|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WORLD CUP OF GOLF MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 16, 2016Jason DayMelbourne, Victoria, Australia CHRIS REIMER: I want to thank everybody, no matter what part of the world you're calling in from, for joining us for today's special call with world No. 1 and 10-time PGA TOUR winner Jason Day and defending World Cup of Golf champion. We also have with us on the line World Cup of Golf executive director Matt Kaminski. Before we get to some questions with Jason, Matt, I know you wanted to have a brief introduction about how excited we are to have the World Cup of Golf in November back in Australia and at Kingston Heath for the first time. MATT KAMINSKI: Thank you, Jason, for being on the phone today. As Chris said, we are extremely excited to have the opportunity of being down here in Melbourne this week for some meetings and catching up with people as we prepare for the event. But every time we come back here to Melbourne and host events down here, it's clear why we come back, not just the great golf courses in Kingston Heath being top 20 in the world and just a wonderful track, but the people and the location and the city of Melbourne. We're very fortunate to have the support of the Victorian government in what we're doing here, but extremely excited about having Jason and Adam coming back to defend their 2013 championship with the World Cup of Golf. Nobody promotes the mission of the World Cup better than somebody like Jason Day and promoting international goodwill through the game of golf. Jason, thanks again for being on the phone and thanks for defending your championship from 2013. JASON DAY: No worries, thank you very much. CHRIS REIMER: I'll kick off with the first question and then we'll get to the media on the line. You are the defending champion, you and Scottie. You announced that Adam Scott will return as your partner again. A little bit of a different format, but still you guys get to represent Australia. Just talk about that and being able to play for your country in this team format. JASON DAY: Well, yeah, me and Scottie represented Team Australia in the World Cup in 2013. It was actually a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun playing Sand Belt golf courses. Royal Melbourne was obviously a very important win for me; kind of after the World Cup win, that kind of really started giving me the confidence to really push forward and really believe in myself. To be able to win the individual and then also on top of it win the team event with Scottie was awesome, especially in the backyard. But obviously very, very hopeful that we can come back and defend. Obviously the format has changed, but I think with the current format that we have now, I think it's going to be a lot more exciting, and it should be -- it should bring a lot of great teams into Australia to represent their countries, and I'm looking forward to obviously me and Scottie defending. Q. Jason, I just wondered in terms of your health right now, we know you had the vertigo issues and other niggling issues throughout the last few years. Is it 100 percent now and how do you see it in the future? JASON DAY: Yeah, I feel good about how things are progressing with my body. I've been working very, very hard with Cornel Driessen, who's my trainer. He also works with Henrik Stenson, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace. He worked with Ian Poulter last year and part of this year, so we're progressing nicely with the body. My back is great. Everything else feels good. Hips are fantastic. With vertigo stuff, that comes and goes with obviously the amount of stress that I put on myself, and obviously I'm in a pretty stressful situation with golf because the times that you're up on top of the leaderboard is very stressful situations sometimes. The body feels good. I'm very pleased with how things have come along since starting -- since I started working with Cornel, and I'm looking forward to getting down to Australia. I haven't been back to Australia for I think three years now, so it's been a long time. Unfortunately injury two years ago and then obviously Lucy last year came along, and then now I have the opportunity to go home. Body-wise I feel fantastic, and I've been really kind of diligent -- trying to stay diligent and disciplined enough to be able to stick to my programs and stick to what I need to do to make sure that I'm healthy in the future. Q. You just said you haven't been here since 2013 for those various reasons. What was the main driver to come home this year? You haven't been home as world No. 1, obviously, haven't been home as a major winner. There's a lot to talk about when you get here. What was the major driver to come home? JASON DAY: Well, back in 2014 I was injured and I couldn't sit on a plane and get home because of my back, and then I wasn't going to head down to Australia, especially with Ellie giving birth to our second child, Lucy, and leaving her by herself with two kids, so that was obviously tough. But now I'm healthy, Lucy is nine months old, Dash is four years old, so we have some help at home with Ellie's mom, and I'm able to get on the road and get back to Australia because I really miss Australia. I get homesick a lot, and I'm really looking forward to getting back down and playing, obviously playing the great Sand Belt golf courses but also playing as the No. 1 player, hopefully, in the world and representing Australia in the World Cup and then also going across to playing the Australian Open, as well. Really, really fun stuff. Q. Is the family coming or are they staying home? JASON DAY: Well, that's up in the air right now because it is such a long flight across. The little man, I'm not sure how he'll do on the flight, but Lucy, I'm sure she'll be fine because she's so young, but Ellie is kind of 50/50 on it right now. But I would really love them to come home because I think the last time that Ellie came down to Australia she was ill, or she was sick through the Australian Open, and that's how we found out that she was pregnant with Dash. That's kind of -- it was kind of a -- I want her to come back and be able to enjoy Australia and the culture we have down there and just how wonderful it really is to be down there because she really hasn't had the experience of actually getting to go down there and experience stuff that I have growing up as a kid. Q. Where does your victory at this event in 2013 rank amongst some of your best victories like your PGA Championship win, and what have you missed about Australia in the last three years both on and off the course? JASON DAY: Right. I think I learnt a lot about what I had to do to win. I believe I played with -- I think I played with Thomas Björn in the last round, and I was obviously very nervous because I hadn't really won that much. I think I won maybe a couple times or so, and heading into this event, I just felt good. I felt good about my game. Unfortunately it was on the back end of what happened in the Philippines with the typhoon, so my mom, it was kind of an emotional week for me and my mom, and yeah, to be able to go there and kind of mentally fire myself up to be able to play the way I did with what had just happened over in the Philippines was pretty special. I learnt a lot with being patient and trying to get the job done. But you know, I think the biggest thing with me and missing Australia, I just miss the people. I miss my mates. I miss my family. I just miss how great everyone is back home, how laid back everyone is. I just miss home. Just talking to you guys about it right now, it's just -- I haven't been there for three years, and I haven't really thought about it too much until just now, and just talking about it, I miss it. You know, talking about if I go down there to play golf, I'm always excited to go back and play the Sand Belt golf courses, not only because are they a shot-making golf course strategy-wise kind of deal, but more so you've got to have the creativity and the touch with also the imagination of actually hitting certain shots to be able to attack certain pins, and I think it's great challenges not only for myself but for all the guys that go down there to compete, and Kingston Heath this year is going to be absolutely -- it's going to be so fun to play because that's one of my favorite golf courses to play other than Royal Melbourne. Yeah, I miss Australia a lot. Every year I do. Every year I don't get to go back, I miss it a lot, and I look forward to watching the golf tournaments on The Golf Channel every year that I don't go. But I'm really looking forward to coming back and playing in front of the home crowd and seeing how I can do. Q. Did you watch the Olympics, what did you think -- JASON DAY: You would say that. Q. You were waiting for it, come on. JASON DAY: I was. Q. Along with those two questions, what kind of, I guess, void is the World Cup able to fill for you in terms of playing for a flag this year? JASON DAY: Right. You know what, the World Cup is very -- it's important to me, especially when it's back home in Australia. I played there last -- in 2013, ended up winning the individual and the team event with Scottie, so the World Cup down in Australia has a special spot in my heart for that reason. With regards to the Olympics, I only watched the last hole. I didn't watch any -- not one shot until the last hole. You know, obviously it was great to see Henrik and Justin duel it out. Kuch had an amazing run on that last day, and it looked like it was a very successful opening for golf to be back in the Olympics. Exciting stuff for those guys, and I'm sure they're on cloud nine right now heading home. Q. One other thing: When you won the individual in '13 with Adam, he's back home getting celebrated as the Masters champion, how much of an inspiration was that, to see the way he's treated as a major champion and then knowing you'll be going back as the world No. 1 with everything you've achieved? How do you think that'll be different? JASON DAY: Well, it was kind of neat to see because I remember just standing outside of the Crown Casino one night, and I'm just standing there and waiting for a cab to go to dinner, and I see Scottie walk past, and he has the green jacket in his hand, and I guess all the cool things he got to do, go places and have certain dinners and celebrations in his name, the awards that he got, especially during the late part of the year for how well he played. It was pretty special to see. I mean, and even playing and seeing how much support he had back home and the fans coming out and watching him, you know, he's always been a popular guy back home. He's always been one of those favorites when he's come back, and you know, it's pretty neat to see when he went back as the Masters champion to see how much love and support they really gave him. Q. I'd just like to ask you, the Australian Masters is not being held in Melbourne this year. The Australian Tour as such is quite condensed. How much do you feel the responsibility as sort of a standard bearer for the Australian Tour to make this World Cup a really big, vibrant, positive event for the Australian Tour? JASON DAY: Well, I think as a host and as we're hosting the event down in Melbourne, we get to showcase the best golf courses we have down in Australia. We get to showcase one of the greatest cities we have in Australia, as well, with Melbourne. I really enjoy Melbourne, and a lot of the other guys that come from different countries get to enjoy it, as well. I hear it from everyone that comes down to Australia all the time from different countries. They enjoy Australia so much. So we have a lot of stuff in experience to offer. But as defending champion, we want to make sure that everyone is having a great time and enjoying themselves because a lot of this -- when we're playing, a lot of people are going to see this around the world, so there's going to be a lot of viewers on TV watching how we play, defending our tournament, and then on top of it trying to see which of their favorite golfers are going to play well in the World Cup. It's a great time to be able to showcase a great country and also the golf courses that we get to play. Very, very special and unique situation that we're in. Q. I was going to ask you about the Olympics. Obviously you didn't watch too much of it. The Aussie Open, it's a big two weeks for you, isn't it, it's not just coming back to Melbourne, it's something that you really want to get your hands on, been close a few times. What's that going to mean to you in Royal Sydney? JASON DAY: Yeah, last time I played the Australian Open was at Royal Sydney. I had a great final round at Sydney, and I shot myself back into the top 10, which was great, because I didn't have a great start to the event. It's always one of the trophies that I've always wanted to achieve in my career, and not only just once, I want to obviously try and win as much as I can. Yeah, I always get excited going back home because -- especially playing in Sydney. You think that -- obviously Melbourne is fantastic to play because it's a great sporting city, but Sydney, when we play the Australian Open there, as well, there's a lot of people that come out to watch and support the golfers that are in town. I enjoy playing in both cities. Obviously they're both unique in their own ways with the variety of golf courses that we get to play because Kingston Heath and Royal Sydney are totally two different golf courses, but with that said, I'm going to have to adapt my game differently when I play both venues. Q. Have you got a thought on obviously the schedule is just absolutely cram packed this year. Have you got a thought on maybe in Olympic years the PGA moving offshore? JASON DAY: Offshore as in? Q. Well, maybe coming to Australia but definitely getting away from the U.S. and maybe being played later in the year? JASON DAY: Are you talking about the major PGA? Q. Yeah, your PGA, yeah. JASON DAY: I've never really thought about it, to be honest. I know -- I mean, that's one thing that actually I'd really have to sit down and think about it. Obviously with the Olympic schedule year in 2020, with Tokyo, if we have the same schedule as we did this year, it's going to be very busy, and it's going to be very crammed. Like it was, I played the British Open, RBC Canadian Open and the PGA all in three weeks, so it was two big major championships pretty much in a three-week span. You have to be kind of on your game. But I've never really thought about the PGA heading to Australia to be honest. I've always felt that's kind of what they did, they left it in the U.S., and we obviously have a great rotation that we play here. But I'll have to sit down and think about it more because you kind of caught me off guard there. Q. I know you're excited about coming home to Australia. Without going through every step of the way, can you kind of reflect on starting at Beaudesert and coming all the way back home now as the No. 1 player in the world? Is it going to be a special time for you that way? JASON DAY: I think it's -- if I think about that, that's one reason that I want to take my family back home is to be able to really show them where I grew up, show Ellie where I grew up, and she hasn't had the opportunity to go to Brisbane. I think to be able to show her and really show how far I've come from where I was to the No. 1 player in the world would be pretty cool to actually show my family. But going back and playing in the events back home and being the No. 1 player in the world, I mean, I can't remember the last time -- I think it may have been Norman maybe when he was -- or I can't remember if Adam Scott had it. Being an Australian that's been No. 1 in the world back home playing in Australia, that's a pretty cool moment to have. I'm just trying to do the best job I can because I did come from Beaudesert, Queensland, and there's not a lot going on there, but once again, I'm not done yet. I want to see how far I can really take this and know that it doesn't matter where you come from, as long as you have the skill, have the talent, you work hard and you do the right things, you can go places. Right now I have the opportunity to -- and now, granted, I did have the opportunity brought on me by family members and Col and certain things that happened in my life to be able to propel myself here, but it's been an absolute blast to be honest, and I'm looking forward to getting back. Q. Just how do you reflect on -- there's obviously still a bit to come this year, but how do you reflect on this sort of your first full year as world No. 1 to date, and how important is it to get a victory in one of those big FedExCup events to stamp the year as a big success? JASON DAY: Yeah, well, I mean, timely right now that there's talks of Player of the Year coming up, obviously FedEx. I want to be able to win that. I wasn't close, obviously, last year, but I won five times, like Jordan. What he did in the major championships last year was obviously the key factor, and obviously him winning the FedExCup definitely capped that off. But currently I've got the most -- I think I've got the most wins on the PGA TOUR. I don't have a major. Dustin Johnson has a major and a WGC. I've got THE PLAYERS Championship, Arnold Palmer and the WGC Match Play. Dustin Johnson has got three more top 10s than me, but currently Money List I'm up, I think, maybe three or four hundred grand. But I think to be able to be No. 1 in the world and hold that for the year is my goal. Obviously I want to try and hold that for as long as I can past this year, but the biggest thing for me is just try and get into the first event, focus on trying to win that one, because if I can get off to a good start and win one of the first three, that'll leave me in a good spot to obviously guarantee -- not guarantee, as long as I win, as long as I'm in the top 5 and I win the TOUR Champs, it guarantees me the FedExCup win. Hopefully I can do what Jordan did last year, maybe win one of the first ones to get myself in that good position again, and hopefully win TOUR Champs. But that will really solidify the year and hopefully extend that gap between No. 1 in the world and No. 2 in the world, as well. Q. During the recent time since you haven't been playing since the PGA, have you been thinking about it a lot? You haven't been thinking about it too much, have you? JASON DAY: About the Olympics? Q. No, about the way you want to finish the year. JASON DAY: Oh, yeah -- Q. You reeled off all DJ's wins and stats. Have you been thinking about what you need to do the last couple years? JASON DAY: Yeah, I'm always thinking. I'm always thinking how I can try and get better because I really should have taken last week off but I didn't. I had three -- I've got three weeks off. Obviously last week was the Olympic week, and I practiced from Monday to Friday, and unfortunately it rained Saturday and Sunday here. I wanted to make sure that I was a week in advance practice-wise so that when I came back that I was a lot more sharper coming to the FedExCup. Rather than getting just a week of practice, even though a week of practice is good enough for me, I wanted to make sure that I got an extra bit of practice so I was making sure that everything was solid coming into the start of the FedExCup. Q. You've had a couple of weeks now since the PGA. Just wondering how you've assessed the major season. Obviously you wanted to win all four, you didn't get one, but you were pretty close. Has it given you any extra drive? JASON DAY: You know what, the major -- to be honest, I mean, it would have been nice to win the PGA again. It was kind of out of my hands once I finished with the eagle on the last hole, but I was a little -- even though I finished in the top 10 at Augusta and the U.S. Open, I was a little disappointed obviously with how I played the last day. You know, disappointed with I just didn't give myself the opportunities at Augusta and then disappointed with how I finished on 17 at the U.S. Open. The British Open has always been one of those ones where it's kind of been hit or miss, either finishing just outside of the top 10 or I've finished up -- I finished like in the 20s or finished fourth at the British. Obviously I'm always shooting to win as much as I can, win the major championships. That's what I'm geared to do. That's what my schedule is all wrapped around, because I want to -- we always try and gear our schedule to peak at those major championships. Yeah, it was solid, but it wasn't great. But you know, hopefully I can really focus on ending the year off great with the FedExCup, and if I can get the win at the TOUR Champs, hopefully that guarantees me the win in the FedExCup and then also the Player of the Year talks, as well. Q. Did you think you learnt anything new that you hadn't learned in those majors, like for instance, you started the same score on that final day as Danny Willett at the Masters, and he ended up winning in weird fashion, if you will, with the meltdown and whatever. Is there anything that you sort of -- JASON DAY: Yeah, you have to understand that in golf, you're never out of the fight. Things can happen like it did at Augusta. Obviously Henrik, the way Henrik and Phil played was very special at the Open Championship. DJ was just kind of unstoppable at the U.S. Open. But the PGA can -- I think if I was able to play with Jimmy Walker, hopefully that may have been a little bit different story. But you've got to learn -- you always have to learn something, especially with regards to what happened at Augusta this year. You've always got to keep pushing. You've always got to give yourself the opportunities and not fight because you never know what's going to happen around the corner. Exactly what happened to me at Arnold Palmer this year. Didn't really have a great start on the front side on the final day, just kept myself in it, had just a good, solid birdie on 12 and kind of kept myself around, around, around, and then birdied 17 and all of a sudden I'm back in it, and I par 18 and I win, and I'm just sitting there going, I kind of got away with that one. That's just golf. Sometimes you win in great fashion, sometimes you lose in poor fashion. As long as you're open to failure, you'll always improve. The ultimate key for us is to be able to try and win as much as we can, especially with my team. Q. I guess before you're coming out here and whatnot, you've got the FedExCup Playoffs. To be the first Australian to win that, what would that mean, as well? JASON DAY: Oh, yeah, I mean, it's -- I guess it's kind of like you're sitting there, obviously you're going down in history as the first guy to win the FedExCup, but yeah, as time goes on and the FedExCup is around for a long time, it creates that history that we have, and turns into something like -- not so much like the Ryder Cup because obviously they're different, and Augusta, but you're able to look back in history who won it, and the great players and the names that have won it -- right now I think at the start of the FedExCup, once we kept on changing the formats and changing how we played it, people were in there to play and obviously to win, but I think once we -- now we have a solid -- it's been I think 10 years or so that we've had it. People are kind of used to the format now and how things are -- we approach it, that everyone is kind of focused in on trying to win it. You know, obviously there's a big purse that goes along with it that's a big motivational factor, as well, but in the end, if you just play well and try and focus on winning and playing well during the Playoffs, it's kind of a neat little gig we have because we've never had the playoff system in golf up until just recently, and it just seems like every other sport over here in the States has a playoff system. It just adds kind of a little bit more flavor to the end of the season, and to be able to put my name on that would be very, very special. But I can't really focus on that obviously right now because I've got to make sure that I prep the best I can for the Barclays and try and take it a week at a time, really try and do the best job I can because I do have the lead right now but things can change because obviously the points are worth a lot more if you win those tournaments, and hopefully I can keep it going. Q. As far as your Tour out here goes, have you just confirmed it will only be the Aussie Open and the World Cup of Golf? Are you looking at anything else or just those two? JASON DAY: No, just the Australian Open and World Cup. CHRIS REIMER: We've hit our 30 minutes, so we want to just thank Jason for your time and thank all the media for calling in today. We're really excited about the field that we're putting together for the World Cup of Golf. Obviously Jason and Adam as defending champions are headlining the field, but a lot of other great players already with Bubba Watson and as you guys mentioned Danny Willett committed amongst 28 total countries. You can check in on worldcupofgolf.com, be sure to follow the tournament on social handles. Tickets are available, so we really appreciate our friends in Australia getting the word out about this great event, and of course we'll see you there come November, Jason. Good luck in the FedExCup Playoffs and finishing the season strong, and thanks again for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|