Anger, confusion and frustration over the death of his father became a lethal mix of emotions that triggered a pattern of binge drinking and prankish minor offences.

“I was very wild. I didn’t care and got into trouble a lot, did all the bad stuff. Going to parties, staying out late. There was a lot of drinking,’’ Jason Day said in an interview in 2004, the year he announced himself to the world as a golfing prodigy.

Back then, Australia’s newly-crowned PGA champion wasn’t proud to reflect on the turmoil of his early teenage years.

In the interview - which we are republishing here today - he did not shy away from his problems either, reflecting that the tormenting six months of 2000 was an example of how fate can guide you down the right path.

In 2004, Day, then 17, was the leading amateur at the Australian Open and Australian Masters, as well as the world and Australian junior champion, and on the cusp of breaking into the majors in the US — and big money.

It’s hard to imagine he could be that rebellious teenager who, in his own words, was freefalling towards juvenile delinquency.

He admits golf hauled him back from the brink, thanks to a mother’s unconditional love which prompted her to snap the cycle of defiant, adolescent anti-social behaviour.

Day’s Filipino-born mum, Dening, enrolled him in a golf school at Kooralbyn, in the Gold Coast hinterland southwest of Brisbane, in a desperate bid to rekindle his passion for the game.

A widow, she was prepared to endure financial struggles to steer her troubled boy away from his reckless mates in Rockhampton in the hope that he would find his way back to the first tee again.

Day’s father Alvin, known to all as “Abby”, introduced his son to the game when the boy was seven years old, using an old club he found in a tip.

“He never played,’’ Day said. “He just liked to watch me play at Beaudesert golf course near Kooralbyn.

“I started playing more seriously at nine when we moved to Rockhampton. I started to think, `Gee, I could be good at this game’. We had moved there because Dad worked in the meat works and the one at Beaudesert closed.’’

But Day’s world collapsed when his dad died from stomach cancer after a long illness four years ago.

“It nearly put me out of golf. I didn’t play for six months, didn’t really care about anything. But Mum didn’t want that to happen, so she sent me to the Kooralbyn golf school,’’ he said.

“When my dad died I got a bit aggro, you could say. There were a few helicopters (throwing clubs) there. I was pretty arrogant and stubborn.’’

Torn away from his mates and alone a long way from home, the slightly built boarder found solace hitting balls. At dawn each day he lugged his golf bag more than a kilometre to the only place where he could ease the pain.

“When I first went there I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to go home. I was really homesick,’’ he said.

“My dorm master Brad Shaw kept me there. He sat down with me and we looked at the advantages and disadvantages of the whole thing.

“I started to get up at five o’clock. The practice green was so far away and I used to get up early so I could practise before breakfast.

“I think that’s when the dedication kicked in. I really wanted to be good. I knew I was getting there because I’d just got in the D-squad for Queensland, which was a buzz.’’

It was at the Kooralbyn school, now closed, that another powerful influence entered his life in the form of golf coach Colin Swatton.

“We had a fight on the very first day,’’ Day said. “He wanted me to practise my short game and I said `no’. I wanted to go practise my irons. We exchanged a few words and I said, `I’m outta here’. When I came back, I said, `That wasn’t very nice, I’m sorry’. We’ve been fine ever since.

“He’s a bit more than a coach to me, he really cares. He has filled in big-time and we’re really close.

“Seriously, I could’ve been anything. An alcoholic, a really bad person. It’s unbelievable how things work. Everything happens for a reason and this was just meant to be, I guess.’’

Swatton caddied for his pupil back in 2004 and 2005. At the time, he chuckled over that inauspicious introduction to the new boarder.

“That’s exactly how it happened the first time I met him,’’ Swatton said. ``He came back at the end of the session and apologised and I thought, `OK, he’s a little bit more switched on and he knows what’s good for him’. We’ve had a good relationship since.

“It was about the same time my father had passed away, also from cancer. So I was aware of what was going on. He was very angry and rebellious, not listening and it was a tough time for his mother. She was the driving force behind him and still is.

“He’s a mature person, but the thing that strikes me with Jason is that if you tell him to do something he does it to the letter.

“He won’t ask when he has to stop. He will keep doing it because he has 100 per cent trust. Most others will do what you ask until they believe they’re ready to move on.’’

A bright, bubbly kid who loves to entertain on the golf course, Day showed his deep feelings when asked if his father would have been proud of his progress.

His dark eyes moistened and lips trembled as he replied: ``Yeah, for sure. Everywhere I go I think of him. I’m sure he’s probably watching over me.’’