Jason Day withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational during Friday’s second round, making this the second year in a row he has had to pull out of the event.
He was in the fairway on the fifth hole when he started to gather his things and stuff them into his golf bag.
Day then got a ride on a cart and rode back to the clubhouse. The PGA Tour cited a back injury as the reason.
Day was in a group with Adam Scott and Brooks Koepka.
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One month ago, Day opened 67-64 at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Hurt all of 2019, Day, a former world No. 1 with 12 PGA Tour wins, including the 2015 PGA Championship, was thinking the time to put away the clubs was near despite being just 32. He is winless since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship.
Chronic back pain and an assortment of injuries forced him to miss events, including the Presidents Cup in his native Australia.
“I’ve talked to my wife about this a lot. I’m like, I think I’m nearly done here, just because of how much pain I was in,” Day said at Pebble Beach. “I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve actually been out there and felt the way that I felt out there today and played well like that. … It’s hard because you compete week-in and week-out and you expect so much of yourself, and everyone does, but sometimes when you’re injured, like for the most part I was all last year, it gets frustrating. … And you feel like your world is kind of crumbling around yourself, especially as an athlete who plays injured. And it’s not a good feeling because there’s some dark moments in there that you got to kind of fight through.”
Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio contributed to this article.
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