the crossroads of his career. What do you think, will he make a comeback?
Jason said the following about it; “I’m like to the point where I can’t keep playing golf the way that I am because it hurts my body,” he said.
“And when it hurts my body, then it hurts my mind, or the mental side of things. It’s just, it’s too much.”
He is now focussed on taking the right steps and focussing heavily on recovering from his injury. He is not rushing it as he is focussed on the long game.
Hoping if he takes the right steps he will be able to extend his golf career with 10 or even 15 years. Jason said the following about it in the Bunkered Golf Podcast:
“So right now I’m just, I’m to the point where I’m just kind of working on myself personally and then trying to, you know, gain results through just the work that I’m putting in.”
Therefore, right now his priority is to work on his body to recover and get stronger but also work on his mind.
As he said the following “Both are very much important, like both body and mind. Trying to work on myself personally, which is something that we don’t do enough of as professional athletes.
And then on top of it, trying to work on my swing to help complement the mind and body.” “So I feel like things are progressing in what they need to do, but, you know, the level — the play that I’m expecting this week, I’m here just to see how things have progressed swing-wise.
What that will, you know, produce result-wise will be interesting to see how it goes this week.” If he want to climb that mountain again and make a comeback he has to take it one step at a time.
If he rushed his recover it could be short lived. Only time will tell. Keep it up Jason! With all this success, Jason’s life is truly an inspiring story to look at.
From humble beginnings to adversity, his life’s journey is unlike anybody else. Golf gave him everything in life!What do you think, will Jason make a full recovery and make it back stronger than ever?
