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WGC DELL MATCH PLAYMarch 26, 2016Jason DayAustin, Texas CANDACE REINHEIMER: Jason, you finished 3-2 just now over Koepka, which advances you to the semifinals with McIlroy, but also to No. 1 in the world. Tell us if that gives you any confidence going into tomorrow and a little bit about your round today. JASON DAY: It doesn't give me anymore added confidence. I know Rory is going to be a tough opponent tomorrow. It seems like he's hitting it great. He always hits it the great. Seems like he's got the putter going, as well. It's definitely going to be a difficult match tomorrow morning. It's going to be a difficult match in the afternoon regardless. But I think it's going to be an exciting match, too. I'm looking forward to being able to play against Rory, especially in this format. We don't get to do that too much. Excited about the challenge of trying to beat Rory. Q. The last two champions of this event going against each other, a huge match for you. You're already No. 1, but you can obviously go further ahead and secure it into Augusta? JASON DAY: I've just got to keep focusing on trying to keep pushing forward. There were a couple of moments out there today once Brooks -- he got up on top of me and he was 1-up, I think he birdied like 5 and then birdied 6 and got to 1-up. And it was those moments where you're sitting there going, oh, man, I feel tired and you're going through emotion a little bit. You kind of want to feel like you coasted in, but you've got to say to yourself, no, I can't have that. I have to keep pushing, keep fighting until the end. Obviously this is a very long week. We're playing seven rounds in five days. It's not only physically tough, but it's mentally tough, as well. But I've got to just keep pushing, regardless of what happens and how I start tomorrow. Anything can happen in match play. And the good thing about match play is you're only 1-down if you have a bad hole, so you've just got to keep focusing on just pushing forward. Q. You've played 19 holes less than Rory this week, that should help? JASON DAY: Yeah, hopefully. I hope so. Obviously it definitely helps with what happened to Paul yesterday, only playing six holes. But any sort of advantage I can take, I need against him. He's obviously a fit looking bloke, so I don't think fitness is going to have a -- he's going to have any trouble with that. I've got to make sure I'm sharp and I've got to come out on top and make sure I don't miss any information out there and focus on just giving every shot a hundred percent. Q. I know you mentioned earlier this week it would have been special to play Jordan here in the final. I know that's not going to happen. But any added excitement about taking the No. 1 ranking from him in his backyard? JASON DAY: No, to be honest, I wasn't really focusing on it. I know that -- I talked to Ben earlier this week and he said if you beat -- get past where Jordan is, you'll be able to have a good shot getting to No. 1. I know that winning takes care of everything, and I've just got to focus on trying to win my match. That's what I've been trying to do is just focus on winning my match, and it's worked out great so far. I've got two more matches to try and win and I'm really trying to focus on that because I really want to win this tournament. I really want to -- I've won this tournament before and know how hard it is to win it. I think it's a great tournament to have on the CV, and I just want to try and -- I just want to try to win it so bad, because I really want to win. Q. How would you compare yours and Rory's game? JASON DAY: I would say very similar. I think he's probably got me with some length out there. We both hit it pretty long. He hits some fantastic iron shots. On the greens is going to be -- I think on the green is going to be the biggest difference tomorrow between me and Rory. If he comes out and he putts well, he can get things going pretty quick. The last round at Arnold Palmer, shot 65 and he looked like he did it easy. He's one of those guys that makes rounds look very easy and simple, and it's not easy to shoot those scores. So I think the difference tomorrow is going to be on the greens definitely. Q. What advantage do you think you have? JASON DAY: I think -- I know that he's very tough. To be in his position, being No. 1 in the world that long, you have to have everything going well. You have to drive it well, hit good iron shots, have a good short game and putt well, but also have a good mental game. For me, even though I don't have -- I'm not physically a hundred percent. Mentally I'm just grinding it out as much as possible. It's very stressful out there, but it's fine, I'm happy with that. So I think my biggest thing is just to try and stay mentally focused on the golf. Q. Talk about physical, I read that you were taking treatment on your back after the first round. Is it bothering you still or are there some other problems? JASON DAY: There's probably not a day where it doesn't bother me, but some days it bothers me more than others. But this week especially, a lot of golf in a short period of time and then with the travel that we've had, it can be kind of taxing on the back and the body. But I did get some treatment. I got treatment for about 20 minutes. We had a really quick turnaround. But I'm going to go in for some more treatment. I've been on the massage table a lot this week. That's probably why I'm still up and around and playing, because of what Brian is doing with my body in there and being able to get me to move around and be able to hit the shots where I can. But it's sore. But everyone else is playing with some sort of illness, as well. They've got some sort of soreness, but for me it's inflamed more than it usually is. Q. You've had a lot of match play experience growing up. What's made you such a determined and fierce match play player? JASON DAY: I just don't give up. I think that's the biggest thing, because it is easy to sometimes go two or three down and just kind of coast it in and just take your loss and move on. I think the biggest thing for me is to understand even though I may be down, you're never out of the fight. You can always find a way to get it done. Not only playing these matches and being in the heat of the battle, I see it as I want to win this tournament. But I see it as great experience going forward, too, because you can't simulate what we feel out there unless you're in contention on a Sunday. And to be able to feel that emotion and the feelings that go through your body from Wednesday all the way through to Sunday is very important and crucial to the development of my game. Once again, I just -- I think for me I just don't quit. And I'll keep fighting until it's over, until I either have lost or have won. Q. Two weeks ago you were supposedly out of form. Four days ago you were on your death bed and missing the Masters. Take us through it. Now you've won. You've got to here, world No. 1. You potentially could win tomorrow and go back-to-back? JASON DAY: It's the strangest thing how the year has gone. I did get off to a slow start and everyone is asking me what is going on. Do you need to start panicking because the first major is coming around? I win last week, the process was fantastic. Then I come this week and hurt my back, and everyone is talking about he may be missing Augusta. What will he do? If he keeps playing, will that push the prep for Augusta further back? And will he be able to get any sort of I guess momentum going into Augusta with an injury? And then I'm No. 1 in the world by Saturday. It's the weirdest thing. That's just how it is. You get on these sort of momentum runs and you get on a high and your confidence is built up so much that you keep playing and you're playing great. So my biggest thing is to -- I was just glad that I could play this week after what happened on Wednesday. And I think a lot of that has to do with what we're doing inside on the massage table and also me being disciplined with trying to recover and doing what I needed to do to get my body ready for the events or this week. But it's going to be a great feeling. My main focus is to try to win both my matches tomorrow. And it would be really fantastic to be able to go into Augusta as No. 1 in the world. That would be really exciting for me. Q. It's funny you said that, because just offhand when Jordan was beat, one of the things he said was, well, maybe it's not a bad thing, I'll go in there without it, less pressure on me? You embrace it. JASON DAY: You've got to embrace it. You've got to enjoy that. Once again, we're sitting here and the amount of pressure put on our shoulders from everyone in the room and fans and your team and all that stuff and yourself, there's a lot of pressure going into tournaments like that with everyone expecting you to do well. But I enjoy those moments because it can only make me better. I know what it feels like now. For the next time it happens again, I'll be able to react differently and hopefully it will be a different result. But for now, I'm trying to focus on winning the next two matches and see how that feels going into Augusta, if I -- obviously I became No. 1, but to be able to get that feeling walking around there to be No. 1 is a pretty cool feeling. Q. You've obviously had plenty on your plate this week, so you may not be paying attention to this. But you expressed some really sincere worry about Jordan. I wonder if you saw anything for this week from him. He had three great days, you might revise what you thought in any way or do you still have that? JASON DAY: No, I mean, it's just -- I worry about everyone. Obviously it's not just him. I'm not playing favorites. But everyone was talking about Jordan and his schedule. It can be tough for a 22-year-old kid to be No. 1 in the world and be the face of the PGA Tour and the world of golf in general. Everyone expecting him to play well every single week. And sometimes it's difficult. If he wants to play 56 events in two years, if that's what he wants to do, I'm happy for him. His schedule is his schedule. What he does is what he does. I know exactly what being burnt out feels like. I know exactly what it feels like to be on the golf course and not be there sometimes. And I just don't want him to have to go through that. I want him to be always hungry. I want him to have the results each and every week. I want him to succeed. Because if he succeeds, I succeed, because it pushes me. And I want him to be able to do that and not go through that burnt out feeling. Like Ben said, it may be a good thing that he's going into Augusta at No. 2. It may motivate him more. And once again, he's won there at Augusta. Maybe a little bit of spotlight will come off him, but I don't think so. I still think he's the defending champ going in there. He's a very popular kid. He's a very popular face in golf. What I said is just in my opinion, and everyone has an opinion. Once again, I want him to succeed. And that's just hands down. I'd like to see the kid succeed and it just pushes me to go further. Q. After playing five rounds here, where would you rank this golf course as far as degree of difficulty compared around the other PGA Tour events? JASON DAY: I think this is a fantastic match play course. The way they've set it up this week with how the greens are, definitely a very, very cool match play tournament course. Stroke play event I'm not totally sure. Obviously with how much undulation, it feels like we've gone from like I bit of Dove Mountain to this place and it's -- not eerily similar, but it's got some similar traits to it, as well. But this is a fantastic golf course. The first time I've ever been to Austin and obviously the first time playing Austin Country Club. There's a lot of opportunities. There's a lot of risk-reward holes that you can go out and drive. And that makes it exciting for us, makes it exciting for the fans. I think they've hit a home run here with playing this golf course. Hats off to the members for letting us have their golf course for a week and the superintendent has done a fantastic job with getting the course ready for us. But I think it's a great golf course to play on. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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