There are times when golf, no matter how big the stage, just doesn’t matter.
Wednesday at the WGC Match Play was one of them.
Jason Day hasn’t played very well this season and his first round match at Austin Country Club was no different.
Day has just double-bogeyed the sixth hole of his match with Pat Perez to go three down.
Suddenly the world’s No. 3 was making his way off the golf course. Many feared he had injured himself again.
That simply wasn’t the case.
Day made his way to the media center and gave everyone the shocking news.
He didn’t try to fight the tears as they rolled down his face. It was time to leave, his mother is in trouble and Day let loose:
“She’s going into surgery this Friday and it’s really hard to even comprehend being on the golf course right now because of what she’s going through. It’s been really hard to play golf lately and this year. I’m going to try and be back there with my mom for the surgery and make sure everything goes right with her. Emotionally it’s been wearing on me for a while. I know my mom said to not let it get to me but I know it has. We’re hoping for a speedy recovery for her and we can get this behind us.”
Mom’s are special, very special and Jason Day’s mom is the most special person in his life. She was the driving force behind getting him into the game of golf after his alcoholic father died of stomach cancer when Jason was just 12-years-old.
“I’m out here because of her,” Day has emphasized many times over his career.
When she was diagnosed in Australia a while back, she was given a grim prognosis of 12 months to live. Day moved her to the United States to be close to him and his family in Columbus and she’s being treated here, with the suggested surgery. There is more hope for her than she was given back in Australia.
You wonder out loud if he wasn’t the defending champion this week, would he have withdrawn before the event? Maybe that would have been the better path but give him credit for giving it a go.
It was too much on his mind and the more you think about it, the more you applaud his early exit to take care of the things that matter most.
Family matters most to Day, as it should with all of us.
But when you add it all up in the overall context of his life, the woman who did so much to get him to this place in life is now battling for her life.
Lung cancer is one of the worst forms of this dreaded disease and that’s what she’s up against.
Watching Day struggle with the announcement was a tough moment and made everything else that opening day seem so very unimportant.
Day’s face told the story of his inner struggle.
His childhood was not easy and he’s become one of the most elite players in the difficult world of golf. He enjoys the riches that accompany success in the sport but this is one of those times when none of that matters.
He will have wife Ellie to help and his children to make him smile, even in this most difficult of times.
God has smiled on Jason Day and hopefully He will smile on Dening Day.
