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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 18, 2016Jason DayOrlando, Florida JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Jason Day into the Interview Room, a spectacular, bogey-free, 7-under round, 65 today. Jason, you kept the roll going again today. Just comment on your round. JASON DAY: Yeah. I mean it was -- I mean it was great. I felt like I couldn't do anything kind of wrong out there which was good and was driving it nice and was driving it really long. I had several shot to hit a lot of greens and I putted fantastic today. To hole 125 feet of putts was fantastic and the putt on 9 definitely helped that along and the one on 17. But I was very, very pleased. My goal was to try and stay patient but still aggressive and it worked out over the last two days. JOHN BUSH: We'll go right into questions. Q. Does it feel easy? JASON DAY: Doesn't feel easy at all. It's really hard. You talk about the course or myself? Q. The performance you displayed out there today. JASON DAY: I'm still grinding. It may look easy on the outside but it's not. There are certain shots out there, certain second shots out there I really have to kind of bare down and make sure that I hit the correct shot out there, and if you just have that one little lapse in concentration that could be the swing of momentum where you're making a bogey or a double bogey out there and instead of being 13-under you're back at 10. But, I'm seeing the shots, hitting the shots and they're coming out exactly how I'm seeing them and, you know, once I get on the green the surface is so pure that, you know, I'm just seeing the line and it's going in, which is great. I mean 13, like I said 13, 14-under is usually average that, wins the tournament around here. I'm there already so I just got to be patient because I know I think we're going off in 3-somes tomorrow early in the morning and finishing at 3:00 so that tells me there's some weather coming in and that might bring in some wind. So, you know, days like that are very trying. I got to be patient with myself. Q. The third shot on the 4, the par 5 there, were you in between clubs or you didn't like the one you picked? What did that do for you once you were able to save that for par? JASON DAY: I had 259 yards to the pin and it's 12 on, four from the left. If you get anything over the back there it's really difficult to try and judge. So I hit a 3-iron or 3-wood or 4-wood? My 4-wood goes 265 off the ground which is way too much and if it lands any sort -- any -- if it lands past that pin on the downslope it's going back over the back of the green. 3-iron goes 235 yards. I didn't have enough fire power to get it there. I think, you know, standing there looking at it again I should have probably laid up instead of having a good opportunity getting it the green. I knew I could get to the green. Way too far between clubs and I think I played the correct shot, the second shot there but, once again, if it was just a little bit further left I would have had an easier chip. I could just bump it in the hill, roll it up the green and maybe get a birdie there. I got out there and try to hit this flop shot, kind of spinning flop shot. Kind of bounced on me through the impact zone, kicked it over the back and I didn't hit the greatest putt coming back. To be able to get that par was huge because I ended up going birdie -- I went two birdies in a row after that because I mean, once again, those times where you have the momentum going your way and if you make a bogey on a par 5 on a crucial hole where possibly making birdie when you're in the middle of the fairway, those are the times you don't want to be making bogies. So, you know, glad to walk away with a par there in the end even though I did have an opportunity for birdie. Q. The difference over the last few weeks compared to what you feel this week, you talked about this yesterday is trusting your swing, being able to be aggressive. Was 6, the bunker shot at 6 an example of that looked like that was another one of those shots that you went after. There was no worry at all. JASON DAY: Well, I've been trying -- I've been practicing -- I was at the Bear's Club over the last couple of weeks in Florida and I was trying this flop and run bunker shot because I never really tried this kind of fat bunker shot. I said I've been working on this shot and perfect time to do it and it worked out great. I mean when you're trying shots that you really haven't put in play before with water behind and things can possibly go wrong, that means it shows that I'm pretty confident with how I'm feeling out there to actually try a new shot that I I've never played in a tournament before because usually I'm clipping the bunker shots pretty clean and they're coming out high and they're spinning rather than hitting it a good three, four inches behind and coming out a little lower and running. The work that I put in with the short game is definitely paying off and, you know, like I said, Doral was great indication of how I felt going into this week and it's been pretty good so far. Q. You mentioned the driving before. How close do you feel like are you to driving it the way you were last year when you were on that run and thinking today like 3, 4 and 5, for example, and how much does that sort of spill into the other parts of your game? JASON DAY: Yeah. I did a lot of work with TrackMan at the start of the year just to try to get the numbers. I found that if I'm swinging two to three degrees on the inside into out at like 2 degrees up with 1.5 degrees open face, it's perfect little start out to the right and draw. I just kept -- that's all I'm trying to do is just really get up there and just try get that exact same feeling through my swing and I find if I hit it harder I can hit it straighter. If I hit it harder -- I was talking to Zach out there today. I don't have an off speed driver. I don't have it because I think about it too much. When I try and slowdown and hit off speed drivers it just throws my swing out of sync. When I'm standing there and I'm feeling good and feel like I'm swinging on the inside I can get up there and try to hit it as hard as I can. This week I feel good. My swing feels put together. It feels in sync and I can get after it. Q. Jason, last month as Peeble you spoke about not finding any clarity in the wake of becoming No. 1 in the world and winning a Major last year. Is that still the case? Has that changed at all. Is there anything that you found any different? JASON DAY: No. I think -- I mean the ultimate goal this year I guess is to try and get back there and, you know, I hate playing bad golf, I really do. That's why I work really hard and the only way I know to get back to No. 1 in the world is to win tournaments and I enjoy the process of going through the work and going through stuff like this and embracing it because it's only making me better the more times I put myself here and it's making myself stronger as a player, as a person going forward. I think, you know, like you say, I really didn't find much clarity with being No. 1 because I wasn't there very long. I kind of stopped straight away. If I can get back there again this year that would be fantastic. That's the ultimate goal to get back there and if I can do that, then try and stay there as long as I can. I would love to go on like a McIlroy run where he was there for a number of years and then, you know, instead of just being there for four weeks and just being around that top spot. Q. You said that nothing really changed for you either personally or professionally after that. Do you view that as a positive or negative? JASON DAY: Definitely a positive. Other than just having a little bit more, giving my time a little bit more here and there to media and fans, that's totally fine, that comes with who you are and how you're playing at the time. It's a good thing I was doing that because I mean it's bad if I'm -- no one is taking notice of me. I think, you know, just embracing it. It's hard to go through it because right now I'm just sitting there going, Jordan looks like he's playing pretty good, Rory is playing pretty good and, you know, I want to try and get a win under my belt here first and see -- even though I have two more days, the ultimate goal is to try and get this win and then go forward from there because I really feel like I'm trending towards a really good Augusta and that's kind of like did -- even though I'm trying to win this week, winning big stuff like that certainly catapults you to No. 1. That's what everyone watches, too. Q. Jason, you know, I think you have a five shot lead now and that could change, obviously. What's the mentality going in when you're leading by so much and playing just so well? JASON DAY: Just trying to extend that lead, keep trying to extend that lead. Obviously I have to be patient out there but I always talk about being patient and aggressive. Aggressive means if I have a wedge in my hand do I need to hit it 20 feet away, then aggressive to that target. About being patient because as long as I can get myself on the greens I feel like I've got a good chance of holing the putts. Like I said earlier, I think the weather is going to be coming in, might be a little bit of a trying day tomorrow. Going to cool down on Sunday. So, the ball for me might not be going as far and the lines I take might not be so aggressive as I have been the last two days but, once again, all you're trying to -- instead of just going okay, this is kind of the score I want to shoot, I got to keep trying to extend that lead, trying to get more birdies and more birdies and more birdies. The moment you go okay, like I've got to my average tournament score, winning score which is 13, 14, I can just kind of coast it. You can't coast it in. You got to keep pushing forward and instead of -- if you can beat the field by, you know, so many shots try and keep adding to that and trying beat them by more shots. That's the mentality that you have to take into the next two days. Q. Playing with the lead is not always the easiest thing. How much value did you take from the BMW in a tournament like that? JASON DAY: Yeah. I go out to a big lead at the BMW. It's very easy to get ahead of yourself because the fans are telling you birdie and keep pushing and I mean it's very, very easy to start listening to people on the sidelines and thinking, you know, what are the media guys saying, and you need to keep pushing, make this more exciting. So many things run through your head. Just -- at the BMW I showed a lot of patience. I shot 18-under the first two days and shot 4-under the next two days which is very boring golf, but I won, which was great. I'm not saying that I'm going to do what I did the last few, the last two days at BMW. I've got to think my way around this golf course. I've got to make sure that I'm trying to be smarter than everyone else. My game plan has to be on point and I have to make sure that if I'm out there not to try and get soaked up in much of this and go to single focus and the ultimate goal it to win the tournament. I got to be deliberate in everything I do. Q. If you could switch roles and you had our miserable, low paying job for the day, what would you write about yourself? JASON DAY: About Jason Day if I was you? That's a good question. Very boring to listen to on a Friday afternoon (laughter) because it seems like I'm saying the same stuff over and over again. You're looking for something for me to say funny. Yeah, I got off to a good start. Q. Thanks. JASON DAY: Got off to a good start. I'm just -- I don't know. That's the one question that I've never had. It's not low paying. You enjoy it. You're out in the open and get to go bug us everyday. Q. Ice cream. JASON DAY: I'm sure there's nice food in there. Q. You mentioned out there after your round that early today when you were on the range you were hitting 10, 20 yards shorter. Did the temperature early affect anything that you did going off? JASON DAY: Yeah. I mean definitely does. So, I think it was around 70 degrees when we teed off and I'm note sure what the high was today but probably was well into the 80s. It got really warm and sunny. I was hitting it about ten yards shorter in the morning. I was talking earlier today that if I would have gone on that stretch from 3, 4 and 5 with driver I wouldn't have hit driver on the lines that I took. I wouldn't have hit driver on 5. It would have been iron and then it would have been an iron on to the green instead of a driver down 5 and a flip wedge, just because I hit it so much shorter in the morning because of the temperature change. Once it starts warming up the ball starts going a lot further. It reacts different. Today I had 172 yards into the 10th hole and hit 7-iron where that is usually an 8-iron for me. It was a club difference in the morning and once it started heating up I could go back to normal distances. JOHN BUSH: All right. Jason Day, thank you, sir. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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