Praise newly minted PGA champ: Mom, sis relish win the day after

MANILA, Philippines - Dening Day is certain golf helped save her son Jason when teenage troubles threatened to derail his rise to major winner before it had even started.

The work ethic, winning grace and poise under pressure in his three-stroke win at the US PGA Championship are all a glowing endorsement of Day’s high standards.

There’s a lashing of that same work ethic in mom because Dening would not take a sickie to watch her son win his first major on TV.

Dening, a Filipina who grew up in the small town of Anibong, Tacloban and related to the Grapilons in the area, was diligently at work in customer service at AAL Shipping Lines at their Brisbane office in Bowen Hills with plans to watch the golf on replay.

For mom, his first major title was the wonderful high point to a journey through good times and bad since the young Day first picked up a club at three.

“We knew he had the potential and the commitment but the waiting was making us anxious,” Dening said of Day’s rash of near-misses, according to foxsports.com.au.

Jason’s sister Kim, meanwhile, said she’s proud of his brother and how he has handled himself despite his string of golf feats but added she couldn’t help but laughed when he was overcome with emotions and broke down in tears before wrapping up his first major.

“I was laughing at him because he said in his interview after, ‘I didn’t think I’d get emotional. I was like, man, you cried during The Notebook,’” said Kim in a Herald Sun article quoting Triple M’s The Grill Team.

Day’s father Alvyn died when he was 12 and their daily partnership as supportive dad and budding golfer was broken at the same difficult time.

“He’d be doing cartwheels in heaven. He’d be very, very proud too,” Dening said.

It was Alvyn who fished an old three wood from the local tip at Beaudesert as the first club the young Day would swat around the family yard.

Any young son is scrambled by the death of a father and Day was no different.

“It was when Alvyn passed on that Jason lost his footing. He had no one … and I was a little bit soft for him,” Dening said.

“He was drinking and listening to his peers instead of his parent.

“But, he was committed to his sport. Golf saved him.”

It was at that point that Dening sold the family home in Beaudesert and moved back from Rockhampton so young Day could attend boarding school at the Kooralbyn International School near Beaudesert.

“It was the last resort to sell the house but it was not a choice because, for me, I had to give him that chance to be the very good golfer he had the potential to be,” Dening said.

Hooking up with coach Col Swatton at Kooralbyn not only filled a void in terms of a golf savvy mentor but it nourished something more important within Day.

“I’m glad Col was there when Jason was starting out at Kooralbyn,” Dening said.

“Col understood there were some underlying problems with character, he was able to accept the situation and work really well with Jason.

“Put together he was mentor and a father figure.”

A hard background without lavish trimmings growing up is part of what makes Day tick.

“When you are poor, you become more hungry. It gives you more reason to reach your goals,” Dening said.

Kim actually said she doesn’t consider pro golf’s newest star as the Jason the Golfer but Jason the teaser and an absolute pest to her.

“He’s just a typical younger brother. He’s annoying, he teases you. He calls me name which gets me angry,” Kim told Today TV.

“He calls me ‘Kilm’ and ever since I was young it’s always gotten to me because he just didn’t want to call me my name.”

“He doesn’t know how much money he had or the status that he got. He still stayed the same. Nothing changed him,” said Kim.

“That makes me even more proud that he’s still the same kid as he was before any of it came along,” added Kim.

She also talked about the impact the death of their father had on both her life and Jason’s.

While she ran away from home at that time, Jason would go, drink and fight with street thugs at age 12 until her Filipino mom Dening persuaded him to go to a golf school.

“It took a few kicks up the bum to realize that you’ve got to keep yourself on track and get your life together or you’re going to end up nowhere. He’s very fortunate that he woke up to himself and realized what the future had for him. If he didn’t, who would know where he’d be right now.

“He had to grow up and be a man at 12,” said Kim.