Jason Day confirms he’s fighting vertigo again

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jason Day, whose 2018 Wells Fargo Championship victory remains his most recent on the PGA TOUR, confirmed Wednesday he’s been battling vertigo in his last two starts at the Masters and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. He pulled out of the RBC Heritage to undergo tests.

Day said he felt especially dizzy for the final round of the Masters as he shot 80 to fall to a T39 finish. But he also dealt with the condition, less acutely, at the WGC-Dell Match Play. In Austin, in a quarterfinal match against Scottie Scheffler, he built an early lead but began feeling unwell and lost, 2 and 1.

“The first time it happened to me was 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay and I didn't know how to handle it,” Day said. “… I really haven't had too many bouts of it; it would typically come for about three holes or so and then like gradually got better and better and I'm like OK, I feel kind of dizzy and nauseous, but I can get through this, no problem.”

He believes the condition is brought on by the mental and physical stress of competition. At the Masters, Day had to finish his third round Sunday morning before going out for the final round later that day. He was sitting in the caddie area between rounds when it hit him. He soldiered through the final round despite extreme dizziness, and withdrew from the following week’s RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

The vertigo has complicated one of the better comeback stories this season.

An eight-time PGA TOUR winner – including the PGA Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship – Day reached world No. 1 in 2015-16. The last few years, though, have been a struggle. He fought back injuries, missed the Masters last season, and started this season 164th in the world.

Under instructor Chris Como, Day built a swing that wouldn’t hurt his back, and it began to click late last year as he also rediscovered his putting stroke. Day racked up 11 top-25 finishes in 13 starts to start this season, playing his way back into the top 50 in the world and qualifying for a return trip to Augusta after a one-year absence.

That was the good news. The bad news was he felt a sickening familiarity late on the front nine of his match against Scheffler in Austin. His vertigo was back. He said at the time that it was allergies but admitted Wednesday it was his old nemesis, brought on by the grind of working on swing changes and trying to return to form.

“Overall, I know exactly what happened,” Day said. “It is obviously the stress of playing the game, and I understand there's obviously competitive stress and there's stress outside the game that is totally separate that everyone goes through as well. When you put yourself under stressful conditions all the time, sooner or later your immune system gets compromised. I wasn't eating as healthy as I should have, so I made some changes to my diet.

“…It's a virus that attacks my inner ear,” he continued, “which is the vestibular nerve in the ear, so when that happens you can't get rid of a virus obviously, the only way you can do it is suppress it. I just needed to take some time off, that was pretty much plain and simple. And then obviously on top of it just rework how I come to the golf course and work as well.”