Circle of support surrounds Day at the finish

HAVEN, WIS. – It's a cliché. Golfer wins tournament. Golfer hugs caddie. Of course he does. Who else is available at that moment at the 18th hole, the course agronomist?

So Jason Day won his first major championship Sunday, setting a majors record with a 20-under-par winning score, sending his drives flying over Jordan Spieth's like insult-minded drones, and upon winning he raised his arms, wept, and hugged.

But this was different. True, Day embraced his caddie. He also hugged his mentor, his sounding board, his coach, his adoptive father, his savior.

When Day was 12 years old, his father died of stomach cancer. Day began drinking, fighting, sleeping in gutters. His mother worked two jobs so she could send him to a boarding school, Kooralbyn, that emphasizes golf — the school that produced Adam Scott.

At Kooralbyn, Day immediately defied the school's golf instructor, Colin Swatton, but later that day apologized. Swatton became Day's new father, and his instructor, and eventually his caddie, traveling the world to guide Day toward a day like Sunday.

Injuries slowed Day. So did final-round lapses and the rise of other great young players. Sunday, he turned most of Whistling Straits' more than 1,000 bunkers into flyover territory, and held off a player, Spieth, who was trying to become the most accomplished 22-year-old golfer in history.

Then Day exulted, and wept, and hugged the man who might have done more for his life than his game.

"The path that I was on, it was never expected for me to be here, where I was today," Day said on the 18th green. "I lose my dad at 12, and then meet Colin and have him walk the journey with me and have him walk up the 18th hole with me, was just a special, special thing that I could never forget, a special experience that I could never forget.

"It's just an amazing feeling that I have."

Day met Swatton when he was 12, and Swatton says that Day wasn't his most talented student, but that he became his hardest worker. Day met his agent, Bud Martin, when he was 16. He met his wife, Ellie, when he was 17. She's pregnant with their second child.

Fatherless at 12, Day has built an extended family that travels the world with him.

"I said to Bud, my agent, last week that I was frustrated," Day said. "I said, 'Nobody's going to beat me this week. I'm going to win this week.

"My team is very, very close. I don't have a bunch of yes men around. I have people who are very honest and care about not only my golf game but who I am as a person. To be able to share this with them, to know the heartaches we've been through, and to be able to finish it off and have Colin with me and Bud and Ellie in the stands with my son, Dash, and knowing this was the time, that's something you can never forget.

"I'm going to think about it for the rest of my life, and know that we did it together."

His performance would have been memorable even if he had rented a caddie. Day shot a 67 on Sunday, and 268 for the tournament. His score of 20-under par is a record for a major, and he beat Spieth, who was trying to become the first player ever to win the three American majors in a season, by three strokes.

His wife and caddie said Day has become more serious about life outside the ropes in recent months, working out harder, eating a more healthful diet, making his goals loftier and more specific.

"I believed he will be the best player in the world," Swatton said. "And one day he will be the best player in the world."

After Day tapped in his final putt, and raised his arms, and wept, and found his chin on Swatton's shoulder, Swatton didn't exult. "I just told him I loved him," Swatton said. "And I do."

Jim Souhan's podcast can be heard at MalePatternPodcasts.com. On

Twitter: @SouhanStrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com