Happy day for Jason, mom

MELBOURNE – Jason Day hopes to gain more inspiration with the arrival of Filipina mother Dening as he resumes his bid both in individual play and team competition in the third round of the World Cup of Golf here today.

Day moved up to joint third at four-under 138 with Portugal’s Ricardo Santos, just four off Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, after a rather shaky two-birdie, one-bogey stint on the unpredictable putting surface of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club halfway through the 72-hole championship.

“I had three lip-outs, pretty harsh ones, but definitely happy with shooting a one-under today (yesterday),” said Day. “Because being out here at Royal Melbourne with how hard and fast the greens are it can definitely go south pretty quick. So just was grinding it out through the middle part of my round and came home pretty strong which was nice.”

Nicer would be his chance to be with his mother, who with his sisters were set to arrive late last night from Brisbane.

“I’m definitely looking forward to waking up and go and have breakfast with my mom and my sisters. I haven’t seen them for a year so it’s going to be really enjoyable the first time I get to see her,” said Day.

Day and his family were grieving over the loss of eight relatives from Leyte who perished at the height of typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) two weeks ago with the PGA campaigner admitting before the tournament to have felt “devastated for all who have been affected by this horrific tragedy.”

But his mom’s arrival is expected to perk up Day as he sets out against Santos in the pivotal third round of the event which stakes $1.2 million to the individual champion and another $600,000 to the winning team.

Day’s partnership with world No. 2 Adam Scott has put Australia to joint third at 281 with Japan, seven shots off the defending champion United States, which had a 274 with Denmark second at 277.