I remember the first time I laid my eyes upon this year’s PGA Champion back in 2008 as he strode purposefully across the range at the Riviera Country Club with his locks flowing and his caddie trying to match his pace. He looked like a rock star, not a conservative professional golfer. But there was something different about him.
He looked then similar to how he looks now, like he is going somewhere to get something done. The driving range, as with the majority of his contemporaries, is where Jason Day has spent so much of his formative years. His consistency in Majors over the past few years has not happened with talent alone; there has been an unimaginable amount of hard graft that has resulted in his machine-like performances.
He has always had a disarming, friendly smile and greeting for his colleagues on tour but I always got the feeling that I was disturbing an intense session on the range on the numerous occasions that I happened upon him forming perfect divots on the corner of the practice area, so I never hung around for any idle banter.
Manufacturers have an eye for talent and Taylor Made were quite buoyant when they signed the good-looking young hopeful from Down Under with a mane of long black hair and a lot of potential. His golf, coupled with his looks, made him a likely target for potential sponsors. There was a race for Day’s signature on the end of a club contract back in 2007.
The story of his background is similar to those of so many sporting heroes; a modest upbringing verging on an existence below the poverty line with only one way to go.
With the death of his father when Jason was only 12, his current caddie Colin Swatton filled the patriarchal void. As golf coach in his school he moulded the swing that has created the third best player in the world and rising. More importantly he was his mentor and effective stepfather; without him he may never have ended up where he is in golf today.
His mother sold their house in order to send her golfing son to the elite Kooralbyn International sports school. It is a school of excellence in Queensland where Adam Scott was also a pupil. According to Swatton, young Jason Day was just another one out of 30 players in the school who were very good. He wasn't a stand-out. But he did stand out on the range where there were floodlights. Jason was not born with talent – he ground it out of himself on the driving range under the tutelage of his now caddie.
Unique position
This is a unique position for Swatton to be in on tour. He has caddied for Jason for nine years. Although the profile of bagmen has changed dramatically over the years with fellow college and amateur friends joining up with players as their toters when they turn professional, the majority still come from a more formal caddying background.
It is very rare that a player will have his coach caddying for him and if he does it tends not to be a very permanent arrangement. Not so with the Day/Swatton combination, it would seem unimaginable to see Day without his stalwart multi-tasker by his side.
Even though some players have their fathers coaching or mentoring them and travelling with them on tour, it is nothing as challenging as caddying for a player when the pressure of competition can lead to some bad feeling, if only temporarily.
I have the utmost respect for both of them in sustaining such a long and positive relationship. Their victory in Whistling Straits last week has got to be one of the most popular on tour.
Swatton explains how his multi-task position has survived and complimented the development of his young star. They both set the boundaries early in their 16 -year relationship. So when Colin is speaking to his pupil as a coach he is clear in his role. Likewise as caddie, they understand the agenda. Probably most importantly as a friend, Day is never in any doubt about the angle that his coach, caddie and friend is coming from. This requires a huge amount of discipline from both parties. I understand how difficult it is to fill just one of those roles effectively, I cannot imagine the complexities of carrying out three of them simultaneously.
Habitual challenge
I was fearing the worst for Jason Day as he made his habitual challenge last week. Of the 21 Majors he has played, he has made the cut in 18 of them and had a staggering ten top-10 finishes including ending up second three times. There is, of course, a very subtle difference over four rounds of golf between ending up in the top ten and winning. Day’s consistency has been most impressive.
Although they are very different golfers. I couldn't help but think of Colin Montgomerie and his litany of second-places and high finishes in Majors in his prime.
Day, with his swashbuckling, flat-out demeanour was starting to look like he wanted a Major victory so much that he was always going to get in his own way when it came to touching the trophies.
He got his first taste of a Major ironically in 2010 at St Andrews when the legendary Greg Norman pulled out of the Open Championship which let his fellow countryman in the tournament.
He seized the moment and made the cut and went on to finish eighth at the PGA in Whistling Straits the following month.
The next year he had consecutive second-place finishes in the Masters and US Open. In 2013 he was third in the Masters and second in US Open.
As all driven and determined players will attest, no matter how difficult it may seem at the time of a near miss, there is always something positive to take out of a runner-up position. As long as you learn, you increase your chance of improving the next time you are faced with a chance of victory. With all his activity in the closing stages of seemingly every recent Major, I was wondering when the learning would finally result in victory.
Zen-like
When it happened last week in Wisconsin it happened in style, his Day had really come. Talking to his friend, mentor, coach and caddie Colin Swatton he described his boss’s mature approach in last Sunday’s round. He was calmer, methodical and more confident than usual. He went about his business like it was business and allowed things to happen instead of forcing them as he admitted he might have done in the past. He was doing all the right things and was more aware of the right thing to do given his vast challenging memory bank. He was almost Zen-like in his approach and that is exactly the aura that leads to success with a talented golfer.
So when he cold duffed his approach shot with a wedge to the ninth hole on Sunday, he didn’t panic. He rationalised the situation; a downhill lie in front of an old divot which was tricky even for the best. Even the best could falter in such a situation, the difference was how he accepted it and still went on to get up and down. It was a pivotal moment in his final round.
There was always something different about the boy from Queensland with the purposeful stride. The rock star with the rock-solid work ethic has moved on to a different echelon in golf with his first Major title and no doubt his next in sight.
