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| Jason Day (Allison) |
INSTEAD OF WITHDRAWING FROM THE ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf, Jason Day decided to play for his country and with his mate, Adam Scott. Eight members of Day’s family, including his grandmother, perished in Typhoon Haiyan the week before. Not playing would have made perfect sense. Golf and just about everything else probably seemed trivial by comparison.
But Day turned up and teamed up with Scott at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. And he played inspired golf.
Day won the individual title by two strokes over Thomas Bjorn. It was Day’s first professional victory in his homeland. Plus he was the first Aussie since Brett Ogle in 1992 to be the leading individual in the event.
There’s more. Day and Scott also brought home the team title for Australia, amassing a 10-stroke winning margin over the runner-up American pair of Matt Kuchar and Kevin Streelman.
“I found out last week that we lost some family members over in the Philippines,” Day said, “and to have my mum here over the weekend, even to have my sisters and my nephew, to be here to be as a family knowing that I can hold them is very special to me.
“It would have been the easiest thing for me to just go ahead and pull out of the tournament with what has been going on over the last week. But I really wanted to come down here and play with Adam and really try and win the World Cup.”
It was the first win since 2010 for a player who has contended often at the majors but come up short. Day’s last victory was at the Byron Nelson Championship.