JASON Day will play this week's World Cup of Golf in Melbourne with the burden of knowing eight relatives, including his grandmother, died in the Philippines typhoon.

Among the thousands killed by the massive storm were Day's grandmother, an uncle and six cousins. One aunt was found alive despite being swept to another village, while another aunt's family survived after binding themselves together with rope and taking refuge in an attic.

Day's mother, Dening, who migrated to Australia from the Philippines three decades ago, said her globetrotting son had been told of the tragedies but she was yet to speak to him.

"My daughter has been ­updating him, but I don't want to bother him because he has commitments,'' she said.

"There will be plenty of time to talk after (the World Cup). He's representing his country, so I don't want him worrying about anything apart from golf.''

With the family keen to shield Day, one of his two sisters, Yanna, added: "He keeps asking how Mum's doing and you can just reassure him as much as you possibly can that she's OK. We're with her and she's fine.''

Having grown up in the region devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, and with her mother and two of her 10 siblings still living there, Mrs Day said she had feared the worst when she was unable to contact family members for several days.

"It was so hard because we couldn't get hold of anybody,'' she said.

"My sister's daughter was in Taiwan and she was pleading on Facebook for someone to let her know what was happening.

"She couldn't get any news so she phoned her brother in Manila and told him to drive (to their village).

"That was an 18-hour drive and when he got there he saw it was devastated and that their father, six sisters and grandmother were all gone and their mother was missing.

"My daughter saw an update posted on Facebook and phoned me to translate it. She spelled out the words and I just said 'they're all gone'.

"We thought my entire family had died and it was three days later we found out some had lived.''

One of Day's aunts survived after being separated from her mother, husband and sixchildren - all who died.

While Day's sister Kim was the only one of the siblings who had met their grandmother and extended family, Yanna said the loss had impacted all of them.

"They were family,'' she said.

"There has been talk about whether the rest of us should go back to the Philippines to help but it seems like we can't do anything .th.th. Mum's a very tough woman but I know she mourns privately.''