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HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSJanuary 12, 2015Jason DayKAPALUA, HAWAII Q. K.J. Choi, 2003, Graeme McDowell 2011, this morning with Chris Kirk, and now this afternoon with Jason Day. If I could ask you how you shot a 62 because I want to hear people listen to you say that you left a couple out there. That's the first thing he said when you stepped up here. How can you possibly think like that when you played so well? JASON DAY: I mean I missed a couple of short ones, actually, for birdie on the front. And I'm just happy that I shot 62 and you know, at least gave myself a chance at maybe hopefully getting in a playoff. But Jimmy is playing so great right now. Q. Do you want to see some of the highlights? JASON DAY: Yes. Q. Let's take us through right here. Let's go to the video here. Your second shot here at 10, what did you see from down there? JASON DAY: Well, I knew that I could drive over the bunker. So I just had to make sure that I landed it close enough to the pin to where it could roll out to just about four feet away. Q. We talked to JASON DAY about this this morning. The tee shot at 11 might be the prettiest view you see on the golf course, and this was a pretty shot as well. JASON DAY: Yeah. It was just a 9‑iron 145 yards, went off the left and I just drew a nice little 9‑iron to about six feet there, which was nice. Q. You were complaining that we didn't show you the highlight on 12. You made one there. JASON DAY: Yes. Q. So let's go to 13 and your second shot here. JASON DAY: Yes. Second shot. I had 100 yards, and my wedges have been pretty spot on this week, and once again, it was nice. I just hit a little 5 running 52‑degree wedge up there and it was great. Q. You gave us a lesson like that at the pro am when you were with Gary Koch at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions Pro Am show on Thursday. Now at 14, drivable par‑4. This is your second shot. JASON DAY: Yeah. I mean the position off the tee is where you need to be, and just short there, good chip up there and knocked it in. Q. How about this putt at the par‑5, 15? JASON DAY: I hit a terrible chip and holed a great putt. So just to get the momentum going, that was a good putt to hole. Q. 61, one of those short par‑4s as well. How key is this second shot here? JASON DAY: Yeah, it was about 80 yards and I took my 52‑degree. And obviously the slope from back to front is pretty severe. So you have to take a lot off it, and I hit a great wedge there. Q. So here we are, the par‑5 18th, an eagle to break the course record, a birdie to tie the course record. Here is your second shot. JASON DAY: No way. Sean? (Laughs). I have no idea why he's shooting that. You know what, I tried to hit a 1‑iron off the big slope, and hitting a 1‑iron off a downhill slope like that, I just lost it way right. And you know, I know I left myself in a great position to put myself to about four feet away and holed the putt which is nice. Q. Well done today. 62, 11 under par at this par 73. See how the rest of the day plays out. Thanks, Jason. Jason, I told your caddie Colin, I don't know what the big deal is, you're not even the first person today to shoot 62. JASON DAY: Yeah, I know. Apparently it's pretty easy to do around here. But yeah, it was a great day. I've been missing a lot of putts over the first three days, and I was actually talking to Ben earlier, you know, I just needed to come out and shoot a low one, and I wasn't expecting 62 today. Q. You know you had a pair of four by 4s in the round twice. You strung four birdies in a row together. JASON DAY: Yeah. It was kind of like a blur a little bit out there today. I wasn't really nervous when I got up because I was just so far behind the lead. And you know, when I got out there and I started playing good and thinking about, you know, I obviously thought it was par 72, but it's par 72. So when I strung those four together, I was thinking, okay, maybe I can shoot a 59, but unfortunately I'll have to settle for 62. Q. You tried to pick 1‑iron off the fairway into 18 and ricocheted off the corporate trailways. JASON DAY: Well, the hardest thing there is you got a severe downslope and you're trying to hit 1‑iron into a left to right breeze with everything down the left is just a penalty, and I wasn't ever going to miss it left. So I made sure that I missed it right, and I missed it way right and got a little lucky off the grand stand and followed it up with a good chip and a putt. Q. Don't know if this is enough to get you into the championship circle, but it is enough to get you to kickoff at the National Championship game tonight. Tell me how you break down the Bucks. JASON DAY: You know what, I'm picking the Bucks to win. I'm thinking it's going to be a high‑scoring game. It's going to be in the 30s at least, but I don't know the actual total, but I think it's going to be a high‑scoring game. It should be exciting. Q. Well, if Ohio State performs as well as you, you have nothing to worry about. JASON DAY: I hope so. Great. Thanks, mate. Q. What went wrong with those first four holes, man? JASON DAY: I know. I missed a couple of short ones out there, but I am not complaining. I played great out there today, and we were talking about it yesterday that I just needed to come out and hole some putts, and I rolled in some nice ones. The momentum was huge when I knocked that one in on the par‑5, 15th and kept it going and bringing 16 and 18 was obviously nice to do that. Q. What does it say about the mindset of just going out and being free? JASON DAY: Well, I was just talking to Ellie last night because I was stressing last night. I was just thinking about my putts and I'm like why am I not holing putts, because I feel like I'm hitting some pretty good putts, and starting the day at 9‑under, I really didn't have any nerves or anything like that because I was so far behind the lead. When I got out there, I felt good, I felt like I was hitting it great, and I just started rolling some putts. You know, two times I went out there and had four birdies in a row, and you know, I just don't know. The mindset was like kind of like a blur today. So I was just kind of on auto pilot and it felt great. Q. Regardless of where you finish tonight, what's this do going forward in terms of that confidence? You said you might have been starting to lose a little bit of it last night, but now you know it's all there. JASON DAY: It wasn't so much with the hitting. It was just more so with the putting because it was a frustrating week the first three days, especially yesterday, giving myself so many opportunities on the greens. And not to be able to capitalize on that was very frustrating for me and that's why I was stressing so much last night just thinking about it, what am I doing. And then today, you know, just felt like I was the best player in the world, you know playing today and putting the way I played. It was special out there, and you know, I'm just glad I'm in and get the year off to a good start. Q. Did you see that JASON DAY had posted a 62 earlier? JASON DAY: I did. I was standing on 9 green, and I was like, oh, I see JASON DAY shot 62. I was thinking it was 10‑under at the time because I thought it was par 72. But two 11‑unders in two hours is pretty solid. Q. Did you see that out there? JASON DAY: Yes. (Laughs). You know what, to be honest, I did not expect to shoot that 11‑under. I was just out there just trying to go as low as possible, you know, give myself as many chances on the greens like I had the last three days before that, and I just happened to make all the putts today which was nice. Q. I'm right in saying this is your first time at 11‑under on TOUR; right? JASON DAY: Oh, yeah. It's the lowest by far. Q.  By far? JASON DAY: Yeah. By far. Q. Is this the first time you've got a course record on TOUR? JASON DAY: I think so, yeah. Tied. Q. Knowing you've had a tough week with the putter and missed a couple early, you could go in a couple of different directions here. JASON DAY: Yeah. Yesterday it could have gone pretty bad because I was getting pretty frustrated, and I strung three bogeys together on the front nine of yesterday's round and I was pretty angry with myself and kind of dusted myself off and got back in there and ended up shooting 2‑under for the round. You know, I was just trying to stay strong because at the end of the day you just don't know what's going to happen, and today I came out and played great and shot myself way up the leaderboard. So you know, it's a funny game, you know. It's all about inches and, you know, it could go either way, but it's a fine line from missing a cut and winning a tournament. You know, I'm just glad that all the work that I put in in the off season is paying off so early. And to be able to bring the confidence over from, you know, Tiger's tournament and the Shark Shootout win to this tournament was special. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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