Jason Day, the defending champion of the WGC-Dell Match Play, walked off the course in Austin on Wednesday just six holes into his first of three matches. Day, who has battled an assortment of injuries in recent years, had said he was in good health at the start of the week so his early concession to Pat Perez was a bit mysterious.
Jason Day reveals his mom has cancer in tearful press conference, withdraws from WGC Match Play
The defending champion in Austin walks off the course early and delivers a heart wrenching announcement.
Photo by Matt Hazlett/Getty Images
Then Day went to the media center to clarify why he walked off early and was withdrawing from the event. Day made a heart wrenching announcement that his mother has lung cancer. Day said she received a terminal diagnosis with an estimated 12 months to live back in Australia. He brought her over to the United States and said that her condition has improved somewhat but she’s scheduled to undergo surgery on Friday. His mind was understandably elsewhere and playing the WGC event this week was obviously not a priority.
Day lost his father to cancer back when he was just a 12-year-old boy in Australia. His background story is fairly well-known among close golf watchers and his mom’s sacrifices to keep the family together after that enabled Day to become one of the great players in the world with a likely Hall of Fame resume. It’s awful news for one of the good people and players in the game.
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