UNIVERSITY PLACE, wash. — Never had Jason Day played so well feeling so miserable.
“I said to him, ‘They might make a movie about that round.’ It was pretty impressive,” said Day’s caddie, Colin Swatton. “It was up there with Tiger Woods playing with a broken leg and winning the U.S. Open. It’s pretty impressive.”
A day after the Australian collapsed near the end of his round because of vertigo, Day shot a 2-under-par 68 in the third round of the 115th U.S. Open on Saturday, overcoming heat, fatigue and continued bouts of dizziness to post one of the best rounds of the day.
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Only Louis Oosthuizen’s 4-under 66 topped Day, barely 24 hours after he needed medical attention. Day immediately went to his trailer to rest after zooming up the leaderboard thanks to five birdies on his final nine holes that had Chambers Bay roaring with support.
By the end of the third round, Day was at 4-under 206 to earn a share of a four-way tie for the lead and a spot in the final group Sunday. He is joined atop the leaderboard by Masters champion Jordan Spieth (71), Dustin Johnson (70) and Branden Grace of South Africa (70).
“The vertigo came back a little bit on the 13th tee box, then I felt nauseous all day,” Day said. “I started shaking on 16 tee box and just tried to get it in, really. Just wanted to get it in.”
Swatton had no concern about how Day was on the practice range after Day hit balls for 40 minutes. But he thought Day might not be able to continue after making the climb up to the fourth hole, one of the more difficult hikes on the course. There was also the vertical challenge of the seventh hole. Swatton joked after Day made par, “It’s all downhill from here.”
“I said, ‘You’ve got the heart of a lion, you get to show the world today you get to be the greatest you can be and look, let’s do it.’ And he just put his head down and kept walking one foot in front of the other,” Swatton said.
Day was a universal fan favorite. Cheers of “Come on, Jason,” followed him to every hole, with one yell of “Stay strong, brother” in a Hulk Hogan voice as he walked up the 11th fairway.
Even as Day charged on the back nine, the struggle grew. Everything was measured, from putting the tee in the ground, to his steps down the fairway.
Yet the more Day felt fatigued, the better his score became.
“He had moments when he felt really good and then he had moments when he didn’t feel so good. But that was throughout the whole round,” Swatton said.
Day’s start was similar to his health: shaky. He bogeyed two of his first four holes, but started his rally when he nearly dropped an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 9, the hole he collapsed on Friday.
Day’s back-nine run began with a 5-foot birdie on No. 10 after a perfect second shot. He bogeyed the 11th but made birdie on the drivable par 4 12th and walked away with pars on the 533-yard 13th and 534-yard 14th, both coming because of Day’s short game.
On the 15th, playing 256 yards Saturday, Day hit a 5-iron and used the slope of the green as a backstop, his ball settling 8 feet away. Day made the putt to get back even for his round and dropped another short putt for a birdie on the 17th, eliciting one of the loudest roars from the crowd.
