O'Connor: Day staggers to share of U.S. Open lead onSwatton's shoulder

Ian O'Connor, ESPN Senior Writer

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- Three holesdeep into the third round of the U.S. Open,Jason Day was ready to surrender to anopponent far more formidable than theChambers Bay greens. He was tired,nauseous and groggy from the drugspumped into his system to fight the vertigothat had dropped him to the canvas Fridayand left him looking like he had justabsorbed a Mike Tyson hook.

Day was not going to make it on his own.He needed a shepherd to guide him up and down the hills of a golf course treacherous enough tobreak the youngest and sturdiest of men, and he had the right one on his bag. Colin Swatton, hislifelong coach and caddie, stopped Day on the fourth hole to tell him this was no time to quit.

"You've got the heart of a lion," Swatton told his player. "You get to show the world today that you'regoing to be the greatest you can be. Look, let's do it."

So Day put his head down and took it one shot, one putt, one wobbly step at a time. The Mayo Clinicdescribes vertigo as "the sudden sensation that you're spinning or the inside of your head isspinning" and labels benign positional vertigo (Day's diagnosis) a condition "rarely serious, exceptwhen it increases the chances of falls."

Or when you're trying to beat the world's best golfers on a course that all but makes a player climbup and down Mount Rainier a half-dozen times.

No, Day wasn't going to get this one to the house without the right shoulder to lean on and the rightvoice in his ear. On Father's Day weekend, the man described as Day's father figure wouldn't let the27-year-old Australian heed the inner voice assuring him it would be OK to give up.

Day nearly called it a day at No. 4 and again at No. 7, yet he kept staggering and lurching forward intrue zombie form. He kept backing away from his ball to realign his rapidly blinking eyes. Hewouldn't move a muscle or turn his head without carefully considering the consequences. The simpleact of bending over to retrieve his ball or tee drained his overheated battery, and sometimesSwatton's body weight was all that separated Day from another dramatic fall to the ground.

The vertigo blitzed Day on the 13th tee, and it left him shaking at No. 16. "I just wanted to get it in,"the golfer would say of his round, and millions of transfixed viewers were willing him across thefinish line. Somehow, some way, Day wasn't just surviving out there; he was thriving. Honest to God,he was tearing up the U.S. Open, sinking putts from all over and, ultimately, birdieing three of hisfinal four holes to shoot 68 and share the lead at 4-under.

Day's 31 on the back nine Saturday was no less impressive than Jack Nicklaus' 30 on the inward nineat the 1986 Masters. The U.S. Open had not seen a contender in this kind of distress since anexhausted Ken Venturi won on a 36-hole day at Congressional in 1964, after a doctor told him he'dbe risking his life if he played the final 18 in the oppressive heat.

Nobody told Day he was risking any such thing after Friday's frightening fall at No. 9, yet Swattonwas never sure the player he has been teaching since age 12 could summon the will to stay in thetournament. The caddie kept feeding Day food, water and words of reassurance -- whatever he feltwould keep the man upright.

The four golfers tied for the lead heading into the final round at Chambers Bay took very differentpaths to get there.

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"Just tried to get him through," Swatton said after it was done. "I said to him, 'They might make amovie about that round' ... It was up there with Tiger Woods playing with a broken leg at the [2008]U.S. Open."

It was up there with Curt Schilling pitching through the pain and blood in the 2004 postseason andMichael Jordan playing through the flu in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. Day made a long birdieputt at the 17th and recovered from a wayward drive at the 604-yard, par-5 18th to land his thirdshot close to the pin and draw thunderous applause from the grandstand.

He sank the putt, managed a weary wave of acknowledgement and wiped the eyes he'd been rubbingall day.

"That was the greatest round of golf I've ever watched," Swatton told him. "That was a superhumaneffort."

Day said the same case of vertigo that knocked him out at Firestone last year wasn't as severe as theone that hit him over the past two days, and as the golfer sought treatment in a trailer between theplayers' locker room and practice range, Swatton stood inside a circle of reporters near thecompound and confirmed he'd never seen Day in such a weakened state.

The 45-year-old caddie had spent the day managing his player's stress, and it took a heavy toll onhim too. Day was sent to his golf academy 15 years ago, after the boy's father, Alvin, died of cancerthe same year Swatton lost his own father, Alan, to the same disease. Day and Swatton have talkedabout their shared pain. No matter the outcome on Father's Day at Chambers Bay, they'll both bedealing with the worst kind of void.

"That's the biggest thing about losing your dad," Swatton said. "He can't be there for your specialmoments."

As a teenager, Day made himself a prospect by outworking more talented kids on Swatton's range.He read Tiger Woods' book, "How I Play Golf," and decided he wanted to someday win tournamentslike the one and only.

Day hasn't won a big one yet. He has managed five top-five finishes in majors. But if he wins his firstSunday, chances are it will feel like he has won the career Grand Slam.

No, it won't be easy. Jordan Spieth is chasing the second leg of that Grand Slam, and Dustin Johnsonis an ultra-athletic slugger who can win in a ballpark this big. But if Jason Day was strong enoughSaturday to hit the ball better than he had the first two days and drop five birdie putts on the backnine -- with his head spinning, no less -- who could possibly bet against him Sunday?

Day wouldn't even accept the offer of his fellow competitor, Kevin Kisner, to pick his golf ball out ofthe cups.

"When you're making birdies," Kisner said, "I don't care how bad you feel. You want to pick it out ofthe hole."

Day has something else on his side too. His caddie is such a dead ringer for a younger Jack Nicklausthat the Golden Bear's wife, Barbara, approached him at a Palm Springs hotel 10 years ago thinkingSwatton was her spouse.

"And when I turned around, she said, 'Oh, I'm sorry,'" Swatton recalled with a laugh. "Jack camedown a few minutes later."

Nicklaus won the Masters at age 46, Woods beat Rocco Mediate in that Torrey Pines playoff on oneleg, and Venturi conquered his survival test at Congressional, all among the game's greatest majorchampionship feats.

Now Day has a chance to put his name right next to theirs.

"But whatever happens tomorrow," Swatton said as the sun started to fade on an indelible Saturdayat the U.S. Open, "what just happened will always be remembered as an amazing round of golf."

This is true. Win, lose or withdraw on Father's Day, nobody can take this U.S. Open moment fromJason Day and the wise man who shepherded him home.

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