Former World No. 1 Jason Day has maintained a neutral stance towards LIV Golf since the league started two years ago. Last year, when two-time major winner Jon Rahm left for LIV, Day wished him “nothing but the best” and said “I’ll see him at the majors.” But with that stance came constant speculation over whether Day himself would ever join fellow Australian and major winner Cameron Smith, who made the move in the fall of 2022.
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Day stayed on the PGA Tour and, two years on, the 36-year-old never really revealed why he didn’t leave. But as he prepares to travel to his homeland for the upcoming Australian PGA, he bluntly delivered the reason.
“I didn’t knock it back,” Day told Code Sports Australia, meaning that he never had the chance to reject an offer. “What happened was, it was a business move to just go in and explore the potential of what would happen. I said [to my agent], ‘No worries, I’m happy with where I’m at, but it’s always nice to know.’ And they [LIV Golf] said, ‘We love Jason, but he’s too injured; he just gets too many injuries.’
“I don’t blame them,” Day added.
The 2015 PGA Championship winner at Whistling Straits says he has no hard feelings towards LIV. In fact, Day staying on the PGA Tour paved the way for an emotional, drought-breaking 13th career victory at the 2023 Byron Nelson event. It was his first win on tour in five years.
During that nearly half-decade, Day endured back injuries and self-doubt that had him contemplating early retirement. Day has long battled chronic lower back ailments, including having to withdraw from the 2016 BMW and Tour Championship when he was No. 2 in the FedEx Cup. He even received medical treatment mid-round at the 2019 Masters, where Day eventually finished tied for fifth.
In recent years, Day also rebuilt his swing under coach Chris Como. Day, who held the World No. 1 ranking for 47 consecutive weeks between 2016 and 2017, dropped as low as 175th at the start of 2023 before jumping to No. 20 with the Nelson victory.
“I’m so thankful and so happy that I stayed on the PGA Tour,” Day said. “I just feel that the tour was a perfect spot for me.”
Like a lot of golf fans, Day is hopeful that golf’s powerbrokers can soon find a way to have reunite LIV and PGA Tour pros to compete in more events than just the four majors. Those talks are rumoured to have ramped up in recent weeks, with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan playing in the pro-am at the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links event in St. Andrews with the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (which finances LIV Golf), Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
“I’m hoping we join back together because there’s definitely a lot of players on the LIV tour that we miss on the PGA Tour,” Day said. ” I’ve always played very central with LIV and just never really got in the politics of it all.”
Main Image: Warren Little
