Murmurings abounded at Baltusrol yesterday that the No. 1 golfer in the world, Jason Day, was yet to appear on the premises, which is, to say the least, highly irregular ahead of a major championship.

Day, who competed in last week’s RBC Canadian Open (tying for 14th), had planned to take Monday off to rest. Unfortunately, he ended up taking Tuesday off as well, having picked up a bug from his children, who are both sick. And then, things got worse for Day and family, as they were confronted with a potentially serious situation following the Champions Dinner.

Day’s wife, Ellie, had an allergic reaction, which necessitated a 9-1-1 call and a brief hospital visit, he told reporters, adding that his wife has recovered.

“I was kind of calm about it, and she’s like freaking out in the back on the bus, and she’s like, “Call 911, call 911.” I’m trying to look for Benadryl, and we didn’t have any, so we ended up calling 911…So I had to call the paramedics over. She was kind of freaking out in the back of the bus, which is understandable, because she got all red. We were there until 2 o’clock in the morning, something like that. So I’m kind of running on E right now. She’s fine now. We got a little bit of loss of sleep but we’re fine.”

The result of this: While Day visited the course for media day earlier this year, he’s still yet to play a hole.

“I haven’t played a practice round; I haven’t seen the course. I don’t know what it looks like. I’m going to try and touch them all today, but obviously the prep’s been a little on the lighter side. So I need to come in and try to get a good, solid 18 holes in today so I kind of know where I’m going.”

Day has dealt with a number of ailments this season, including back spasms at the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship, a cold at the U.S. Open, and a rib injury at The Open.

He spoke to the difficulty of the balancing act that is dealing with injuries and being the World No. 1 in a jam-packed season.

“It’s really trying to stay focused and be nice and do all the things you can do for media, fans and people, but also making sure that you’re kind of selfish in a way to understand that, you know, I did X to get to No. 1 in the world, I did X to win these tournaments. I need to keep doing that. If I don’t do that, then obviously I’m not going to get those results.”

It’s in this environment of tough choices, illness, and competing interests that Day has made the decision to approach the PGA Championship in this fashion. We’ll see how the approach works when the defending champion goes off at 8:30 a.m. Thursday with Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson.