Good news helps clear Day’s mind heading into Masters

Ellie Day saw the weight of the world lifted off her husband’s shoulders after a phone call Monday with doctors at the Ohio State University James Cancer Center.

“He was so relieved … just so relieved,” she said Tuesday just after watching Jason Day hit his first shot of a practice round at Augusta National Golf Club.

The news was as hopeful as it could get for Day and his family: His mother Dening, who a few weeks ago had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given a year to live, will not have to undergo chemotherapy after surgery last month removed a mass from her left lung.

Day had flown his mother from Australia to the James Center, near his home in Columbus, Ohio, where doctors operated for five hours March 24. They removed a tumor of about 3.5 centimeters, which was nearly at the threshold for chemotherapy.

“She was right on the border,” Day said during a news conference. “I’m very, very pleased with how things have progressed. And I feel kind of a lot lighter in a sense that my mind is not weighing very heavily on the situation that my mom was going through.”

Day, who will defend his title at the Players Championship next month, hasn’t played since withdrawing from his first match in the Match Play Championship in Austin, Texas, on March 22 – two days before his mother’s surgery.

Dening Day ordered her son to go play in Austin, where he was the defending champion. But he could get through only six holes before, as his wife said, “it all came crashing down.”

“He was trying to play and for a minute, I thought he had compartmentalized it all,” Ellie Day said. “He just couldn’t take it any more.”

Understandable, since Day had already lost his father to cancer when he was 13.

“My mom was telling me, ‘Just go out and play,’” Day said. “’Forget about what’s going on and go out and play.’ Unfortunately, I’m not like that … I can’t think like that. I feel selfish being there playing and I was stuck between two worlds. I’m defending champion and I should go, but I don’t want to be there because I want to be with my mom. Golf was the last thing on my mind.”

Day knew his concentration was shot in Austin when he picked a club for a 145-yard shot and hit it 160 yards.

“When my mind is focused and ready to play, I’m usually 1 or 2 yards off,” he said. “I just knew that I had to be back home.”

Now that Day’s head is clear, he must scrape off the rust before Thursday’s first round. When he walks to the first tee, he will not have played a full competitive round of golf since March 19 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, an 18-day span.

“I’m a little bit unprepared, to be honest,” he said. “Usually I have a week or two more weeks of tournaments under my belt, maybe a week or two more weeks of practice as well. I didn’t pick up a club from Match Play until (last Friday). Maybe it’s a good thing.”

Day tied for 10th at last year’s Masters, his third top-10 finish at Augusta in six starts. He’s also finished among the top-10 in six of his last seven major championship starts, highlighted by his 2015 victory in the PGA at Whistling Straits.