The Loop

From poverty to prosperity: Jason Day now playing to win rather than playing to win money

September 05, 2015

Stories of interest you might have missed…

“Growing up poor in Queensland, Australia, [Jason] Day dreamed of someday having money in his pocket. His family wasn't just poor; they lived in poverty,” Jason Sobel of ESPN writes in this story on how the quest for money early in Day’s career might have hindered his progress. “That time has passed. He's now more concerned with his game, with the thrill of victory, with the trophies and accolades and adulation than what monetary benefits he might reap from it.”

Jason-Day-Smiling.jpg

Getty Images

Jimmy Walker, aside from being an accomplished professional golfer, is an astrophotographer who played the Deutsche Bank Championship pro-pam with Mark Kelly, an astronaut. Each was indubitably impressed with the work each other has done. “I've taken a lot of pictures from the Space Shuttle, mostly of the earth,” Kelly said in this story by Helen Ross of PGATour.com. “But it's hard to capture stuff that is in some cases millions of light years away with a good image. The pictures that he takes are pretty incredible.”

Phil Mickelson is attempting to end a disappointing season on a positive note, by playing golf of a quality that would entice U.S. Presidents Cup captain Jay Haas to add him to the team. “I know with all the young guys on the team, he would very much like to have me on it,” Mickelson said in this story by the Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa. “I would love to be on the team. But I have to be able to contribute my game. As close as I feel that I am, the only thing that matters in golf is your score, what you shoot. So we’ll see.”

How important is golf to California’s Coachella Valley, aka the Palm Springs area, even in the midst of a drought? Too important to blithely suggest that courses shut off the spigot. “At least $1.1 billion a year in direct and indirect impact on the 2014 desert economy, according to an economic study commissioned by the Hi-Lo Desert Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America,” Larry Bohannan of the Desert Sun writes. “The report, released Monday, studies golf's impact through spending, wages, employment as well as federal, state and local taxes in the desert.”