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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2016

Jason Day

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

ALEX URBAN: We'd like to welcome our 2016 PLAYERS Championship winner, Jason Day. This is the 10th PGA TOUR victory of your career, and you're the fifth wire to wire winner in this tournament's history and first since Hal Sutton in 2000. Talk about how you approached the day and the week and what this victory means to you.

JASON DAY: Coming to this week, I was watching The Golf Channel earlier this week. I didn't tell anyone, but watching these guys actually that's on TV, and they said that I really didn't play well around this, and it's true, I never played good around this golf course, and I'm not saying they didn't count me out, but it was very difficult for me to actually do what I did this week and play the way I did.

I think not only that gave me a bit of extra motivation, seeing that on TV, being the No. 1 player in the world and kind of not being one of the guys to look at to win the tournament, but I think it's more for myself and the hard work that I put into my game coming into this week, and especially the year, coming off two wins earlier this year and feeling good about my game knowing that I just had to get in there and try and want it more than anyone else.

I said 14-under was the average score and I ended up beating it by just one, which was nice. I'm just very pleased to be THE PLAYERS champion. I can't say any more.

Q. A seven from 17, Adam Scott called it Tiger-esque. What are your thoughts on that?
JASON DAY: Seven from what?

Q. Seven from 17 starts.
JASON DAY: I mean, that's great to be in the same sentence as Tiger. You know, it's only half the year, so I've got plenty of opportunities to try and win some more. Like I said out there, I've never been more motivated to be No. 1 in the world. I've never been more motivated to try to extend that lead from one to two. All the hard work that I've put into my game right now has paid off, but I've got to keep working hard to win as much as I can.

But it's very pleasing and satisfying to hear players -- the caliber of player like Adam Scott saying that about my game.

Q. Just on the No. 1 thing, your average points now are the highest for a No. 1 since Tiger in 2013. Talk about the motivation to just keep --
JASON DAY: Keep pushing, yeah, keep pushing, because Tiger says he's going to kick my butt when he comes back (laughter), so I'm going to try and extend that gap, so if he does come back and he's turned into Tiger Woods again, I've got to kind of watch my behind.

Yeah, that's the main goal and main reason why I'm trying to extend that lead, so that I stay on top, because at the end of the day, it's very stressful being the No. 1 player in the world. You're in the limelight a lot. You've got more things to do when you get to tournaments, more things to do off weeks. But I wouldn't change it in any way because this is exactly where I want to be, and I want to try and stay here as long as I can while I can, because nothing beats this feeling.

Q. Did Col and you talk about anything on the walk from 9 to 10, or did you give yourself a little internal chewing on 9? What transpired between that to --
JASON DAY: Yeah, I'm going to right the ship. Yeah, I was nervous starting the day. I told Ellie earlier this morning, this is probably the most nervous I've been before a tournament round. Look at it on Golf Channel, he's finished four of the last 54-hole leads he's had, he's finished off, and I'm sitting there going, don't choke. I mean, that would be the worst thing ever. Everyone would be talking about it.

And things like that go through your mind, and they go through your mind out there on the front nine, and it did, it really went through my mind. I just kept on saying to myself, just settle yourself down. Don't do anything too drastic and try and chase pins or do anything stupid out there because, other than 9, for the most part -- I didn't play a great front nine, but once I got to 10, I kind of said to myself, you're still in the game, you've still got the lead. You're still in good shape. Just focus on hitting this next tee shot down the middle, which I did, and then when I got to the second shot, I just said, focus on hitting your shot onto the green, and I did that. And then the next shot, focus on trying to hole the putt, and once I holed the birdie putt, that kind of settled everything down, and then I could kind of relax and go about my way. I played the back nine this week pretty solid.

You know, 16, 17 and 18, once I got there, I was pretty nervous. You know, it was a great birdie on 16, but 17 and 18 -- 17, it's only a 52-degree wedge, but I was close to hitting it in the bloody water there. (Laughter.)

Yeah, very happy to hit the 2-iron down 18. My 2-iron this week, I haven't hit it as far as I ever have in my life until this week, and it was a great asset in my bag.

Q. What was the most important shot you hit today and why?
JASON DAY: Probably the putt on 9, holing the bogey putt on 9. If I walk away with a double bogey there, I let everyone in the field, and that gives them a boost of energy, boost of momentum their way to really say that, oh, okay, we're back in this tournament now. He's not playing well, and obviously he's thinking about trying to win. The putt at 9 to really -- obviously I was right there next to the green in two and felt like an amateur chopping my way to the pin from only 10 yards off the green.

Yeah, that putt was probably the most crucial putt of this tournament for me.

Q. You alluded to the fifth straight closing out on the 54-hole lead. What does it mean when somebody like Tiger -- you make a connection with Tiger, he's offering you this advice; how much of a boost is that for your confidence as somebody with that kind of expertise is willing to share?
JASON DAY: I think -- I don't know his record of closing 54-hole leads out. I think it's very high. I think he's only lost maybe one or so. But to be able to talk to him and really have him text me and say, you know, you need to stay in your world and just focus on just getting it done and don't think about anything else other than just hitting the shot. And all 18 holes are important, not just 16, 17 and 18. It's a pretty good piece of advice, especially coming from a guy that has dominated the game for a very long time.

Everything that I do with my game, off course, and then for us to have that friendship and to be able to be open about talking and him taking me under his wing a little bit with regards to trying to finish tournaments and what he's done in the past, I mean, that's stuff you just can't -- you can't really experience other than just getting there and doing it.

Yeah, I mean, it's been an amazing kind of journey for me to be able to idolize him as a junior guy and growing up and now I'm good mates with him and I get to pick his brain about what he did when he was dominating.

Q. Jason, that famous Muhammad Ali quote about champions, in the back half, he says, "to be a champion you have to be the skill and the will, but the will must be greater than the skill." Your drive to be the best has got to new levels, particularly in these last 12 to 18 months. Is it almost obsession now, this path to greatness you're on?
JASON DAY: It is, but I look at that 10 PGA TOUR wins, and I say to myself, that's not enough, and it isn't enough for me. It's just 10. I want more than 10.

I think wanting more than that -- because I look at that, and that number is not a lot. I look at Tiger and he's 79 or 80 or whatever it is, and Phil is up there, and I'm just like, okay, I want to be able to be looked back on and know that he was one of the greats in the game.

If I have the opportunity to do that, I'm going to try my best. And I have the opportunity to do that right now, try and work as hard as I can to really leave my footprint in this game that has given me so much.

So, you know, like I said earlier, I'm motivated to be No. 1. I'm motivated to extend that lead, but I'm very motivated to win as much as I can right now.

Q. Do you feel like you're on a 10-month roll, or is this just the new baseline for your performance?
JASON DAY: I don't think I'm on -- I mean, it's been a great 10 months that I've had, but the years prior to this 10 months were -- the foundation were to set me up to this point.

I had to fail a lot to learn a lot about myself and learn a lot about my game to really kind of propel me forward to be in a position like this, and everything that I do today is going to have an effect on what I do in the future, as well.

This is great to be THE PLAYERS champion, but now once tonight is done and tomorrow starts, it's another week that I have to get ready and prepare for the next tournament that's coming up, because it's never enough. Winning is never enough, and I've got to try and do it as much as I can before my time is over.

Q. One of your woods covers has J-Day SM gamer. Is there any significance --
JASON DAY: Small head gamer, just so I don't confuse my 3-wood.

Q. I thought it was something --
JASON DAY: No, it's nothing like a cryptic message on there saying you can do this or anything like that.

Q. Dang it.
JASON DAY: No, sorry. (Laughter.)

It would be actually plain if I just had one 3-wood, but I have a couple backups.

Q. Because you like the 3-wood?
JASON DAY: Yeah, it's great, M2 3-woods are great. (Laughter.)

Q. When you won at Whistling Straits, it seemed like you had total command, and when you won earlier this year it seemed like you were just scrambling, getting up-and-down from everywhere. This tournament it almost seemed like it was both cases where the first two rounds you had total command and then on the weekend it seemed like you were just scrambling, getting up-and-down. Is that a fair assessment?
JASON DAY: I think it's fair, but you know, over the last two days, my back nine has been pretty solid. I gave myself plenty of opportunities and kind of tightened the back up. The front side was a little sloppy compared to the first two days.

But looking back now, I'm just going to be able to sit down probably tomorrow or over the week and be able to talk to my team and say, what really do I need to do. I know the feeling that I had going into the front side today. How do I tighten that up and really focus on hitting the good-quality shots, so I don't win by four shots, I win by five, six, seven, or eight, because I think if I came out on point and was able to hit the shots like I did on the back side, then I'd be able to extend that lead a lot more and kind of not really cruise to a finish, but really kind of dominate the field, especially against the best players in the world.

Q. Have you played Oakmont, and if not or if so, when do you go there and do your scouting trip?
JASON DAY: I'm going to go there -- I'm going there the week -- the Friday after the Memorial. So I'll just do the exact same thing that I always do when I go into the U.S. Open. I always get there at least Thursday or Friday and start prepping from there.

Oakmont, my agent is a member there. He's from Pittsburgh, and he's a member there, so I've got the inside scoop there with Bud Martin. But yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. The U.S. Open is going to be really tough if we have firm conditions.

I don't think you need the woods as much. I think you can kind of get away with hitting a few irons off certain tees, and with the way I'm hitting my 2-iron, I definitely love that sort of concept right now, and my short game can tighten up a little bit, but for the most part it was pretty solid this week.

Q. The disappointment of St. Andrews seems to have been a turning point.
JASON DAY: Hmm.

Q. Why is that? It could have gone the other way maybe if you'd let it, having come close a bunch and that one obviously affecting you as it did.
JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, it just flat-out sucks losing. It really -- it doesn't feel good. I don't like being on the receiving end of it, especially when I have the opportunity to get myself into a playoff. It's not a good feeling knowing that -- walking in to seeing Tom Rinaldi and some of the other guys, straight after I signed my scorecard, having to talk to them about how I'm feeling. It's not fun.

I like doing this, sitting next to the trophy and being able to tell you how great of a week I had.

But once again, that week, something changed. I think I said to myself, you know, I think you're ready to finally do this. Probably deep down mentally in my subconscious, I'm not sure, but the whole week I felt calm, and I played some great golf, but then from there it just kind of kicked on, and I haven't stopped. I've played nice, solid golf, but, yeah, I've just got to keep focused on trying to win as much as I can.

Q. You mentioned a couple times this week that a PLAYERS win might make the difference between a Hall of Fame bid or not. Was there something that prompted you to think about the Hall of Fame this week?
JASON DAY: I looked back at the criteria, what gets you into the Hall of Fame I think about a month or two ago, because I was kind of going on this little stretch, ooh, I might be able to sneak my way into the Hall of Fame one day. But yeah, that's kind of what I looked at, and it said, THE PLAYERS Championship, majors, or THE PLAYERS Championship can get you into the Hall of Fame if you have a certain amount of tournament wins and major wins and stuff like that.

I'm hoping that this doesn't have to just get me over into the Hall of Fame. I'm hoping that I kind of smash that out of the water and I don't really need to think about it, and once I'm on the ballot, I hope I have the majority and am able to get into it.

Q. Thursday morning before you even played a shot, you were walking across the driving range and you're already exuding so much joy. And the odd question I have for you is, to what degree does the emotion joy play a role in your golfing life?
JASON DAY: You have to have joy. There's certain attitudes that you have to have, especially coming into a week like this where I haven't played that great. And if you don't have joy, happiness in your life, especially for me, I've got no stress in my life. Other than Dash waking up last night -- Dash woke up and he threw up everywhere. How funny is that? Just talking about it, I've got this pacifier here, because it's in my pocket for some reason, but like that's one thing that I'm sitting there, like, especially at the start of the week, I was enjoying myself. I prepped well, had great work. I felt good about my swing. Everything was coming along nicely.

But then Dash kind of threw in a little change-up there with -- I think he had food poisoning or something like that. So I was just laying with him, and he couldn't keep himself awake, but I'm laying with him, and yeah, he smelled, because he went back to sleep and all of it's all over me, and Ellie is trying to get to Lucy.

But thinking about that, knowing that if I let this get to me, I could possibly lose the tournament, because if I look at this negative, in a negative way, and say, oh, man, Dash kept me up all night because he was sick and it just wasn't going my way. If I look at it that way, instead of going, okay, this is just something that's been thrown at me, how do I handle it. I've got to come into the day enjoying myself and go from there. And that's how I handled it.

Q. You touched on this a little bit before, sort of, but if you were to pinpoint two or three reasons you've really sort of turned things around the last 18 months or so, what would those be?
JASON DAY: Two or three things? I don't think it's two or three things. I think it's just one thing, and that's just want. I want it so bad right now. I want to win every single tournament that I'm playing in.

There's really nothing that I could -- other than, if I want it so bad, then I'm going to do all the little things that add up to the big picture to get me across the line.

And if that's hitting 10 or 20 more drives a week to try and straighten my drives out or get me feeling like I'm confident back with my driver or spending an hour or two more hours on my short game a week just to try and feel sharp, I know that a certain amount of workload that I have to put into each week to give me the results that I have had in the past. But it's just, I want it, and if I want it, then I won't miss any information, won't be disappointed at any finishes, because I know that I can learn from that finish and move on.

Q. If you look at Rory and Jordan, both of them had talent that everyone saw coming, and they came out and produced straight away. Everyone saw you coming, and it took you a long time to get to where you are. Why was that, and how important was it for you, I guess, in hindsight, to step back before you got going?
JASON DAY: Yeah, I think a lot of it had to do with belief. I mean, everyone would -- I think -- I always talk to Col, and Col would say, a lot of people think you have so much talent and think you're going to be a great player one day, and I just could never believe it. I never had that belief in me to really think that about.

Then I think, over the years, it just started to slowly build. I just was consistently just building a better player over the years. Obviously 2012 wasn't kind of the greatest year, but from there, from 2008 all the way up until now, I've just slowly built my career and slowly built the way that I play the game.

Look, I'm in it for the long haul because I know that golf is a very long career. It's not like I'm in here for five years and someone younger than me is going to be half a step quicker or I'm going to be old slow man.

But yeah, at the end of my career I want to be able to look back and know that I incrementally got better as the years went on, and if I can focus on that, then I will, as long as I want it.

When I was alluding it to Brian, as long as I want it and if I do the work, then I'll get better.

Q. How much better do you think you can get?
JASON DAY: Totally up to me. And now, granted, there's things like having a family and having other priorities that are sometimes more important at certain times in your career that take away from practicing and doing certain things that get you to this point.

So the biggest thing for me is to find that balance, which I feel like I've found that balance, and then from there it's work as hard as I can, try and win as much as I can.

Q. Jason, you talked a few minutes ago about what happened in St. Andrews. The week right after that you win the Canadian Open. Could you say that this victory kind of kick-started everything for you?
JASON DAY: Yeah, it definitely did. Winning the RBC Canadian Open was a huge win for me, because I won early in the year, which was great, winning the Farmers Insurance was fantastic, but to go from a disappointment to a win the next week really gave me a boost of confidence, knowing that I can finish. I can hit the shots when I need to and hole putts when I need to in the clutch, and that kind of kicked on that second half of the year for me and got me to No. 1 in the world, got me my first major, and once again, just kind of rolling over to this year, as well.

Q. I think 10 wins, a major, a PLAYERS, I think that's going to get you on the Hall of Fame ballot at 50. You say 10 isn't enough. I'm just curious what sort of number do you have in mind? What would feel good?
JASON DAY: I don't have a number in my head, but it's -- when I say I'm going to pull the trigger and retire from golf, that's going to be the number, obviously. (Laughter.)

It would be nice to have -- it would be nice to have over 20, just to know that I've got a lifetime exemption on the PGA TOUR and I can kind of -- don't have to worry about anything. I can just kind of play 15 events or something, if I do want to retire and just kind of enjoy myself.

But deep down inside, I know that, if I'm going to be like that, I will not just come out and just go and hit it around and have fun. I will want to win and want to play well. It's all or nothing, and I think if you're looking back at a career, I think 20-plus wins and multiple majors is a very good career.

Q. How hard was it to remain consistent around this course, considering how you teed off in the afternoon and the afternoon conditions were tougher? How hard was it to do that?
JASON DAY: Yeah, it's hard to get any sort of score going your way when you're out of position. I was out of position a lot, missed a lot of fairways, missed a lot of -- I hit a lot of -- had a lot of unforced errors, especially with the longer stuff in my hands off the tee.

I didn't give myself the -- I did give myself the opportunities on 1 and 2, missed them, and then from there just kind of missed fairways, and when you're coming out of the rough, it's hard to judge what's going to fly and what isn't going to fly.

Yeah, I mean, it was hard to stay -- it's hard to stay consistent. If you give yourself the opportunity in the fairway, you can stop the ball quicker, you can give yourself more opportunities by hitting the greens, even though the greens were a little quick on the weekend.

But I mean, it was just a good week. I was glad to have the 2-iron because I could just pump that 2-iron out there 290 yards at times, 300 yards at times, and it -- hitting an iron is so much better than having to hit a driver 300 yards; you know what I mean? To me it's a lot more consistent, and if I can do that a lot, then I was just very happy with the weather that we had this week, because if it's wet conditions, then there's no chance that I'm maybe not in this position, because the ball wouldn't be running out as much and I'd have to hit driver and 3-wood, and I'd probably be hitting less fairways than I had, and I wouldn't have the opportunities.

ALEX URBAN: We'd like to thank Jason Day, and congratulations on being winner of THE PLAYERS Championship 2016.

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