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HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSJanuary 6, 2016Jason DayKapalua, Maui, Hawaii ALEX URBAN: Like to welcome Jason Day to the interview room here at the 2016 Hyundai Tournament of Champions. Obviously last year, five wins, major championship, it was an incredible year for you. Been a little while since we've seen you; a new addition to the family. Maybe talk about being back here in Maui and about last season and the changes in your family and then we'll open up for questions. JASON DAY: Yeah, it's been a while, around three months, is a long time to have off. Going off last year, it was a fantastic year for me. It was kind of a break out year for me with regard to how the second half panned out. It was a great year. I can't say anymore about how good the year was, and even to top it off, we had a second child, Lucy, and it was kind of big for me to kind of stay with the family, because as everyone -- it's been written down before, but he will lie had dealt with postpartum depression with Dash, so I wanted to make sure I was there for Ellie and Dash and Lucy after Lucy was delivered. To be able to take that time off, it got a little bit boring after about a month, but finally got through it and I'm here and I'm looking forward to starting the year. Q. Wasn't boring when you went to the Cavs game. JASON DAY: You know what, I knew that was going to be the first question (laughter). Q. When you walked off the golf course at Chambers Bay and what proceeded after that, how much could you have even imagined when you left Washington State that you could have the physical ability to play as well as you did the rest of the year? JASON DAY: I don't think I -- it was kind of a surprise to me how well I played. I knew that I had the ability to do it but I didn't think I could have gone on a run like that, win my first major, get to No. 1 in the world; it all happened very quickly. It was a spark. But I felt like I handled it pretty good. Looking at what happened at Chambers and going forward, like I said, it's a surprise to me to really think about how the second half of the season unfolded. I was a little disappointed with how things panned out at the U.S. Open, had the vertigo issues going on; I wanted to win that event. And even going forward with the disappointment at the British Open, but after that, it was fantastic for me. Everything kind of fell together. Q. Did you leave Chambers a little frightened that you couldn't play much? Or what was the emotion when you left there, not only the disappointment of not winning but the fear of what you didn't know? JASON DAY: About the vertigo? Q. Yeah. JASON DAY: Well, it happened again at the British. Saturday it came back but I didn't tell anyone about it because it would be a lot more questions that would happen, and it wasn't as severe. I was a little dizzy that day and it happened the Saturday of The Open Championship. I just kept my mouth shut about it because I knew that it would open another can of worms and I didn't want to talk about it. But since then, I've been fine. I've been making sure that I'm staying on top of it and you can't control it. It will come back whenever it wants to. Q. How did you handle it that day? JASON DAY: I had a cortisone that I had to talk early for a few days. But once I got on top of that, I think I had 25 pills I had to take, which is a lot. Q. Saturday before the round -- JASON DAY: The thing is that I was kind of resting. As soon as I played, I went back and laid down and rested and did nothing at night. I made sure I stayed on top of the medication that I had to take that day. And from there, Sunday rolled around and I was feeling much better. Q. Was that in your mind every round you played this year? JASON DAY: Only if it's a good round -- (laughter). Q. Just for the record, if you don't mind going back to that Saturday, what part of that whole scenario in terms of reaction and coverage, all that stuff -- JASON DAY: It's just amazing how fast the guys are. Really, people that think I should have jumped in front of Ellie; they must have the fastest reaction time. I'm trying to learn how to get my arm in front of Ellie every time now. But it's amazing how quick it happened. You're sitting there, and you know things have happened in the past with guys going into the crowd and stuff, but you're not really expecting it. All of a sudden, we see a ball come down and across and I go to kind of put my hand, because I, you know, thought it was going to go out-of-bounds and I was going to throw it back to someone. All of a sudden it comes flying from the side and no one knows what to do and he just jumps. And the photo -- the photo didn't do it justice. The photo that was going around, I was like this, and maybe it wasn't even where I really was -- Q. That was a good reaction. JASON DAY: Well, I mean, you don't, what's this going to do? It happened so quick, I'm going to do that? I'm not going to stop a 260-pound guy that's 6-8 running full speed. Ellie took it like a champ, though. (Laughter). Once I saw her, she was on the ground, she was kind of freaking out a little bit about her neck and once they started doing the test the on her, she's moving her legs, hands, feet, arms, I knew everything was going to be okay. We just had to make sure we got to the hospital without her moving her neck. And everything was going good. She had a concussion, post-concussion symptoms. I went out twice. I went to a Detroit Lions game, couldn't get away from the media, and then I went to a Cavs game and couldn't get away from the media. That was the only time I got out of the house in three months and it happened to be on TV. (Laughter). Q. (No mic). JASON DAY: Yeah, I was part of the camera crew. Didn't get paid for that, either. (Laughter). Q. What were you doing? JASON DAY: I was holding a lens, looked like a $10,000 lens. I was holding it. I kind of messed up a couple of times because Jim (ph) who I was with, was yelling at me because I was watching the game more so than giving him the lens. Actually I really wanted to go and help the guys out but I wanted to be up close and see how fast the guys are. And you can't get a seat like that; just through the connections that I have with the guys that do the cameras out here on the PGA TOUR, I went out there and got kind of a front row seat. Q. A lot of people we've spoken to have talked about how the season is structured. The field used to be loaded and now it's more of a different -- where are you -- JASON DAY: I played four holes. A good four holes, too. It was a team thing and we started out eagle, birdie, par, birdie and most of that wasn't me. I was doing an RBC day down in Florida and I played four holes with some of the guys. That was the only time I picked up the clubs. Q. When was that? JASON DAY: December. I only had a month off, so form shouldn't be too fussy then. I was just explaining this the other day; that it's not so much -- because I've had 72 holes of actual golf on this golf course before I tee it up, and also the practice that I had before that, as well. So nine days of practice and prep for this week. It's just trying to get that mental sharpness back, trying to hit shots and hit shots at targets and go through the mental process of what you need to do to hit shots under pressure. That's the big deal here. Q. One more follow-up about your health; I apologize. Are you now at a point where it's not an issue or it's still an issue that you always have to deal with? JASON DAY: Yeah, to be honest, I don't know. I'm on medication until the end of this year. Q. So it is an issue. JASON DAY: Yeah, it's an issue. I'm seeing the doctor at OSU, at Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio who is a fantastic doctor. He's helping me out big time with that. We did a bunch of tests this just in the off-season, a bunch of -- like these eye tests and vertigo tests and all that stuff. That seemed to come back for a pretty good, so we are on for another year and then we're off. Q. As you look at this field, this week, four of the top six in the rankings and all the way up, it sounds like Davis Love, the young guys -- how special is it to be able to start the calendar year here in this format in this way? JASON DAY: Yeah, it's nice to bring the family out. I usually take the fall. I've never played over in China. I've never played over in Malaysia. I think I've played only a couple of times in the Fall Series, as well. So that was kind of my time to take off. So this is the start of my season. Whereas, where Doug just talking before, most guys are in midseason form because they have played maybe six tournaments already. And these guys are ready, because it just doesn't stop anymore. There's no time because the wraparound season, it just keeps going and going and going. So the guys have to stay sharp, because if they don't stay sharp, then they are not going to play as well. To be able to come out here in I think a 30-man field or so, no cut, it's a good confidence builder going forward and just really telling me where my game is. My ultimate goal is try to come here and compete and win, and keep the progress from last season going through this season. Q. How do you kind of keep that progress going? You had the break obviously, winning a major -- what's the difficulty? JASON DAY: Be great to keep playing the way I'm going like last year. But I've just got to put in the work. Every day I'll wake up and you know how some days you wake up and you want to go to the gym, but like your mind is going, oohh, I'm too lazy. When you go and you think to yourself, I can do it tomorrow, just get up and do it. Just don't even think about it and just get up and do it. That's kind of the mind-set, if I come to work, and everything has to be 100 percent full bore this year; I'm very motivated to get back to No. 1. I'm very motivated to win as many tournaments as I can this year, and to be a more dominant player, that's kind of the mind-set. Whether it happens or not, you know, we'll see at the end of the year. But I'm going to give it a good shot. I'm going to work my tail off every single day to try and achieve that. Q. How close are you right now to the three victories -- JASON DAY: Well, we'll see. I know that I've got it in me because of how the second half went last year. I know that I have it in me and I've got the belief that I can do it. I've just taken three months off (laughing). I'm excited and a little nervous at the same time just to see how it goes. But it all comes down to, like anything, it all comes down to want and if I want it enough, it will happen. And I truly believe in that. Q. Talking about a continuation of what you've done, does it make it harder for you to look at this, the continuation, when you've had a three-month break? JASON DAY: Yeah, it can. It's not like where most of the guys that has had a great season like Jordan, he's kind of played on. So he's kind of continuing that good form going forward with very little break. I tend to, I think I've played the least amount out of every player in the world, or at least in the Top-50, which is like 36 events which is very, very little. And that's kind of the way I like things. I like to be able to know exactly where I'm playing, know exactly what I need to do to prep for a tournament, what kind of golf course it is, what the stats are for me that week and how I play that golf course; make a decision on how to attack that golf course and go from there. And it's really execution from there, and that's kind of what Tiger did back in the day is he played anywhere between 15 and 20 events a year, but really went from, you know, from where he was to dominating that way. ALEX URBAN: Before we break, earlier this morning, Kingston Heath was announced as the location for the World Cup later this year. If you have any comments on that golf course? JASON DAY: Yeah, Kingston Heath is a fantastic golf course. I remember playing in a British Open qualifier back in the day, and it's going to be a fantastic golf course to host that tournament. Looking forward to seeing what kind of teams are going to be going down there to play in the World Cup. I'm not sure how the format will be this year, but it's always exciting to see the best players in the world represent their countries, and especially going down to Sandbelt golf courses, such as Kingston Heath to play, because there's nothing like playing in Melbourne. Q. Did you play a practice round there? JASON DAY: Where. Q. Kingston Heath. JASON DAY: I haven't played in Australia for two years. I haven't been back. Been too long. Q. How do you pick your outfits? JASON DAY: They pick me, really. Anything I put on looks good, right? (Laughter). I pick it out. I think I'm pretty good. I have a good visual on what I need to wear. This is kind of nice. It's got a little bit of grey here that matches the pants, and the shoes have a little bit of grey. I'm a little bit of a metro sexual when it comes to that. We script it out early. I mean, Atlanta, after TOUR championship last year. Q. (No mic.) JASON DAY: They kind of put it out and they show me what I potentially a.m. going to wear and what I will wear. And they say, is this too much, and sometimes it is too much because I'm kind of a boring person and I like to wear just plain colors. They kind of put it out and go, okay, it's going to be a little bit more kind of crazy colors this year for me because I'm kind of stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit with regards to where wearing Adidas stuff this year. Time to try something new I guess. Q. What's your schedule look like up to Augusta? JASON DAY: Hyundai, Torrey, Pebble. Q. No Sony? JASON DAY: No Sony. Doral and that's as far as I've gotten. I'm not too sure what else I'm playing after that. Not much golf, is there. I'm trying to play 20 events for the year. I'm trying to play 20 events. I think that works good for the World Rankings and I think that works for being a father, but also staying competitive and playing. Q. No mic. JASON DAY: Right now, I've got like a five-year exemption or so on the PGA TOUR, so this year, I'm really trying to attack the golf courses and really just trying to focus on the golf courses I really played well on, and that's kind of what Tiger did. You look at Torrey Pines, he won like eight times or something like that. You look at Akron, the events that he always went back to, which is usually the big events, he always won. So that's what I'm trying to do is really focus on the golf courses that really suit my game and I really play well in and try and win those. ALEX URBAN: Thank you for your time, Jason. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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