Jason Day

Early life

Day was born in Beaudesert, Queensland. His father, Alvin, was Australian, and his mother, Dening, was born in the Philippines and moved to Australia in the early 1980s. He has two siblings, Yanna and Kim. His father took him to Beaudesert Golf Club and enrolled him as a junior member just past his sixth birthday. He was allowed to play six holes a day as a junior. At the age of eight his family moved to Rockhampton, and during this period he began to win events in the surrounding districts. Alvin Day died of stomach cancer when Jason was 12.

Day's mother sent him to Kooralbyn International School, which had a golf course attached. Later he went to Hills International College, where they have a golf academy, at the behest of his coach, Col Swatton, who had moved there when Kooralbyn school closed down. Day borrowed a book about Tiger Woods from his roommate, and it inspired him to improve his golf by practicing in the early morning, at lunch-time and in the evening. He used the book's reports of Woods' scores as his benchmark for improvement and as a reachable standard. His first big win was at the age of 13 in a 2000 Australian Masters junior event on the Gold Coast, where he won with scores of 87, 78, 76 and 76.

Amateur career

As an amateur, Day was twice awarded the Australian Junior Order of Merit. He finished seventh and was the leading amateur at the Queensland Open. Day won the Australian Boys' Amateur in 2004. His amateur success extended to the United States, where he won the Boys 15–17 division at the 2004 Callaway World Junior Championship and was runner-up in the 2005 Porter Cup. He was a member of the Golf Australia National Squad.

2006–10: Early career

Day turned professional in July 2006 after winning the Green Jacket at the NEC Master of the Amateurs, signing with TaylorMade and Adidas and immediately began playing PGA Tour events, principally through sponsors' exemptions. He made the cut in five of his first six PGA Tour events as a pro with a best finish of eleventh at the Reno-Tahoe Open and with official winnings of over $160,000. He entered PGA Tour qualifying, or Q-School. Placed in the second of three rounds, he tied for first in his section of the second round, advancing to the Q-School finals. However, in the six-round finals he played poorly, shooting fifteen shots higher than the score needed to qualify. Accordingly, he failed to earn his 2007 PGA Tour card but earned conditional status on the Nationwide Tour for 2007.

Day won his first Nationwide Tour event in July 2007 at the Legend Financial Group Classic, becoming the youngest man to win on any of the PGA Tour's three tours. The win jumped him to eighth on the Nationwide Tour's money list. He ended up finishing 5th on the money list to earn his PGA Tour card for 2008. He had a mediocre season, but had conditional status for 2009. A second-place finish at the Puerto Rico Open helped Day retain his card for 2010, and he finished 69th in the money list.

In May 2010, he became the youngest Australian to win a PGA Tour event, winning the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Day gained entry into his first ever major championship at the 2010 Open Championship after Greg Norman withdrew. Day went on to make the cut and finish in a tie for 60th place. In August 2010, Day made his first appearance at the PGA Championship, where a 66 on Saturday helped him to finish seven-under-par for the tournament and earn his first top-10 in a major. This run of form continued during the FedEx Cup playoff season, where Day enjoyed top-five finishes at the first two playoff events to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship. He would go on to finish T17 at East Lake Golf Club and ended the 2010 season ranked 21st on the PGA Tour money list.

2011–14: Contending in majors

At the 2011 Masters Tournament, Day birdied the last two holes, but came up two strokes short of eventual winner Charl Schwartzel. Day tied for second with Adam Scott and at −12 set the Masters record for the lowest score by a first-time participant. This was his best performance in a major championship, and throughout the final round Day was tied for the lead on a number of occasions before eventually finishing in a tie for second after Schwartzel made four consecutive birdies to win the tournament.

In June 2011, Day participated at Congressional for the 2011 U.S. Open, his maiden appearance in a U.S. Open. Following his successful run at the Masters, Day achieved consecutive second-place finishes in the majors, this time finishing alone in second, some eight strokes behind runaway leader Rory McIlroy. He shot the equal lowest round of the week on Saturday, a 65, to jump up the leaderboard into a tie for third after round three. On Sunday, although he did not challenge for the lead, he was the best of the rest of the field as the Open was dominated by wire-to-wire winner McIlroy.

As a result of his major performances, Day moved into the Official World Golf Ranking top-10 for the first time in his career at ninth. Despite not winning a tournament during 2011, Day ended the season ranked 9th on the PGA Tour money list. He contended in a major once again at the 2013 Masters Tournament when he shot rounds of 70 and 68 to take a one-shot lead over Fred Couples going to the weekend. In the third round, Day was tied for the lead through 16 holes but bogeyed the last two holes to shoot a 73 and finish two shots behind Brandt Snedeker and Ángel Cabrera. During the final round, Day got off to a quick start by going birdie-eagle to take a one-shot lead. Day would later go on to birdie 13, 14, and 15 to take a one-shot lead with three holes to play. However, he bogeyed 16 and 17 and just missed a birdie putt at 18 that would have tied the lead. He shot a 70 and finished two shots back in third place behind Adam Scott, and Cabrera.

Day finished as a runner-up for the third time in a major championship at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club. He finished in a tie for second alongside Phil Mickelson, two strokes behind Justin Rose. Day tied the lead with a birdie at the 10th, but bogeys at 11, 14, and 18 would prevent him from winning his first major championship. It was the second time in his career Day had finished as a runner-up at the U.S. Open, and Day is also the only player in 2013 to hold a lead on the back nine Sunday at both majors. He tied for the lowest cumulative score in all four majors in 2013, with fellow Australian Adam Scott at +2.

In February 2014, Day won his first World Golf Championship event, the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, after a final in which Victor Dubuisson won the last two holes to tie, then twice scrambled halves after missing greens at the extra holes before Day finally secured victory. The win lifted Day to fourth in the world rankings.

2015: Major champion and World #1

In February 2015, Day won his third PGA Tour event and his seventh title as a pro, winning the Farmers Insurance Open with a score of 279 (−9) after prevailing in a four-way playoff over Harris English, J. B. Holmes and Scott Stallings. He won at the second hole with a par while Holmes made bogey, after English and Stallings were eliminated at the first hole. The victory lifted Day back to fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking.

During the second round of the 2015 U.S. Open, Day collapsed on his 18th hole, the 9th hole on the course, having started the day on the 10th. He was very slow to get back up and was shaking and wobbly. It was later revealed that this was due to vertigo, a diagnosis Day had received from his doctor a month prior. However, the very next day, when he wasn't even sure if he would play, Day ended the third round tied for the lead. He finished the tournament tied for 9th. At the 2015 Open Championship at St Andrews, Day entered the final round as one of the 54-hole co-leaders and shot a bogey-free 70 to finish at 14-under-par and one stroke outside of the 3-way playoff. He had a putt for birdie on the 72nd hole to join the playoff but left it inches short. Day's tie for fourth, however, was his best finish at the Open Championship and was the sixth time he had finished in the top 5 of a major without winning one.

The following week at the RBC Canadian Open in Oakville, Canada, Day outlasted Bubba Watson and hometown favorite David Hearn to win the tournament, his second tour victory of the season and fourth overall. He made birdies on the last three holes in the final round to take a one-stroke victory. The 2015 PGA Championship was the final major championship of the 2015 season, hosted at the historic Whistling Straits. Jason Day produced an exceptional performance shooting rounds of 68, 67, 66 and 67 to best his nearest competitor, Jordan Spieth, by three strokes. Also preventing him from winning a third major championship that season, although Spieth did dethrone Rory McIlroy to become the No. 1 ranked PGA player. Jason Day also set a new record that week becoming the first player in history to finish at 20-under-par in a major.

Day's hot streak continued with wins in The Barclays and the BMW Championship, two of the first three events in the FedEx Cup playoffs. As a result of the BMW Championship win, on 20 September 2015, Day gained the world number 1 ranking for the first time. Day entered the Tour Championship as the FedEx Cup leader, but he finished tied for tenth. Jordan Spieth would win the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup as well as retaking the number one world ranking.

2016

After a missed cut in the defence of his Farmers Insurance Open title, Day claimed his first win of the year and eighth overall on the PGA Tour at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he beat Kevin Chappell by one shot. Day's victory was wire-to-wire having shot all four rounds under par (66-65-70-70) to finish with a −17 total. He birdied the 17th hole during the final round and had to get up and down from the bunker on the 72nd hole to hold on for the win. Day rose one place in the world rankings to number two, overtaking Rory McIlroy.

Just a week later, Day was in the winner's circle again at the WGC-Dell Match Play. He overtook Jordan Spieth to reach world No. 1 with his progression through to the semi-finals before beating Louis Oosthuizen 5 & 4 in the final in Austin, Texas for his ninth PGA Tour win.

He followed these victories up with a 4-stroke, wire-to-wire win at the 2016 Players Championship for his 10th career PGA Tour victory. Afterwards, he was hailed by world No.2 and nearest rival Jordan Spieth, while Adam Scott called his run of form 'Tiger-esque'.

In late June, Day announced that he would not be playing in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, citing concerns over the Zika virus.

As of July 2016, Day has earned over $33 million in prize money on the PGA Tour.

2017

On 1 January 2017, Nike announced that Day was joining Nike Golf ahead of the SBS Tournament of Champions at Kapalua the following week. It was announced that he will wear Nike clothes, shoes and gloves, following the brand's decision to stop making clubs and balls. Nike Golf unveiled a commercial to announce the multi-year sponsorship deal worth a reported $10m a year. Day was known to have the RBC logo on the collar of his shirts, but because Nike does not allow other sponsorships to be seen on their apparell, his sponsorship contract with RBC was not renewed. He continues to wear the Lexus logo on the left sleeve of his shirts, as he previously did before using Nike apparell.

Personal life

Day married Ellie Harvey (of Lucas, Ohio), in 2009. The couple live in Westerville, Ohio. The couple have one son, Dash, born in 2012, and a daughter, Lucy, born on 11 November 2015. On 17 December 2015, while watching a Cleveland Cavaliers game against Oklahoma City Thunder at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ellie sustained injuries after Cavaliers player LeBron James collided with her while attempting to retrieve a loose ball. She exited the arena in a stretcher with her head immobilized and was admitted to a nearby hospital.

He had previously lived in Orlando, Florida, and Fort Worth, Texas.

In November 2013, eight of Day's relatives in the Philippines, including his grandmother, died during Typhoon Haiyan.

Recognition

Amateur wins

this list may be incomplete

PGA Tour wins (10)

PGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

Other wins (4)

Results timeline

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" = tied
DNP = Did not play
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

Results timeline

Results not in chronological order prior to 2015.

PGA Tour career summary

* As of 2016 season

Team appearances

Professional

Equipment

Equipment is accurate as of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (11 February 2016)