It’s a typical, stinking-hot day here in Brisbane Town and we’ve come to Royal Queensland to see if a man can catch fire. Jason Day, specifically - four shots from the lead in the PGA Championship of Australia.

The theory being: if anyone’s going to come from the clouds to challenge leaders Cameron Smith and Elvis Smylie, it’s the boy from Beaudesert, the former world number one, the winner of the 2015 Wannamaker Trophy at Whistling Straits.

Dare to dream, baby.

And if it doesn't work out, well, we still got to see Jason Day play golf, a rare treat in this country given his wife, five children and FIFO work-base - let's call it the man's "home" - is in the town of Westerville in the centre-bull of Ohio, Middle America.

It matters not to Day’s fellow Queenslanders, though, who surround the first green three-deep in support of their guy. Queenslanders love Queenslanders. They don't even have to be Queenslanders.

If an actual Queenslander, let's pluck one at random, Greg Norman, ever brings one of those LIV events to Queensland - to Charleville, say, or Gympie - they would line the streets and throw their pants at him.

Healthy crowds of Queenslanders line the first tee-box at Royal Queensland to see Jason Day. PHOTO: Getty Images

The rest of us like Day, too, largely. He still feels like one of us, unlike two-time major champion David Graham, for instance, who’s lived so long in Texas they put him in the Texas Golf Hall of Fame.

Not a knock on the bloke. He's just lived somewhere else rather a long time and is out of our greater sports consciousness.

Back in the battle for Brisbane and Day rolls in a birdie to warm applause and the odd “C’mon Jase!” He’s into 7-under. Is this the beginning of the Great Charge?

His putt is just short on two. He shaves the hole on three. He lags up a 30-foot bomb on four.

On the tee at five, downwind, a mighty cargo ship slides under Gateway Bridge, and Day hits driver like you would not believe. Certainly, a man next to me can’t believe it, exclaiming softly “Jesus f***ing Christ” at the sound of the ball off Day’s driver, equal part whip-crack and sonic boom.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Matt Cleary (@coogee50)


 

It must be amazing to have so much cognisance of one’s golf swing, or indeed any piece of human movement. To know it so intimately, to be so confident in it, that something so difficult becomes so natural, even easy.

Day birdies five. And you wonder: do the leaders know he’s coming? He’ll likely need to match Anthony Quayle’s 63 to give the leaders any sort of hurry-up. But eight-under, it's do-able. Carnoustie this is not. 

And if a major champion is on the leaderboard, one assumes the leaders won't like it. 

Jason Day putting for, and making, birdie on the par-4 fifth hole at Royal Queensland. PHOTO: Getty Images

But then, pro golfers, and it’s a singular trait, go so far into the cocoon of concentration they’re like those hippies on the Appalachian Trail, hiking barefoot in the frost, communing with nature, going into weird sort of fugue states.

Or maybe they just play golf, and try to block out distractions, I dunno, these 700 words won't write themselves.

My but the greens here are mint. There was nearly 200mm of rain this week but the surfaces and their immediate surrounds are as hard and fast as Vin Diesel’s head.

Day slides another putt by on six. He can’t get up and down from pin-high of the par-5 seventh. He hooks his tee-shot on the par-3 eighth. Can’t get up and down from there either.

And even with birdie on nine, courtesy of a long-bomb putt following a chunky approach, and another on 12, a double-bogey on 14 sees Jason Day’s tilt at the Joe Kirkwood Cup, awarded the winner of the 2024 PGA Championship of Australia, effectively officially over.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Matt Cleary (@coogee50)


 

Still, you'd suggest momentum is his. The ball-striking was largely pure. His GIR numbers were best practice. That he won't be playing in the Australian Open next week, you wonder if there's a hint of disappointment.

"Yeah ... It's kind of nice to be taking next week off," Day says. "I'm playing Tiger's event. So I've got next week off ... it's kind of nice to be able to decompress from the week, see where the game stands swing-wise.

"I'll go over the swing stuff, try and work on some stuff in the simulator next to refresh some of the feels ... because there are a lot of good quality shots out there but they need to be quality shots every hole."

 

 

And will he be back? He wants to be.

"The way that the [PGA Tour's] schedule used to be, it was harder with the wraparound season. But now, January to September, it definitely makes it easier to come back," Day says.

"It gives me the opportunity to take time off early and use these tournaments as springboards into the new year."