Jason Day withdraws from golf event to be with his mother

Speaking to the media, Day admitted that he “could not comprehend” playing golf at the moment with his mother set to undergo an operation in her battle with lung cancer.

The American made a fast start to his day as he surged into a 4 up lead after just 7 holes before closing out a 5 and 3 victory.

Day brought her from her home in Australia to the U.S. shortly after those tests and doctors will now attempt to remove a lump from her lung. Day brought her to the James Cancer Center at the Ohio State University earlier this week and was encouraged by a more optimistic diagnosis.

In an instant after the sixth hole in his opening match against Pat Perez, Day went from being the defending champion here to a son who just wanted to make sure Mom was OK. “I feel good. You can talk about match play but at the end of the day you need to shoot good scores and that’s what I did today”.

Because of the round-robin format, Day is still in the tournament.

“Everyone I’m playing this week I’m going to be the underdog”, Kjeldsen joked after the Group 2 win.

One question that went unanswered: Why even bother coming to the Match Play in the first place? McIlroy had six birdies himself (to two bogeys), but when he pressed the gas late, Kjeldsen kept up.

Spieth lost to World No. 60 Hideto Tanihara – a fearless-swinging, cigarette-smoking, 14-time victor on the Japan Tour.

Perez was three-up when Day decided against playing any further part in the event, which comes just over a fortnight before the Masters at Augusta.

McIlroy was one down to Kjeldsen as the Northern Irishman approached the 578-yard par-five 12th. The good news for McIlroy (if you can call it that) is that he lost to the lowest-seeded golfer in his bracket so he has a chance to win his next two and have Kjeldsen lose his next two and still move on into the weekend. The bad? A year ago only one player, Dustin Johnson, succumbed to an opening-day defeat and recovered sufficiently to progress to the knockout stage. He wasn’t sure how long he would be staying.

He will look for that same form this week in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas.

McIlroy, the 2015 champion and a semifinalist previous year, appeared to seize control against Soren Kjeldsen when he won three straight holes to take the lead, including a 410-yard drive on the par-5 12th hole and another drive over the water to the edge of the green on the 317-yard 13th hole into the wind.

Jason Day tried to do what he does for a living, but it was too much.

Russell Knox is set to play in three of the inaugural Rolex Series events on this season’s European Tour as the Scottish No 1 prepares to go all out in a bid to make next year’s Ryder Cup in Paris.