Jason Day may wait until game time to determine if he will play the Masters, his decision resting on how his mother does after undergoing surgery for lung cancer last Friday.
Jason Day uncertain for the Masters after mother’s cancer surgery
A favorite and annual contender at Augusta is not 100 percent certain he’ll play next week.
Day withdrew from his first match of last week’s WGC Dell Match Play, explaining in an emotional interview that his mother, Dening, had terminal cancer that doctors first diagnosed earlier this year in Australia. She came through Friday’s operation well but Day was waiting to learn if it had spread.
“My mom told me not to worry about it,” Day said on Monday in a video conference promoting April’s Zurich Classic, according to the Associated Press. “It’s hard to do that. It’s easy to say ... but it’s really, really difficult. So currently I’m scheduled to play Augusta ... but if things don’t come back the way we want them, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Day, whose father died of stomach cancer when Jason was 12 and whose mother and sisters sacrificed greatly to advance his golf career, said Wednesday from the Austin, Texas, site of the match play tourney that it had been a “very, very emotional” time.
“It’s been a very, very hard time for me to even be thinking about playing golf,” said Day, who has one top-five finish in six starts this year; he missed the WGC-Mexico Championship after coming down with the flu. “Emotionally it’s been wearing on me for a while. And I know my mom says not to let it get to me, but it really has.”
Day said on Monday he planned to head to Augusta on Friday to get in some prep work ahead of next week’s tournament but his schedule was subject to change.
“It’s still kind of a bit of an emotional time for me,” Day said. “Obviously, I’ve been hanging out with my mom a bit and seeing her and she’s recovering well. She’s a tough lady, but it’s hard because I look at her and she’s on the pain killers and all that stuff, what she needs to do to recover.
”But I can’t help but think of my dad when I see her in that situation because when they go through such a traumatic surgery like that it just can be tough.”
Day acknowledged he “hasn’t touched a golf club” since last week’s WD and that the game was hardly his top priority.
“It’s very, very difficult to even think about playing golf when a loved one is going through such a traumatic experience,” Day said. “Once I get past this initial stage, hopefully I’ll find some balance and I’ll be able to kind of move on and really focus on getting my game back.
”Unfortunately, I’m human,” he added. “I like to feel like I’m always on it, I’m always ... ready to go and trying to compete and I want to get back to that stage but sometimes it’s very, very difficult.’’
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