Day ‘didn’t want to play’ after mum cancer scare

JEJU, South Korea: Major-winner Jason Day said on Wednesday he was targeting getting back to world number one after his mother’s cancer scare had left him not wanting “to be on the golf course”.

“My mum getting lung cancer was very difficult,” the Australian told reporters ahead of the US PGA Tour’s CJ Cup, which begins in South Korea on Thursday.

“I don’t have any grandparents. I don’t have my dad. I don’t have anyone. If I lost my mum all I would have would be my two sisters,” said the world number nine on Jeju Island.

“So realising how much she sacrificed for me growing up it meant a lot to me to be there for her. And I didn’t want to be on the golf course.“I knew that if she was going to die then I wanted to spend as much time as I could with her,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. Because I only get to see her once a year.

“Fortunately the surgery (in March this year) went well and now I’m able to focus back on golf.”After making his major championship breakthrough by winning the 2015 US PGA Championship, the 29-year-old went on a hot streak to rise to the top of the world.

Day was still number one at the start of 2017 but with his last win coming a year and a half ago at the Players Championship his ranking has tumbled.He missed the cut at the US Open and finished outside the top 20 in the Masters and the British Open.