On Thursday, March 3rd, PGA Tour Communications announced that Jason Day has withdrawn from the 2025 Players Championship due to Illness. This came just before the first round began, and the event was quick to fill in the gap Day left behind. Day was originally set to tee off at 8:46 am, but one of this season’s noticeable rookies, Danny Walker, has taken his spot instead. Now what happened to Jason Day to make him withdraw?
Jason Day’s Medical History
It is unclear what this illness is, but some are speculating that it has to do with the vertigo that he has been struggling with since 2015. This is a common type that has the most obvious symptom of the trademark dizziness. This made itself publicly known with Jason Day when he collapsed at the 18th hole during the 2015 US Open. Didn’t stop him from winning the championship that same year.
This has been something Day has been struggling with for some time now. He has mostly been living with it the best he can, with a couple hiccups here and there. His vertigo is fairly inconsistent with when it will take effect. Most days he is doing fine, and others he risks collapsing.
How He Has Been Handling The Vertigo
According to Day, his vertigo hasn’t made itself too bad:
“The first time it happened to me was 2015 US 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.”
Whenever it hits him, he soldiers through it and tries to continue on. He believes that the stress of the competition is one of the key factors that may trigger it. Like in the 2023 Masters, when it hit him between rounds. In a press conference he said the following:
“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.”
Day’s Thoughts on The Vertigo
Day claims that it is caused by an ear infection in the same press conference as before.
“…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.”
At the time of writing, it is still unknown what caused his withdrawal and the vertigo theory is merely speculation. Day is not the only one facing medical issues right now, both Tiger Woods and Xander Schauffele are struggling with injuries. Jason Day is also as determined as any athlete and is bound to bounce back from it. Day doesn’t want to push himself too far like in the 2015 incident. He is looking to come back strong when he competes in this year’s Masters. After all the man did win the 2015 Championships after he collapsed on live television.