UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Jason Day’s effort was courageous. It just wasn’t enough to win the 115th U.S. Open championship.
The Aussie had collapsed from a severe case of Benign Positional Vertigo at the end of his round on Friday and barely made it through the third round on Saturday when he managed to shoot 68 and earn a share of the lead entering Sunday’s final round at Chambers Bay.
It was clear he was still feeling the effects of vertigo early on Sunday as he walked gingerly and made no sudden movements. He managed to stay in the hunt until the par-4 13th where he took a double-bogey when he needed two shots to get his ball up from a deep side-hill lie onto the green. It knocked him back to even par and all but ended any chance of winning his first major. He finished with a 4-over par 74 that left him even-par for the tournament.
“I started feeling a lot better after the 12th hole,” Day said after his final round. “That was a plus. I think I hit 13 greens and just didn’t capitalize. It’s unfortunate because I felt like I gave myself enough opportunities.”
That he finished the hole on Friday with a bogey from out of a greenside bunker after collapsing was remarkable enough. To perform the way he did Saturday in shooting a 2-under par 68 to earn a share of the lead heading into Sunday’s final round, should be regarded as one of the more Herculean efforts in sports history.
Had Day won the tournament on Saturday the way Ken Venturi did in battling dehydration to win the 1964 U.S. Open at Congressional, it would have become instant legend. Even though he didn’t win at Chambers Bay, what he did shouldn’t be forgotten.
“I’m just glad that I got it in on the weekend,” he said.
His Saturday round should rank up there with Michael Jordan battling through a severe case of the flu to score 38 points in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, Curt Schilling winning Game 6 of the ALCS on a surgically repaired bloody ankle, and even Tiger Woods capturing the 2008 U.S. Open on a broken leg and torn ACL. What Day accomplished might be even more amazing. It’s one thing to play through pain. It’s another to try to play golf without balance.
Day finished tied for ninth, his fourth top-10 finish in five U.S. Open appearances.
