Jason Day Shows Remarkable Resilience to Deliver Solid Start at PGA Championship

Maybe Jason Day ought to find a chunk of New Jersey rock and plant it in his shoe, or try to crash one of the state’s many toll booths without a penny in his pocket.

Perhaps longtime caddie and mentor Colin Swatton could jab him in the eye with a sharp golf pencil.

After all, dealing with aggravation, discomfort, distraction and irritation seems to represent the world No. 1’s personal Grand Slam path to success.

In a sport where angst and stress are as much a part of the game as three-putts and wooden tees, Day once again proved that when it comes to eliciting superlative play, the more adversity that he faces, the better. 

Day, who has made aches and ailments part of his winning formula, opened his title defense of the PGA Championship on Thursday with a sparkling 2-under 68 to claim a spot in the top seven as the morning wave of players finished at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield Township, N.J. 

As ever, the Australian star has dodged a series of bullets this week, on and off the course, and managed to move into contention, nonetheless. For the player who led the 2015 U.S. Open after 54 holes despite nearly fainting from vertigo and has dealt with more medical issues than fans care to recall, this has become as familiar as an AC/DC lyric. 

This time around, because he had played in foreign locales over each of the last two weeks, Day didn’t turn up until Tuesday at Baltusrol—a course he had never before played. His wife, Ellie, had an allergic reaction to seafood at dinner on Tuesday night, prompting a call to paramedics and a post-midnight visit to the hospital emergency room.

His two young children are ill, and Day has been fighting the latest in a seemingly endless series of 2016 head colds, too.

“Things aren’t going to be perfect all the time,” he said. “I enjoy having my family on the road. It’s not the first time that the kids and myself and Ellie have been sick. It’s not going to be the last time.” 

That could be the worst news of all for the others in the field. It seems like the more noise that Day hears, the more he tunes it out. Tuesday night, after dinner, was a case in point. His wife began to panic as she struggled to breath.

“She’s like, ‘Call 911, call 911,’” he said, per ASAP Sports. “So I’m trying to look …

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