The sometimes-unspoken rules and bylaws of Augusta National Golf Club are famous for their focus on policing people’s behavior and appearance, and not just members and patrons during Masters week. The rules extend to Masters competitors as well, as Jason Day found out this year.
But now Day has turned an unfortunate run-in with Augusta club officials at the 2024 Masters into an opportunity to raise huge amounts of money for charity.
On Friday at this year’s Masters, Day arrived at the course early Friday morning to resume the first round alongside Tiger Woods. The Australian and former world No. 1 was sporting a Malbon sweater vest with large block letters that quickly became a subject of conversation on social media.
But when Day began his second round later on Friday, the sweater had disappeared. Rumors grew that Augusta had asked Day take the offending sweater off, and Day confirmed as much on the weekend.
Reporter: “Have you heard any — is it OK with the green jackets, the designs and the things that you’ve been wearing? They can be a little bit restrictive.”
Day: “Are you talking about like Augusta in general? Yeah, they asked me to take it off — the vest off yesterday.”
Reporter: “The busy one?”
Day: “Yeah, the busy one. Respectfully, you do that because it’s all about the tournament here, and I understand that. I respect the tournament. That’s what we’re here to do is try and play and win the green jacket.”
Reporter. “Did they explain to you why they’d like you to take it off? The logo is too big?”
Day: “I don’t know. I didn’t ask. They said, can you take it off? I said, yeah, no worries.”
Kudos to Day for not overreacting to the dress-code shakedown, but he deserves even more credit for what he did with the sweater.
Day runs a non-profit organization called the Brighter Days Foundation. The foundation was started by Day and his wife, Ellie, to “partner with local nonprofit organizations that work to meet basic needs, give hope, and deliver high-quality programs and services with measurable, impactful results, ensuring that every dollar raised goes back into the local community,” according to the foundation’s website. The charities are local to Columbus, Ohio, where the Day family lives.
On September 8-9, the foundation held the annual Brighter Days Invitational, which involves a Tee-Off Party, concert and a celebrity-amateur golf event, and which acts as the foundation’s primary fundraiser.
As is typically the case, this year’s Brighter Days Invitational also featured a silent auction. Among the items offered up to guests? Day’s “busy” Malbon sweater that he was asked to remove at the Masters.
An Instagram from Golf Magic posted on Monday showed Day posing next to the Malbon sweater at the auction. It also reported that the sweater was auctioned off for $18,000, but when reached by GOLF.com for comment, a representative of the Brighter Days Foundation confirmed the actual winning bid was $17,300. Furthermore, Day agreed to match the total dollar amount raised by the auction.
Either way, it’s clear that Day took an unfortunate situation and used it to benefit a good cause.
The sweater incident also didn’t seem to affect Day’s game negatively, as he ended up T30 at the Masters, his best finish at Augusta since 2019.
