Orlando, FL …
Australia’s Jason Day is so passionate to become only the second Australian to win the Masters so much so if he were to pass away his golfing heaven course would be Augusta National.
This year’s appearance in the Masters will be the current World No. 2s sixth invitation to the year’s first Major.
Day brilliantly finished in a share of second place on debut in 2011 and was then third behind fellow Australian Adam Scott when Scott ended a 70-year Augusta drought and become the first Australian-born winner of the Masters.
And Day revealed his passion to win at Augusta was fuelled 20-years ago next month in watching TV coverage of Tiger Woods winning by a remarkable 12 shots, and in Woods’ first showing as a professional in a Major Championship.
“Ever since watching like the question about Tiger, ever since watching Tiger Woods in ’97 win that, and knowing that Greg Norman had a chance and a couple other Aussies had a chance beforehand to be able to be the first Australian, that was always on my radar, to be the first Australian to win Augusta,” said Day on the eve of this week’s tribute Arnold Palmer Invitational in suburban Orlando.
Jason Day singles out Augusta National as his afterlife ‘golfing heaven’. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com
“Adam Scott beat me, but it’s okay, because I would like to be the second player to win from an Australia.
“It’s just the whole feeling about that place. You can put history and tradition aside and you just play there, it’s kind of like a spiritual feeling for golfers. It’s a spiritual place for us to be able to go and just feel it. It’s kind of surreal in a way.
“If you’re there by yourself or with your caddie on a quiet day, when no one’s around, it just so peaceful.
“So that’s kind of like golfing heaven for us — or it is for me — if I ever died and I ended up going up and they put me on a golf course, it would be Augusta National.
“So, it’s just got that special feel about it, that I feel like I need to win there and I hope hopefully I get that opportunity one day.”
Day had been earlier asked if he could remember what he was doing 20 years ago when Tiger Woods, and competing in a first Major Championship as a professional, and on that Monday morning as a then nine-year old attending primary school in Australia when TV coverage of the final round of the 1997 Masters was being screened.
“I was nine years old and I was getting into golf, I mean I played golf and I was actually in Rockhampton at the time and my dad had this turn knob TV with bunny ears and that like that’s really what you did, you had to move the antenna to get the right picture and it was like really early in the morning,” he said.
“I remember him walking up the 18th and he obliterated the field. That’s kind of — there’s two moments where it really got me into golf, where Tiger really got me into golf was that moment when he won the ’97 Masters and I started playing more golf than I usually did at that age.
“Then when I read a book about him when I was 14. So, they’re the two moments that really kind of changed my life with regards to my career.”
And it prompted a question to Day if he was that excited to see Woods win to ask for a ‘Tiger’ head cover.
“I didn’t have enough pocket money to buy a Tiger head cover,” he said laughing.
“Back then I had second-hand clubs from Cash Converters and that was all we could afford. But also back then they didn’t have the head covers they have nowadays in the sports and golf stores.
“So, even you did have a Tiger head cover back then man everyone would have looked upon you big time.”
