MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Australian golfer Jason Day needed to pause to compose himself several times when he spoke Monday about the deaths of eight of his relatives, including his grandmother, in Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
"They found, I think, eight of our relatives. Six of them were children, and my grandma, and a couple more," Day said after practicing at Royal Melbourne, where he's s scheduled to play at the World Cup as part of Australia's team with Adam Scott beginning Thursday. "It's such a tragedy, I feel for my mother."
Day said the most difficult part was not being able to contact his relatives, many of whom lived in the area around Tacloban, the capital of hardest-hit Leyte province. The typhoon has killed nearly 4,000 people and left more than a thousand missing.
"It's been toughest on my mother, there's been no communication," Day said as he stood next to the 10th green at Royal Melbourne. "Everything got wiped out in the area around where my grandma and my relatives lived. The only way we could communicate with anyone was with our relatives in Manila through Facebook. They did the searching."
Day's mother, Dening, migrated to Australia from the Philippines 30 years ago.