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ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANSApril 26, 2016Jason DayAvondale, Louisiana DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome event ambassador, world No. 1 Jason Day, to the interview room at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Jason, coming off a fourth-place finish last year here, so just some thoughts on being back. JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, it's good to be back. I got some time off last week, which was nice, and went to the gym and tried to work on a few things, especially in the gym, that was -- I wasn't too happy with my swing. So I mean, I had a good week off, though, spent time with the family. The family is not here, but it's Ellie's birthday this week, and unfortunately I can't be with her this week. I'm here, and I'm looking forward to a nice week. Hopefully the weather can commit for us, and excited about the potential of trying to win my third tournament this week. DOUG MILNE: You mentioned the two wins, looking for your third this week. You're one of two players to have won twice already this year, so kind of an extension of where things ended up last year. What are you feeling most confident about? JASON DAY: Right now? Q. Yeah. JASON DAY: Well, after the five weeks that I had on the road, from Bay Hill, Match Play, had four days off until Augusta early, led Augusta, played Heritage, and by the Heritage week, I was a little tired. On top of it, there was some certain things that had kind of crept into my game, bad habits that over time, when you're playing a lot, you don't get to practice, obviously, and you're in playing mode. When things creep into your game, you don't have time to work them out. Last week was a good week for me to get onto the range and chipping green, putting green, and really try and work some of those kinks out. And yesterday was another day to even furthermore work out those kinks. I feel pretty good about my game right now. I'm very pleased with where I'm at mentally and physically, so from there I've just got to try and make sure I stick to the game plan, stay focused on trying to win the event, and hopefully the rest takes care of itself. Q. What would you attribute your not being happy with your play at the Heritage to? You said some bad habits crept in. Was it fatigue as much as anything else? And secondly, have you spent five weeks on TOUR before? JASON DAY: To the second part of your question, I've played a lot of tournaments in a row before, and it's just not a good formula for me. I usually try and play two on, a week off, two on, or a week on, week off, something like that, where I can try and rest up and prepare for a tournament. With regards to Heritage week, I just had a shocking third round. It could have been mental fatigue in there. I had a terrible attitude when I was playing that round. Mix that in with bad weather and a bad attitude, and unfortunately I should be more professional about the way I -- I mean, I was fine. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary to anyone or my caddie or anything else, just inside I had a bad attitude, and emotionally it got to me that round, and unfortunately I think I was switched off a little bit more so than I had been the previous round, and I came back Sunday and played a nice round on Sunday because I was so frustrated and angry with the way that I went about it mentally more than physically in the third round. But with regards to bad habits, I think over time, when you are not being able to work on certain things that you want to work on, especially at golf tournaments. When you're there at a golf tournament, you try to prepare the best you can by playing the golf course and trying to get used to the grasses and trying to get used to bunkers and the layout of the course, and then as a top-ranked player you've got to kind of manage media, you've got to manage fans, you've got to manage time spent on the golf course and the time spent at home, as well, with the family, because I like to have my family on the road. So it is a balancing game with that. So the week off that I had, I did a lot of stuff in the gym that I was happy with, and then also I practiced very hard. I put a lot of work on my long game, and I think a lot of that had to do with more mental that had crept in, and the process that I go through each pre-shot routine wasn't as mentally sharp as it has been at the start of the year. I was thinking about other things rather than going through my normal process, and that takes time to get back into the swing and back into that smoothness of a pre-shot routine where you're going through and you have the -- for me my standard pre-shot routine is to think about certain things, and I got away from that, and now I'm trying to get back to getting back to where I was at the start of the year where I was hitting it much better and chipping and putting it much better, as well. It happens. Playing a lot this year is going to be tough, especially with the upcoming schedule that I have. I did pull out of the Byron because of what we're going to have coming up. I mean, I've got three weeks with two majors in those weeks, and then we've got the Olympics and then we've got four weeks in a row of Playoffs, so it's going to be tough. Q. What makes this week work for you, and what is different about playing when you're the No. 1 player in the world? JASON DAY: Well, I mean, New Orleans, it fit the schedule. I played obviously -- I had a week off, which was great. I was able to go back home, and then I could have taken three weeks off, but I think three weeks off, you have to mix practice in with getting back into playing mode, and if I took three weeks off, I would have got my -- I would have practiced hard, but unfortunately you've got to try and get yourself back in playing mode, and if I would have taken -- I could have played Wells Fargo going into THE PLAYERS, but I wanted to make sure that -- I think it was just a good break between playing here, getting a week off next week, and then getting to THE PLAYERS so that I'm not tired going to THE PLAYERS because obviously that is a huge event for us. What was the second part? Q. Being the No. 1 player in the world. JASON DAY: I think just the process of trying to get better and shooting for that goal of becoming No. 1, you have to -- especially when you're trying to get there, you have to just soak yourself in that process of trying to get better. Now that I'm No. 1, I have to change my mindset on trying to get there rather than I have to change my mindset to trying to extend that gap between 1 and 2. It all comes down to the same old things. What got me here was the hard work and the smart, consistent hard work that I put into my game, and the will to want to win more than I ever had before. So I have to take the same formula and try and put it into my game now since I'm the No. 1 player in the world and try and extend that gap, and that's my main focus is really trying to play as good as I can and win as much as I can to try and extend that lead. Q. Two completely unrelated questions if you don't mind. First, I think you mentioned that Heritage -- you hadn't been home for about 10 days. Can you explain what a top player like yourself goes through preparing for a golf tournament? JASON DAY: This is going to be interesting. A lot of people think -- a lot of average Joes out there think you just rock up on a Tuesday or a Wednesday of a tournament and just go out and play golf and he just goes out and wins every other week, and it's not like that. For instance, I go out December 28th until last week when I had the time off, I was home 10 days, but I went out to Palm Springs a week early before the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, so I practiced for a whole week, and for that whole week, I'm going to the gym every day. I mean, it's seven to eight hours of work, six to six and a half hours of practice and then hour, hour and a half, maybe more, of gym work every single day. Then I go to the tournament Sunday, and then I'm doing -- I've got my -- the process I have to go through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to try and get prepared for that tournament, then go out, try and execute the game plan, try and win that tournament, and then if I have a week off, then I'm back doing the exact same thing. It's not easy to be away from home that long, but that's -- I mean, Columbus, Ohio, in the middle of the wintertime, I'm not going to get much practice time back home, unfortunately. I don't have a home anywhere else, so I am kind of like a gypsy on the road, just going places, and I've found a good spot in Palm Springs at the Vintage Club, and now I have kind of a really nice spot at the Bear's Club down in Florida during the Florida Swing, so I kind of park myself during the West Coast Swing in Palm Springs, and during the Florida Swing I'm in Palm Beach or Jupiter there, and I'm practicing there. But it's just -- if you want to be the best in the world, you have to work harder than everyone else, and you have to be in front of your competition. So no matter how much you do -- say, for instance, if I do six, six and a half hours of work each day when I'm at home, if I decrease that volume of practice, sooner or later that volume of practice that's decreased will catch up to my game. Not straightaway, but sooner or later down the road it will catch up and then my level of play will come down. Unfortunately that's just how it is. Q. At some point you kind of have to (inaudible) grind yourself into the ground? JASON DAY: You can get burnt out, yeah, very quickly. It's hard. I mean, it's really, really hard. We were very, very spoiled with Tiger and Phil and their dominance in the game, and those two guys pushed each other, which is great. We have that exact same formula with myself, Jordan, Rory, Rickie, and a few of the other guys. But it's tough to be at the top of your game all the time and everyone is expecting you to win, and that sometimes wears on you. I know mentally deep down inside that if I don't work, I'm going to play bad golf, and there's nothing worse in this world right now than me playing bad golf. I hate it. I hate playing poor golf. I want to be in contention all the time, and I want to play and win golf tournaments. So me trying to win as much as I can, I don't know if it's in my nature, just that's how I am, I want to try and win as much as I can; I need to work to do that. That's just me. Some of the guys take a little bit more time off, and I mean, there's so many different ways of doing it to try and prepare yourself out there. That's why I was kind of -- earlier in the year I was talking about Jordan, how he was playing a lot of golf overseas here and there, and that's fine. If he wants to do that, that's fine. But sometimes you've just got to be careful because you're exposing yourself to a lot of new things, and we all try to learn and get better from there. Q. And he goes on spring break. JASON DAY: Yeah, that definitely can help. I mean, these guys are single for the most part. Jordan has a girlfriend, but these guys are single and they're young. You've got to enjoy life. You really have to enjoy life because you only get one shot at this, so you have to enjoy it but you also have to time it out correctly if you're serious about trying to become a dominant player, as well. I mean, it was good to see those guys have a lot of fun. I can't do that because I've got a family, and I understand that. The only two things that I think about in life is my family and golf, and that's all I want to think about. Q. You mentioned the Olympics; what does it mean to you to represent your country on that stage, and what does that event do for golf as a whole? JASON DAY: Well, I think it's definitely going to grow the game. I mean, I think Adam -- with Adam pulling out and Louis and Charl -- let me put it this way: An Olympic athlete has put a lot of time and dedication into their sport to be able to go to the Olympics and try and win a gold medal, or any medal in their sport, and there's so much respect for that because of the amount of time and effort they've put into it. For golfers, it hasn't been in the Olympics for 112 years, so for us, what are the biggest tournaments that we play every year that most people look at are the majors, and your career is pretty much based on how many majors you win and how many tournaments you win. So it's hard to -- it's hard for me to -- you can't really get angry at golfers for trying to say that they're going to pull out of the Olympics because it's never been on our radar to ever win a gold medal because it hasn't been in the sport, so you just can't really get angry at guys for going in there and saying, I'm going to pull out. For me personally, I'm looking forward to the challenge of trying to win a medal. For me it would be really, really fantastic honor to be able to win a gold medal or any medal at the Olympics. I think this is a good platform to be able to grow the game in other countries where they don't have a big platform for golf, India, China, or -- I mean, China is slowly by surely starting to pick up, although fans and a lot of golf is there, but it's important, I think, for the game of golf to be able to do this, but there's a lot of different views out there, especially with the Olympics, but -- there's a few health problems, obviously, as well, so there's a few scares that everyone is obviously wary of, but to be able to go down there and try and win a gold medal and represent your country is a unique and massive honor for a person that is trying to represent their country. Q. Rory said when he was No. 1 he said he was online every Monday to find out what the gap was between him and No. 2 in the world. How much are you following the gap? JASON DAY: I just look at it once every Monday. I look at it once every Monday and see where I'm at. I know I've got a little bit of a gap and Jordan and we've got a little bit of a gap on Rory. But yeah, I mean, it's -- I don't know what it is. It's good to be No. 1. I'm just trying to -- I know I'm at nine weeks now. I just want to get to 10, and after that I want to get to 11 and after that I want to get to 12, and so on and so on. It would be great. I shared a text with Greg Norman earlier this year, and he said that he would love to see him pass him. I'm like ugh, that's 330 something weeks at No. 1. That's a very dominant career in my mind, and if I have the opportunity to do that, I know that's going to take a lot of sacrifice and a lot of dedication to be able to do that. But it's great to be at the top of your game, at the top level, be No. 1, but more so be motivated than ever before to try and extend that lead. Q. Was it tougher getting to the No. 1 ranking or is it more difficult do you find being on top and having everybody gunning for you? JASON DAY: It's a totally different challenge. I mean, getting to No. 1 is the hardest part. Climbing that mountain is very difficult. Having to go through a lot of failures to get to this point is difficult, but you learn the most when you fail, and that's the biggest thing that you've got to understand, that when you're trying to improve something, if you fail, it's okay. You've just got to be open to that failure, learn from it, get better and try and get better for the next tournament. The new challenge of being No. 1 is you've just got a lot of time that you've got to manage, and the hard part for being No. 1 is staying balanced and not getting too distracted from your main goal of trying to win a golf tournament. That's the hardest thing, and that's what I admire most about Tiger and Phil and the guys that have dominated the game for so long is their ability to manage their lives, personal and professional, and still have the will and want to win every golf tournament they compete in. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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