Jason Day has always been something of an old soul.
He lost his father, who had been abusive, to cancer at the age of 12. He has admitted starting to drink alcohol not long after that, a wild boy with no direction or discipline, running with the wrong crowd.
Day had few girlfriends before he married his wife, Ellie, when he was 22, and they already have two kids. And Day is all of 28 years old.
An old soul.
And it seems as if that emotional and mental maturity that his closest rivals are still lacking is what has put Day far out in front of them over an extraordinary stretch in which the Aussie has won seven times in 17 starts in 10 months, the latest coming in golf’s “fifth major,” The Players Championship.
“Tiger-esque,” Adam Scott called this run, and it’s hard to argue with that.
Indeed, if there is anyone who scrambles like Tiger, putts like Tiger, carries himself with the cock-sure confidence of Tiger, it’s Day. Day's build, his walk, his aura – as he strides down the fairway, do you get flashbacks to the Tiger of 2000? I do.
That Day is the top player in the game who has most tried to personally connect with Woods, and Woods has deemed him worthy of such mentoring, probably says a lot. It says something, too, about Day’s willingness to listen and learn.
“I just think it’s fantastic how he’s playing, how he’s handing himself, how focused he is and how committed he is to improving,” Woods said during the Quicken Loans media day this week. “You see a lot of guys just come out here and play just for playing sake. He practices with a purpose and you can see it when he plays.”
In some ways -- and this is where the old soul comes in -- there is a sense that Day believes he is playing on borrowed time. He’s had a number of injuries for such a young player, and even his bouts with vertigo must give him a sense of vulnerability. When will it come out of the blue again?
Like Woods, he swings violently at the ball, which may not be good for his long-term physical prospects.
At The Players Championship, Day admitted that he already has begun analyzing the criteria for getting into the World Golf Hall of Fame. It’s as if that awareness is now fueling him, when it might cripple others.
“I look at that 10 PGA Tour wins, and I say to myself, that’s not enough,” Day said on Sunday. “It’s just 10. I want more than 10.
“That number is not a lot. I look at Tiger and he’s 79 (wins), and Phil is up there (with 42 wins), and I’m, like, ‘OK, I want to be able to be looked back on and know that he was of the greats of the game.’ … And I have the opportunity to do that right now, try to work as hard as I can to really leave my footprint on this game that has given me so much.
“I’m motivated to be No. 1. I’m motivated to extend that lead. I’m motivated to win as much as I can right now.”
Right now, it appears those closet to chasing Day are a little psyched out by the challenge.
World No. 2 Jordan Spieth missed The Players cut in his first start since his Masters collapse and admitted that he is getting too frustrated with himself on the course. Some of that might be attributed to the pressure he’s feeling to catch Day, who he played side-by-side with as the Aussie set the 36-hole scoring record in The Players.
