Jason Day receives green light from pregnant wife Ellie to compete in FedEx Cup Finale – TOUR Championship

For a professional golfer like Jason Day, the thought of retiring from a tournament is serious business. And if it is one of the main events of the year, it is practically unthinkable. Only a very, very relevant situation motivates such a decision. Something like the birth of a child.

Jason Day and his wife Ellie are expecting the birth of their fifth child. The due date is scheduled for the first days of September. However, Ellie gave her husband the green light to stay on the TOUR Championship.

According to Jason Day, Ellie told him he should “play the tournament and try to win.”Day said, according to Golf Digest:

“She said, ‘You’re not likely to make it back in time if I do go into labor. We’re having a home birth.’ She said I may as well just play the tournament and try to win.”

He added:

“I’m pretty excited for our family to grow. I’m just hoping that Ellie holds out another week or two weeks and I can be there and spend some time with my family. I think if this was my first [child], I’d be a little bit more nervous about it.”

Jason Day further explained how he expects to approach the final tournament of the season. He said he feels comfortable despite having to start nine strokes behind leader Scottie Scheffler:

“I’ve got to play some of the best golf I have ever played and I need a little bit of help, too. It’s nice in a sense that at nine shots back, you can just go out and play and not have to worry about being around the lead. I’m hoping to rekindle some of that form and iron play from earlier this year and continue to drive it well.”

This would not have been the first time Jason Day withdrew from a tournament due to the birth of a child. In 2012, Day did not start The Open Championship in order to be with his wife for the birth of their first child.

How has the 2022-23 season gone for Jason Day?

The current PGA Tour season can be classified as a good one for Jason Day, although it has certainly had its ups and downs. However, it marked the end of a five-year winning drought, so the balance is positive.

Overall, Day has played 23 tournaments, with 17 cuts made and eight top 10s, including his victory at the AT&T Byron Nelson. His other great result of the year came at The Open Championship, where he finished T2.

In the other three majors, he did not fare so well. He finished T39 at The Masters, while he was cut at the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open. In fact, Day suffered three consecutive cuts (in these two majors plus The Memorial in between) after winning the Byron Nelson.

Those four weeks were his worst of the year. In contrast, at the start of 2023, Day was on a high, posting seven consecutive top 20s between January and March.