Jason Day sets his soul free with PGA Championship victory

Jason Day set his soul free with victory at the PGA Championship

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Jason Day set his soul free with victory at the PGA Championship

Column by Anand Datla

Jason Day burst into tears on Sunday, soon after he hit his third shot on the 18th hole. The ball lay there, a silent witness to her master’s release, waiting patiently to be tapped into the pin that was set far left on the expansive final green at the 97th PGA Championship. He still needed to tap in for victory, but the burden of defeat had been lifted off his shoulders, liberating an imprisoned soul into the warm evening air that filled Whistling Straits.

It was the moment Day recognized himself as a major champion and years of laboured agony started to precipitate into tears of relief. Just a few moments later, Day stepped up to the pin, tapped the ball into the spherical arms of glory before opening the floodgates to his soul.

The intensity of the final few moments at the 97th PGA Championship made for remarkable drama. Day’s emotions swept over the venue like a humane tsunami that made up for the lack of suspense. On a spectacular Sunday, Day marched to victory with relentless determination.

Starting with a two shot cushion, Day exorcised the ghosts of the past with a brave performance that saw him drive with purpose and precision. He needed that and a steady short game to hold off a persistent Jordan Spieth over an enervating final stretch at the last major of the season.

Matching the two time major champion shot for shot, Jason played brilliantly all day to score an emphatic three shot victory that meant the world to him. The result vindicated his self-belief and made up for years of agony, that started with the Masters in 2011.

The spilt opportunity at Augusta, with an arm already in the Green Jacket, before he dissolved into despair at the 16th hole kept dancing in his mind long after he walked out the iconic club gates. The pain was accentuated for effect with several other missed opportunities – most notably at the US Open later the same year and in 2013 as well as his failure to hold on to the 54 hole lead at both the US Open and Open Championship this year.

But those are just the visible tempests in the life of this young golfer. The death of his father, who introduced him to golf, was a painful scar inflicted during his formative years. Alvin Day died from stomach cancer when Day was just 12.

With Day already showing immense potential, Col Swatton started to groom the boy at the Kooralbyn International School, about 30 minutes from the Day home. But the school closed later and Swatton had to convince his mother to let the boy go pursue golf at the Hills International College in a residential academy.

The two men have stuck together since, Swatton even introducing Day to his future wife Ellie Harvey, when she was a waitress at a pub in Twinsburg, Ohio. It hasn’t been an easy journey for Day, who has had to work hard to make the most of his gifts.

The rock like presence of Ellie and Col have helped make the journey meaningful for the down to earth golfer. Even though persistent defeats, from positions of comfort, started to stain his heart and strain his mind, their presence offered him much needed solidity and motivation to keep working at it.

The specter of doubt was hanging over him like a dense thick cloud that started to threaten his dreams and aspirations. Day aspires to be the best golfer in the world and that can only be accomplished by winning the major tournaments.

His failure to win them after leading nearly through to the end, was gnawing at his heart and the journey this year at the majors made matters worse. Victory at the PGA Championship is a stitch in time that promises to heal his wounds, alleviate the pain and set him free.

I asked him if victory does set his spirit free to play with freedom. “We’ll see in about two weeks. I think that right now it’s just really tough to kind of soak all of this in. I’m hoping it really does. I’m hoping that it kind of propels me to do what Jordan has done,” said Day.

“But right now I know exactly what I have done to get myself in a position where I’m holding the trophy right now. So as long as I keep working on those things and get the process right, I know that there’s going to be plenty of these to hold as long as I really am feeling motivated and I want it more than anyone else.”

Day will turn 28 in November, by which time he would have long finished absorbing and celebrating his ground breaking victory. The world of golf will hope to see Day use this gust of energy to fly far on the wings of this new found freedom.

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