At least that was the case until the safe arrival of his beautiful new daughter Lucy.
The smitten Queensland golfer and American wife Ellie posted these adorable first pictures of their healthy baby girl, with Ellie writing, “Baby photo blast. Lucy girl is 2.5 weeks and getting chunky as ever. So much to be thankful for.”
Big brother Dash, 3, is also clearly head-over-heels for his smiling sister, cradling her like she’s the most precious gift in the world.
Although he’s now one of Australia’s richest sports stars, Jason, 28, makes no secret of the fact that family always comes first.
The recent world number one reluctantly missed playing in the rich Australian Open in Sydney in November so he could be by wife Ellie’s side for the delivery in his adopted US state of Ohio.
Jason is determined to be the loving dad he never had growing up.
Earlier this year he spoke candidly for the first time about his troubled upbringing and his many altercations with his late father Alvin Day who he says was a “violent alcoholic”.
“I remember once shooting a (poor) score, and he goes, ‘You’re going to get it in the parking lot’,” Jason told a golf magazine.
“So I get in the car. I’m scared. We drive out of the club, he stops on the side of the road. He just starts whaling on me with both hands, closed-fist punching. I was 11. I had bruises all over me.”
While he credits him for introducing him to the sport, Jason is also adamant that had his father not died of stomach cancer in his youth, he would not have become the star he is.
His death triggered a chain of events that set him on the path of becoming the world number one.
After going off the rails, fighting and drinking in the streets as a pre-teen, his mother Dening shipped Jason off to Kooralbyn International School with its golf academy in a last-ditch desperate move.
She had to work multiple jobs and borrow money to pay her son’s way.
“For my mum to sacrifice and my sisters to sacrifice for me, so I could get away to a golf academy and work hard, it’s something I’ll always be grateful for.”
There he met current coach and caddie Colin Swatton, who became the father figure that Jason craved.
Together they forged a path that this year netted over $US9 million ($A12.40 million) in prizemoney, five US PGA Tour victories including the major and a stint at world No.1.
“I was so scared of playing bad golf because I would get a hiding but I guess that’s what made me play so well,” said Jason.
“But then to have a loving person such as Col, and have him raise me from 12, his influence has been immeasurable. I owe him more than I could put into words.”
