Major winner was floundering. So his wife told him to sleep in driveway

Jason Day’s wife has kicked him out of the house. 

Stay with us here, though. Paradise remains untroubled.

A while back, Jason and Ellie Day moved to Westerville, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, which is both near where Ellie grew up and close by to Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, where they’re playing this week’s Memorial Tournament. Lovely, right? The 2015 PGA Championship winner and former world No. 1 could fall out of bed and climb up the leaderboards. 

Ideally. Instead, he’s seemingly sleepwalked at the Memorial. Fourteen starts. Just one top 10. Only two top 25s. Something was amiss. 

So in 2020, Ellie had a thought. 

Why not make the home game an away game?

Why not sleep in the RV in the driveway? 

Day finished fourth.  

He’s been outside this week ever since. 

“It’s kind of funny,” Day said Friday after his second round, where he shot a three-over 75 to make the weekend. 

The benefits to the move? It’s business as usual, he said.

“I just get a little bit better structure in my routine and my preparation,” Day said. “When I’m staying at home, I’m just a little bit too relaxed and I’m like going to the house, going to the bus, and I’m like all over the shop. So I just stay on the bus.”

Just as Day would when he’s on the road.

“The idea is just like trying to keep everything as simple as possible,” he said. “It’s kind of strange — like it typically, like if you have team events or you’re in a team sport, like your home-court advantage is usually pretty big. You play well at home, you got the fans and everything. For me, it’s just, I feel like it’s a bit of a distraction. This course doesn’t really set up for me. I’ve always kind of felt uncomfortable around this golf course, even though I played here a ton.”

That showed in the 75 on Friday, a trying day at Muirfield. 

“It was a tough day out there today,” Day said. “I just haven’t been happy with my iron play as of late. It’s frustrating because I feel like I’m giving myself opportunities on the fairways, and then I just hit some poor iron shots. But it’s kind of hard because when you’re here, I feel like here and Augusta, you can’t really, when it’s windy, there’s no bailout anywhere — it’s really difficult to find an easy up-and-down and you can’t really find that here. The rough is really thick here this week. Greens, we’ve had nice weather coming into this week, and greens are firm and fast, and that’s what the test is supposed to be. 

“So, yeah, it’s a little stressful, frustrating when you just don’t have the, your best stuff, especially coming into the greens. Because this is a second-shot golf course and when you’re not hitting good second shots, it’s hard.”

How bad was the wind?

“It’s difficult,” Day said. “I hit 6-iron on 12, probably hit one club too much, that’s definitely not a 6-iron hole, not in this wind today. But it’s just gusting and moving. I can’t remember what the sustained was; I think right around when we finished, it’s like sustained at 18, gusting all the way up to 30, 30 plus. That’s at like 100 feet that — most golf balls go about 100 feet, a little bit higher. So, it’s difficult when, like 18, for instance, you watch the weather clock on top of the clubhouse and it’s moving like back and forth, back and forth, so you got to try and hit on the right gust.”

Still, he’ll play Saturday and Sunday. Back to the RV then. There’s one more question. 

Does he make his own meals, too? No home cooking?

“Yeah, yeah,” Day said, “make my own breakfast — well, Ellie made me breakfast yesterday and brought it to the bus, so I’m very, very blessed to have a wife like that. But, yeah, I make all my meals there. Everything is the same. Try and treat it as a tournament.”

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.