Seamus Power earned a top-20 finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson as Jason Day held off a host of players to claim a thrilling win at TPC Craig Ranch.
Power closed with a seven-under 64 to move to -16 and he will go to this week’s PGA Championship at Oak Hill with a skip in his step.
However, the story of the day was at the top of the leaderboard as Day held off the challenges of Scottie Scheffler, Si Woo Kim and Austin Eckroat to clinch silverware for the first time since 2018.
The Australian closed with a nuns-under 62 to win by the minimum on 23-under par.
The 2015 PGA Championship winner has been battling chronic back problems and added the grief of personal loss to his troubles having lost his mother to lung cancer in recent years – which made winning on Mother’s Day more poignant.
The former world number one was understandably emotional after his win and admitted he came close to giving up the game.
“Yeah, I was in tears for a little bit there, and to think about what my mom went through from 2017 on to her passing last year,” Day said.
“It was very emotional to go through and to experience what she was going through, then I had injuries on top of all of that going on in my life.
“To be honest, I was very close to calling it quits. I never told my wife that, but I was okay with it, just because it was a very stressful part of my life.”
Day has shown huge signs of life this season with seven top-10 finishes which is more than he has had in his last two years combines and he has only missed the cut once.
The win was coming and the Aussie moves back inside the world’s top-20.
“Ellie, she never gave up on me trying to get back to the winner’s circle again. She just always was pushing me to try and get better.
“Yeah, I don’t know. It feels strange to be sitting here. I don’t know how else to explain it.
“To go through what I went through and then to be able to be a winner again and be in the winner’s circle is very pleasing, and I know that there’s been a lot of very hard work behind the scenes that a lot of people haven’t seen.
“But that’s just the competition part of the journey and trying to strive to get better. It’s nice to be able to get my 13th win.”
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