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PGA CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 8, 2014Jason DayLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY KELLY ELBIN: In with the round of the day, a 65, Jason Day is one shot out of the lead behind Rory McIlroy with two rounds to go in the 96th PGA Championship. Jason, five birdies, an eagle, terrific play. Comments on the round and the conditions you were faced with out there. JASON DAY: Yeah, I think we got a little lucky on the draw, teeing off in the afternoon today. We didn't get as much rain. We didn't really get a delay out there which was nice. The guys in the morning, I've just seen some pictures of some of the guys in the morning. It was pouring pretty hard. Yeah, like I said, we got lucky on the draw side. But hey, I played great. I got off to a great start today. That's obviously the last thing that I expected to shoot 30 on the front nine. But you know, I put some good shots together out there today to give myself the opportunities out there to really take advantage of the front nine. Obviously the back nine is just a little tougher. A little disappointed that I had one bogey on the back nine but I came home strong with a couple birdies, 17 and 18. KELLY ELBIN: 65 is your best single round in the PGA Championship. If you wouldn't mind going through the birdies, the eagle and 1 bogey. JASON DAY: 2, I've been driving the ball nice over the last couple of days, so it was all set up from the drive there. I hit 7‑iron in to about 18 feet and holed the putt just left of the pin. On 4, it's perfect‑‑ when the wind is in out of the left, you can hit driver over the bunker and have a short wedge in. So I hit a nice drive down the middle. Just had 75 yards, hit it to four or five feet and holed the putt there. The eagle on 7, that's one hole where you have to really kind of respect the drive and kind of bear down and concentrate a little bit more. I hit a great drive down there. We were kind of going back and forth between hitting a 1‑iron and a 3‑iron. After seeing Poulter pull out a hybrid and lay up to the right, I knew exactly that I had to hit 1‑iron. So I hit a nice 1‑iron from about 250 to about ten feet and holed the putt there. Then obviously the 8th hole, I can't even remember what I did. I had about 165 yards I think and hit a nice little draw 8‑iron to about five feet and holed that putt. The last two holes, 17, we were going back and forth between 9‑iron and pitching wedge. We didn't know if I could get wedge there but I just kind of said, with the wind that was helping down there, I just hit a full wedge and hit a great shot to about six feet and holed that one. The last hole, hit a great drive but the second shot was a little poor because I hit it a little fat. But, where I was positioned just short of that bunker, there was plenty enough room to hit a lob shot over the bunker and get it down there to three feet and hole the putt. Overall, not only myself, but the guys that are up there right now, are obviously driving the ball very well, because you had to drive it well today to get it on the fairways to give yourself the opportunities on the greens. I've said it before; playing Nicklaus golf courses, I'm a member of one up in Columbus. But driving, obviously the fairways, they are a little wider than normal, but it's crucial on second shots and making sure that you don't short‑side yourself out there. KELLY ELBIN: For the record, Jason has hit 29 of 36 greens in regulation and 21 of 28 fairways. Q. We were talking earlier in the week, and you sort of felt maybe your best was still two weeks away. Did it surprise you a little at all that you busted it out today? JASON DAY: It was a little surprising. Obviously I wasn't expecting it. Just with the poor form that I've had over the last, you know, few tournaments that I've played. But we worked very, very hard last week before I had the vertigo, and then after‑‑ when I came in Monday, Monday through Wednesday, did phenomenal preparation. I busted my butt out there and worked very, very hard. Like you said, I'm a little surprised that it's kind of turned around so quick, but‑‑ just trying to think of the word that I'm going to say. Obviously I've done the right things to get to where I am to be in the Top‑10 in the world. So it's not my first time that I've been here. And I've hit a million golf balls, a million chips, a million putts and I've done it for a long time. So I'm just happy to be close to the lead coming into the weekend. Hopefully being able to play with Rory in the last group tomorrow would be fun. I think it would be a good challenge. It would be exciting to watch him play. But I've still got a lot of golf to play and I just have to go out there and play my own game. Q. Just to follow up, is it fair to say that you think that your head is in a better position at the start of this week now than it was last week when you were still a little disappointed with how the year had gone more than anything else. JASON DAY: Yeah, ever since the U.S. Open, I've been fighting a hook, and we kind of pinpointed down to, it was a very strong grip, left and right hand strong. From there, it's very hard; you've got two shots, you're either holding it off and blocking it right or snap‑hooking it. We kind of did the work and neutraled that out, the left hand, and it's been working wonders ever since. I'm going to try and keep that neutral and hopefully I keep driving it the way I am and see how it goes. Q. You've been in this situation many times before, a few times before, and I know there's still a lot of golf yet as you said but do you find yourself sort of getting excited about what lays ahead over the weekend or are you trying to stay patient? JASON DAY: I'm excited. You can't not be excited to be in or around the lead in a major championship. Obviously they are the hardest tournaments to win. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a lot of fun. But I've been‑‑ like you said, I've been close a lot of times. I've said it before; I just have to keep knocking on the door and hopefully it will fall my way one day. It's either hopefully it falls my way or just knock the door down and take it. I'm clearly not the favorite. With how Rory is playing, especially over the last few tournaments; this whole year he's been playing great. He looks confident. He's hitting the ball longer and straighter than pretty much everyone in the field. It's going to be tough to beat him. But then again, there's a lot of great golfers behind us that are in form, as well. It's going to be a tough tournament to try and win, obviously with McIlroy, how he's playing, he could run away with things again. So I'm going to hopefully try and keep pace. Q. What would be the strength of your game over the last two days? What's sort of pleased you over these two rounds? JASON DAY: I putted obviously better today. I'm hitting it long and getting it in the fairway and giving myself the opportunity, and really communicating with my caddie, Col. where we need to hit the ball. That's probably the biggest thing. I kind of got a way with it a little bit on the back nine today. Hit a few kind of squirrely shots where I shouldn't have hit. Coming down the stretch, I got back in the mode of where I needed to hit and communicated well with Cole. Like I said, driving's crucial here, and then second shot. Q. You mentioned about being there a few times before, and you've learned certain things. But what will you take away from those other times the most in these next two days? What will you really try to make different from those other times, if anything? JASON DAY: Just not to be scared about winning. Obviously it's hard to win. Some people can handle it, some people can't. It's okay to be uncomfortable. It's okay to feel uncomfortable, and sometimes you feel like you want to run away. Sometimes you feel a little bit better where you can go on and fight. I've just got to go out there and just embrace being uncomfortable again, and just really play my own game and not really think about anyone else. It's the old cliché where you have to go out there and just focus on your own self. It's going to be tough but that's what you have to do. That's the process that you have to go through to hopefully hold the trophy at the end on Sunday. Q. The World Cup win and the WGC win will hold you in good stead, I imagine for those moments. JASON DAY: Feels like so long ago that I won those events. Those tournaments were so fun to play in and so fun to win. We're kind of in the second half of the year, and the form is a little different. Obviously at the end of last year and at the start of the year, I was in great form and I was playing good. I was working hard and doing the right things. With the injury, I couldn't really work as hard as I could, and then obviously it's a downward spiral from there when you're not working as hard as you possibly can, and the form starts going south a little bit and you start losing a little bit of confidence. Obviously with the concerns of the thumb not being an issue, I can go out and practice and work hard and the form is turning around a little bit. It's a wonderful thing this game of golf; it can frustrate you to the point where you just want to quick. And then again, you can play a round of golf like today and go, man, I'm going to stay around until I'm 50. It's a frustrating game, but I love it. Q. You started to talk about it, playing with an injury or not playing with an injury, and like Dufner, for example, said he's not coming back till he's healthy. I want you to go back to the decision you made, or maybe it wasn't a decision, to take yourself out with that injury; how tough was that? JASON DAY: I mean, with most injuries that are serious, you're obviously going to take yourself out, because you get to a point where you just can't hold a golf club or you can't even swing through and hit the ball and that's pretty much the extent of how you kind of go about knowing when you're going to have to rack the clubs up. But I was out of the golf scene for three months. I broke it up with playing Augusta right in the middle of it. I came back under‑prepared. I still played good there. But it's tough. What Duf is going‑‑ I'm not too sure; he hurt his back. But those kind of things, injuries, obviously it depends what it is. This can be serious‑‑ I don't know what the ex‑text of what Dufner's injury is, but if you hurt your back, you can be out of the game for good. You have to see how you're going. I've had three MRIs on my thumb and I've seen my doctor, you know, nearly a dozen times I guess, five to ten times at least on when am I going to play. You go through phases, especially in the three months that I was off, you're going through‑‑ you play games in your head. You're going, okay, am I going to play again; when is this thing going to go; you know, could this be the last time I'm ever going to pick up a golf club. You just play games. It's so easy to lose confidence, and I can understand why Tiger has come back and obviously Duf's just got out and there are a few other guys that are injured. But to come back and to play after an injury is very, very difficult. So with that said, you just know when you need to give yourself time. I gave myself time, talked to my doctor last week, actually; had an MRI and talked to my doctor last week. He said, "Don't be concerned. Just go out there and trust that you can work hard."  It's not 100 percent but it will be 100 percent sooner or later. Q. Could you have played through that? JASON DAY: No. Q. Or did you not do it because you could have created further damage to the situation? JASON DAY: It would have been more damage for me to play than‑‑ obviously I talked to my guy and he said, "You need to kind of take some time off."   It was in the joint capsule and around the joint, there was a lot of inflammation and a lot of fluid and a lot of stuff that was wrong with it. Obviously I've got 30 more degrees of extension on my left thumb, so any time I grip the club, I'm putting it into extension, hyper extension, just through impact and obviously on the transition from the top hurt. You can't play golf, especially compete at the highest level, against the best golfers in the world. It's tough. KELLY ELBIN: Jason Day in with 65 and one shot out of the lead. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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