	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

July 1, 2016

Jason Day

Akron, Ohio

MARK WILLIAMS: Jason, great round of 69 today in pretty difficult conditions. Obviously a pretty strong finish and then just a little disappointing I'm sure at the last hole.

JASON DAY: Thanks for that (laughter.)

MARK WILLIAMS: Well, I'm just saying it was a really good round. Give us your thoughts.

JASON DAY: Yeah, like you said, it was tough. I mean, I played with Adam Scott, who made it look very stress free from tee to green. He hit a lot of great drives, and he hit a lot of greens, I know that. But this course, the way it sits, with that wind that was kind of westerly, it was difficult. You had to really choose the right gust to hit it on, and it was fluctuating ever so slightly from southwest to northwest, so it was going back and forth. You know, it feels like it's into the wind, but it really wasn't. It's just tough because you're trying to hit fairways here, and some of the fairways are really difficult to hit.

And then you're trying to come out of the rough, and the rough is pretty thick, and it's difficult to hit greens.

Just really pleased at the short game over the last two days helped out, and I'm hoping that the long game can pick itself up over the weekend and give myself a little bit more -- a few more opportunities on the greens.

Q. You sort of mentioned your scrambling. I was just talking to Scottie and I said, you probably hit it better than Jason at times, yet you're falling behind. What's it like to see a guy do that? He shook his head at how good you were able to get up-and-down. Are you cognizant of that sort of thing, that guys are shaking their head at how good you are scrambling?
JASON DAY: It goes two ways because you can either hit a really good chip be dead stone and get up-and-down or you can hit a couple of terrible shots like I did on 7 and 8, hit it to 13 feet and 15 feet and hole the putts. That's the way you really have to look at it.

Really I'm just trying to get it done the best job I can. Even if I don't have my best stuff, I don't care how it looks, I just want to try and get it done and beat the field if I can.

Looking me to Scottie today, I felt like a 10 marker playing with him because of how beautiful it was out there watching him hit the ball in tough conditions. But you know, we all can make it look very hard at times. You're looking at 18, I just -- when I hit the putter, I took my putter back, hit the rough, and I immediately hit it too hard, and that kind of threw me off.

You know, I can definitely get up-and-down sometimes out of a rubbish bin and make it look very, very easy, and then sometimes I can make the easiest things look very, very difficult. But right now I'm just trying to focus on trying to give myself the lead and hopefully keep pushing from there.

Q. Do you think you're creating a mystique, an aura if you will?
JASON DAY: I don't know, mate. I'd love to do that. The only way to that is to win. If I can keep winning and win more, maybe that will happen over time, and that's what Tiger did so well and he won a lot. You look at the highlights of the tournaments he won, there were so many shots there where you're just going, wow, how did he pull that off. They could do top 100 shots of his career because of how many good shots he's hit in his career.

You do it enough, people start seeing it and believing it, and then you're going, oh, there he goes again. I've just got to really try to focus on winning, and if I can do that and win a lot, then hopefully over time it happens, and then you get that kind of aura effect, I guess, and people know that you're around. Greg Norman had it, Tiger Woods had it. There's been a certain few people in this world that have had that in this game of golf, and it's difficult to attain, but it's definitely the only way to do it is win.

Q. You talk about that focus on winning. You're sort of a local guy around here. The Cavs just won, Indians have a long winning streak going on. Do you sort of want to be a part of that?
JASON DAY: Yeah, why not. I just took a photo with the NBA finals trophy, and it was great. Ellie took a photo with me, and LeBron James didn't come and tackle us, so that was a neat thing. It's nice.

Obviously the Cleveland Indians are doing well right now, and with what -- I think that's helping everyone in this city, and it's even stretching down to Columbus, as well, with OSU and all that stuff.

The sports in this state are doing pretty well. If we could just pick up the Browns, that would be nice. By the end of the week, I'm just going to keep grinding it out and see where it goes. I really want to win this tournament. It's one of those tournaments that's been on my radar for a very long time, and I'm hoping I'm there by Sunday.

Q. Do you prefer an event like this where you have to grind out pars and single digit under par might win versus something where you have to get to 15, 20-under par?
JASON DAY: Ooh, depends. It depends on how angry I am, I guess, because sometimes you come to places like this and you're like, I just don't have the patience right now. But right now I'm just really trying -- I'm focusing so hard on trying to win and doing the right things and getting the process right that it doesn't matter if it's a 14-under on single digits. But obviously I like the harder the better. I think the harder the better for me because there's two aspects of a harder course and lower -- obviously a higher winning score is you've got the physical side of things. You have to hit it great from tee to green and putt good and all that stuff, but then it also brings in the mental side of things, too, because if you -- sometimes you're out there and you're not quite, quite in it and you've got to refocus and readjust yourself and push out all the negative thoughts, and that really -- everyone goes through it out there on the golf course, and that really shows how much grit you have deep down inside to get that thing done, and trying to want it more than everyone else.

If I had to pick, if I could play a lot of U.S. Opens every year, I'd love to because I feel like I play the U.S. Opens good. This field is starting to feel that way because it's difficult to hit fairways and you have to get it up around the greens to save yourself. I don't know if there's a lot of guys under par right now, but it seems like it's really difficult. 4-under par is leading right now and we've still got two rounds left.

Q. Do you feel like your advantage is more than your physical advantage over the field?
JASON DAY: I feel like it's equal to the effect of I can hit it long out there, get it on the green somewhere, and then my putting -- hopefully my putting can take over because I've been putting really good, but also when I haven't been hitting it that great and I get it up somewhere around the greens, I'm just trying to get it done. I'm just focused on, okay, got to get this put in, got to hit this next shot close to the hole. I'm pushing forward, and that's where the mental toughness comes in, where you're not quite having your best round or having your best stuff and really trying to fight through it and make a score out of nothing.

Q. Is there a tournament you don't want to win really badly?
JASON DAY: No. No. Dougie, you would say something like that, wouldn't you? No, I'm just trying to win as much as I can. I want to win. I'm like Ricky Bobby. (Laughter.)

Q. When things are so bunched up like this, though, how do you keep yourself from wanting to go light it up?
JASON DAY: Well, yeah, it's bunched up, and like pretty much everyone that's even 1- or 2-over par, they've definitely got a shot. As long as you're giving yourself the opportunities tomorrow and the next day, you've definitely got a shot to get back in the tournament because we're going to have great weather Saturday and Sunday. We're going to have I think a high of anywhere between 5, 10 miles an hour tomorrow, but it may creep over the 10 miles an hour mark, and that makes it very difficult, as well. So there's a lot of people that can win this tournament. I just really -- I need to try and do exactly what I'm doing over the last two days here. Even though I haven't had my best stuff today from tee to green, just really try and be patient but push myself and don't really try and be too aggressive with this golf course because -- it's hard to be aggressive here -- if you don't hit the fairways you can't be aggressive. If you hit the fairways you have to be aggressive to your line and try and hole putts from there. So right now it's really looking like a -- if you're a good putter you can definitely have a good tournament here.

Q. Your last two stroke play victories you kind of raced out to big leads and then just kind of held on at the end. What can you take from that experience here this weekend with a much tighter leaderboard?
JASON DAY: Well, when you have a big lead and you're just trying not to make mistakes, even though you want to push forward, you don't want to take unnecessary risk out there. That's the way it looks like sometimes when you have such a large lead when it is bunched up like this, you can't do anything but push forward with regards to that because there's so many guys that can have a birdie or two birdies and all of a sudden you're not in the lead anymore. You know, and they're chasing you, so you have to -- you don't want them to catch up so you've got to keep pushing forward. I don't really think it changes the mentality of what I'm trying to do. I think over the next two days it's going to be very difficult for everyone. I would love to be able to give myself more opportunities, and if I can do that, hopefully I'm holding the trophy at the end of the week.

You know, the mentality won't change with regards to how tight it is. I've just got to try and get it done. Even if I don't have my best stuff, just find a way to get it done.

Q. How quickly when you three-putt the last hole does it take you to think about all the putts you holed during the round?
JASON DAY: I was very cross with myself when I was walking off. It's always nice to have you guys telling me that I holed a great putt on 7, I holed a great putt on 8, because I do forget about those things.

Q. 3?
JASON DAY: Yeah, 3 was great. See? He's doing it again.

But you know, that's the great thing is that once I do silly things like that on 18, I quickly -- even though it takes a while, I soon forget about it, and I just need to start focusing on tomorrow's round. But I know that I'm putting good because I'm holing putts like that, you know. And if I can give myself the opportunities, I'm hoping that I can stretch that lead over 54 holes and then hopefully by 72 I can stretch that lead even more.

You know, but it's always great to have Dougie Ferguson in the media room.

Q. One more thing on the stretching the lead thing, you want the biggest lead you can. In your head is it because you want to kill everybody, or do you want comfort on the back nine?
JASON DAY: I think it's a bit of both. You obviously want comfort, but you can't be too comfortable and lose focus. My main goal every week is to win the tournament, and if that's winning by one or if it's winning by ten, I'll take it. Either way, I just want to win.

Q. 10 would be more fun, though?
JASON DAY: Oh, 10 would be great. I'd be skipping down the fairways hopefully. But I don't think that's the case this week.

MARK WILLIAMS: Thanks, Jason. We appreciate your time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297