Grantland longform piece on Jason Day

[nevets88]

http://grantland.com/features/jason-day-british-open-2014-golf-pga/

Tough childhood. Father died young, alcohol. A different viewpoint than of his quote about Woods.

It was there that Day borrowed a book about Tiger Woods’s teenage years and became alarmed at the scores he saw documented in the back pages. Where Woods was shooting 68s and 66s, Day was stuck at 74s and 72s.

“I kept saying to myself, ‘Why is he shooting those scores?’” Day remembered. “‘Why is he so much better than me?’”

In 2000, at 13, Day won the Australian Masters junior tournament for his first significant victory, but he felt his game wasn’t improving fast enough, so his life changed again. He would wake up every morning at 5 a.m. and practice until 8:30. After sneaking in a half-hour breakfast, he’d be in school from nine to one — you can see the benefit of attending a sports academy — and after a 30-minute lunch, he’d be at it again, practicing until 6 p.m. Then dinner, then homework, and then it was out to the night range, where he’d hit under the lights until fatigue overcame him. Other players at school would try to keep up with his extreme schedule, but it was rare for any of them to last more than a week before the allure of sleep trumped their own lesser obsessions.

Now this is the quick way to get to 10K hours.