Ten years on from his unforgettable PGA Championship victory, the chances are as soon as once more stacked in opposition to Jason Day.
This time, it’s a disc herniation in his neck.
An damage that may take anyplace from two weeks to a number of months to beat, relying on the severity, that compelled Time out of final week’s Truist Championship.
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A decade in the past, it was the lingering results of vertigo and the crushing blows of getting come so shut however fallen quick within the two previous majors of 2015.
Day’s dizzy spells on the US Open at Chambers Bay are the stuff of legend.

He concerningly collapsed on the green whereas enjoying ultimate gap of his second spherical, however he by some means completed the opening after being helped to his toes by medics.
He was handled with an IV drip when he bought off the course, and miraculously went out the following day and shot a two-under par spherical of 68 to grab a share of the lead.
The consequences of the medical episode proved an excessive amount of to beat within the ultimate spherical, nonetheless, as a 74 lowered him to a share of ninth, 5 pictures behind champion Jordan Spieth.
A month later at St Andrews, free from the bodily wobbles and stumbles, Day discovered himself in the identical place.
He was in a share of the lead on the Residence of Golf with a spherical to play, however left his bridie putt quick on the final to overlook the playoff, gained by Zach Johnson in opposition to Australia’s Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen, by a shot.
A significant monkey was attaching itself to Day’s again.
However he arrived at Whistling Straits for what was then the ultimate main of the yr, as a person on a mission.
He raced out of the blocks with rounds of 68 and 67 earlier than firing a 3rd spherical 66 to have no less than a share of the lead heading into Sunday for a 3rd straight main.
The monkey grew larger with that place as because the PGA Championship modified its format from match play to stroke play in 1958, no participant had been in no less than a share of the lead after 54 holes of three straight majors and never gained.
He didn’t play like he was burdened, nonetheless.
A five-under par ultimate spherical 67 held off Spieth, who was chasing his third main title of the yr, by three pictures and rewrote the file books.
Day completed 20-under par which was the then lowest-winning rating in main historical past, and till Xander Schauffele went one shot higher at Valhalla final yr, it was the PGA Championship file.
The Queenslander was in tears of reduction earlier than he even tapped in for par on the 18th.
It was meant to be the opening of the floodgates to extra main success, not simply his tear ducts.
Day even stated so himself.
“So long as I’m wholesome, I really feel like I’m going to be there a very long time,” Day stated of being within the hunt to win extra majors after his PGA Championship triumph.
“I nonetheless wish to accomplish that No. 1 purpose of mine, which is to be the very best participant on this planet. I’m nonetheless motivated and nonetheless very hungry for that, even after this win.”
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He rose to world No. 1 solely a month later as he gained two of the three FedEx Cup playoff occasions.
His PGA Championship victory got here in the course of a surprising streak that included eight PGA Tour wins within the house of simply 15 months.
He was hailed as “Tiger-like” by countryman Adam Scott after he gained The Gamers Championship in 2016.
However that four-shot victory at TPC Sawgrass was that final of that stretch, and he has gained 3 times on the PGA Tour since, twice in 2018 and as soon as in 2023.
Again accidents had been largely guilty for the drop off that included his world rating tumbling to one hundred and seventy fifth earlier than his breakthrough victory on the Byron Nelson two years in the past.
There was additionally private tragedy when his mom, Dening, handed away after a protracted most cancers battle in 2022.
The toll of all of it made Day really feel utterly misplaced, and after his drought breaking win he recalled actually dropping his approach driving out of the PGA West Stadium Course on the PGA Tour’s The American Specific earlier that season.
“I simply sat on the aspect of the street trying on the mountains for, like, half-hour. As a result of it felt like it doesn’t matter what I did, I used to be simply turning the improper approach each single time,” Day stated.
“I used to be combating my physique. Struggling mentally. Battling my mum passing. Battling a number of issues.”
Day additionally admitted that in his struggles, he was “very near calling it quits”.
“I by no means informed my spouse that, however I used to be okay with it simply because it was a really demanding a part of my life,” he stated.
However his burning want to win golf tournaments is effectively and actually again.
Day revealed a lot at Augusta Nationwide final month.
Pissed off by bogeys at 17 and 18 to slide again to five-under par, six pictures behind the playoff between Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose, after having been inside three pictures of eventual champion McIlroy midway via his ultimate spherical, Day demonstrated that he’s not content material with a prime ten end.
“I’m fairly gutted proper now,” he stated.
“It’s annoying to present myself the alternatives on the market and never be capable of take them. I imply, it’s a step in the best route. That’s all I can say.
“It’s onerous to stroll off the golf course and go straight into an interview regardless that, I’m fairly headless proper now.
“I perceive (why interviews occur right away). It’s what it’s. We should always be capable of be skilled sufficient to carry our – no less than preserve our cool.
“It’s simply actually onerous while you’ve simply walked off the golf course and also you’re fairly livid with the way you performed, particularly on the finish.”
When Day gained his PGA crown, the primary particular person to hug him and share within the second was his caddie Colin Swatton, who doubled as Day’s coach.
The pair had been inseparable for the 15 years prior, ever since Swatton took the boy from Beaudesert below his wing at simply 12 years of age.
It was the identical age that Day misplaced his father, Alvin, to abdomen most cancers, and Swatton grew to become a father determine to {the teenager}.
Day was a boarder on the Kooralbyn Worldwide Faculty in southern rural Queensland the place Swatton was the Head Instructing Skilled.
Their connection ended up taking them from a faculty in a city of just a little below 1,700 folks to golf’s grandest levels.
After such an immense journey, nobody understands Day the golfer higher than Swatton.
He admitted a lot when the pair reunited earlier this yr, saying “nobody is aware of my sport higher”.
They cut up again in 2020.
After years of being weighed down by the struggles of his persistent again accidents, Day sought a recent begin with famend swing coach Chris Como, who has famously labored with Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau.
However after rebuilding his swing to ease the pressure on his again, to the purpose the place he not too long ago stated that he not feels involved about his again within the golf swing, Day flicked a textual content Swatton’s approach and so they have been again in enterprise since.
Day has chalked up three prime tens off the again their reunion this yr, together with his tied eighth end at The Masters, and Swatton believes he has proven sufficient to point that he can return to the highest of the mountain.
“I’ve undoubtedly seen the indicators that I must see to really feel inspired, and I believe Jason’s seen the indicators that he’s seen to really feel additionally inspired,” Swatton informed Australian reporters earlier this week.
“So whether or not it’s this yr or not, I undoubtedly suppose he’s bought one other [major] in him, if no more.”
However Day’s sights are usually not solely set on main glory.
The 13-time PGA Tour winner needs different legacy securing items.
“Once you attain the best of highs, and also you grow to be the very best participant on this planet, all of a sudden it feels just a little totally different up there and [you reset your goals],” Swatton informed Australian reporters earlier this week.
“I believe for Jason, he’s bought his coronary heart set on attempting to be totally exempt for a lifetime on the PGA Tour, and that’s 20-plus wins. I believe unfinished enterprise in getting again to the No. 1 participant on this planet, I believe that’s undoubtedly on his radar.
“Jason is in a unique place [in life] now. He’s bought 5 children. [Eldest son] Sprint is a really fantastic golfer in his personal proper. Jason needs to additionally to set examples. That is what your dad did, but additionally that is who your dad is. Lifetime classes for his children.
“He needs to show not solely to himself, however to his household that, that is who Jason Day is.”
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Spurring Day on too is his undesirable slice of historical past.
As a part of his resurgent yr in 2023, the Australian completed in a share of second at Royal Liverpool after not qualifying for the British Open the yr prior.
Nevertheless it meant that Day joined a few of golf’s best names as gamers to have been runner-up in any respect 4 majors.
Craig Wooden, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen and Dustin Johnson are the opposite members of the membership not so affectionately dubbed ‘The Profession Second Slam’.
Day’s heartbreak has not matched the likes of fellow Australian Norman or Wooden, who each misplaced a playoff at every main.
He was six pictures behind Brian Harmon in England’s north west two years in the past, whereas he was eight pictures again from Rory McIlroy when he got here runner-up on the 2011 US Open.
However there have been some nearer misses.
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He was within the clubhouse alongside Adam Scott on the 2011 Masters with an Australian playoff on the playing cards earlier than Charl Schwartzel rattled off 4 straight birdies to complete and win by two pictures.
He was additionally solely two pictures again from Justin Rose on the 2013 US Open, and he was just one shot behind Jimmy Walker as he tried to make it back-to-back PGA Championships in 2016.
Along with the hearth within the stomach brought on by these shut calls, Day might be buoyed this week by his spectacular file at Quail Hole.
McIlroy is the favorite having gained 4 instances beforehand on the venue, and off the again of his Masters win, however Day has three prime tens in his final six begins in North Carolina.
The stretch features a victory in 2018 and a tied ninth on the 2017 PGA Championship, the place his cost was undone by a quadruple bogey on the 18th gap of his third spherical.
In these six occasions, solely McIlroy, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau have gained extra strokes on their rivals than Day round Quail Hole.
As Swatton stated, the indicators are clearly encouraging that he may recreate the heroics of a decade in the past.
However Australian golf followers might want to preserve their fingers and toes crossed that Day’s neck damage doesn’t derail one other marketing campaign.