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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

July 2, 2016

Jason Day

Akron, Ohio

CANDACE REINHEIMER: We have our co-leader of the Bridgestone Invitational in the interview room, Jason Day. A little up-and-down today but still able to keep the tie for the lead. Tell us your thoughts on today and into tomorrow.

JASON DAY: Yeah, I said it on CBS that I felt like Mr. Haverkamp out of "Caddyshack" trying to find his golf ball and not knowing where the golf hole goes.

Yeah, I started off great, confident, and probably looked confident starting off with a birdie, and then from there kind of lost everything a little bit right. Obviously I'm trying to hit a draw. I'm standing out there with my driver and trying to hit a draw and started seeing it go right and then leak. It kind of caught me off guard a little bit, and from there I'm just saying, okay, if I aim down the left and try and aim for it, I might turn it over and go in the left stuff. Sure enough, sooner or later, it did. I found my ball and hit it again and tried to get it in the hole with the least amount of strokes, and it turned out to be 69 today, which was great. So anything under par today with the positions that I was in today was obviously a positive.

Q. What does it say about your game when you hit three fairways, two of those with an iron but still shoot under par?
JASON DAY: I hit three fairways? Oh, that's terrible.

Q. The first one with your 4-iron --
JASON DAY: And the driver hit the tree and came back on the fairway. I think it would have still snuck on, even if it didn't hit the tree.

Q. What does that say about your game?
JASON DAY: I think obviously the short game saved me, but mentally I just was trying to grind and grind and grind because I thought if I can like just somehow get something in and give myself an opportunity for tomorrow, because it's very easy to just -- hitting the positions that I hit it today and sit there and go, well, it's just not my day or not my week and kind of switch off a little bit. But I didn't want to allow myself to switch off mentally.

I think I showed a lot of mental toughness today with regards the positions I was in, and obviously the short game, with the 10-footers on 13 and 14 to really save myself, and then the birdie on 15, and really come home pretty strong after that. Played some pretty steady golf on 16, 17 and 18.

But yeah, I mean, it wasn't the best stuff, but if I can hit it decent tomorrow, I'll give myself more opportunities on the greens, and I feel pretty confident with my putting that I can hole anything on the greens.

Q. You now will take the 54-hole the last five times you've gone on to win. How important was it for you to get a share of that lead?
JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, any time you've got a lead now, you just kind of -- you're out in front and the guys are chasing you. But obviously this is going to be a tough one tomorrow because the course is tough. I'm sitting here going, okay, I need to somehow find the fairway, find the green, give myself more opportunities, but if I don't, I'm just going to have to grind it out until it's over. I'm obviously going to give 100 percent. The last five times I've closed it out, the 54-hole lead, but right now there's a lot of guys around me, even with Scott Piercy there, as well, tied for the lead, that have a chance at winning. Just got to keep focused and try and get it done somehow.

Q. Scott was in here a few minutes ago and mentioned playing with you at the BMW last year. What did you see from his game that day --
JASON DAY: Was that last round?

Q. I think so, last round, last year. In any case --
JASON DAY: Mate, I can't remember what I did yesterday. You're asking me -- I've got the worst memory of the world. I'm like Dory out of Finding Dory. But I really can't -- I can't remember. I remember playing with him, but it was just so faint that I can't remember.

Q. You're playing with Scott Piercy tomorrow. What do you think of Scott Piercy tomorrow?
JASON DAY: Oh, great guy. Tremendous bloke. That's an easier question for me. Has really good length off the tee. He's a good ball striker, and then when he gets hot on the putting green, that's when he wins tournaments.

He's not scared to shoot a low one. He's not scared to go up against the best and play well. I can't worry about him. I've got to worry about myself and try to hit fairways and greens tomorrow, so that's the biggest thing for me is to really find something there and hopefully be there by the end of the day.

Q. How does your confidence going into Sunday rate versus where you stood and how you felt at Bay Hill at Sawgrass at so many other places you've recently held the 54-hole lead?
JASON DAY: Yeah, I feel a little bit better than Bay Hill with regards that even Bay Hill I started strong and was just kind of limping home, but I still got it done. I feel a little bit more confident than that and probably less confident than I was at THE PLAYERS.

Either way, you know, we're humans. We're human. We wake up different every day. Sometimes I'm waking up a little bit more confident. I woke up confident this morning. I felt great about myself, and sometimes I wake up feeling terrible and go out and play good golf.

The biggest thing for me is just to find my golf ball and hit it again and try and hit it less than everyone else tomorrow.

Q. Was there one shot that signalled to you that we're in for a slog today?
JASON DAY: Let me see. Let me see. The one on 3, when I hit my 3-wood left because I really haven't been hitting my 3-wood left at all, and I stood up there on 7 -- yeah, once I hit it way right with my driver, I'm like, whoa, that came out of nowhere because I was trying to hit a big draw.

Q. 7? The par-3?
JASON DAY: No, 8, sorry.

Q. Carry on.
JASON DAY: Yeah, so I was trying to hit a drive with my -- big draw with my driver and obviously lost it way right and then did the exact same thing on 9, did the exact same thing on 10. From there it was just kind of fighting it. But 7 was really the drive where I'm just like, oh, that came out of nowhere. It wasn't like just down the right, it was like way right.

I think it's more of a mental thing when it comes to those ones because you really don't -- when you're sharp and you're on your game and you're hitting it great, you don't miss them that far, and that was more maybe I didn't want to go left and I hit it way right instead.

Getting back to trying to be a little bit more deliberate tomorrow in the process before I get into the shot will hopefully make that a little bit better.

Q. At what point in your career do you think you learned how to turn 74s into 70s?
JASON DAY: I think it was early days when I was a junior because I hit it worse than I do now. I hit it off the map and somehow just found it and hit it up around the greens, had a great short game, hit it on the green and made something of it. So I've been working at it for a very long time, unfortunately. That's the times where you learn the mental toughness of the game but also learn how to save a round when things aren't really quite going your way from tee to green.

Q. Which of the pars did it feel like you were stealing out there?
JASON DAY: This could take a while, yeah. 9 was good. 9 was good because I hit it right, and everyone is thinking that I'm going to hit this low cut iron under the tree, and I hit this big ol' hook 47-degree wedge around the tree, and if I didn't hit it, I think it would have gone on the green. 9 was good. 10 was great, hitting up the hill and come back down. 13, 14. I mean, there was a number of them today.

But you know, 13 and 14 were great putts. I hit really good putts there.

Q. Are you concerned enough that you're going to -- are you still going to go fishing tonight or are you going to hit the range and try to figure something out?
JASON DAY: I'm not going to hit the range. I've kind of stressed myself to the point where I feel like I've got a few more gray hairs under this hat now. Yeah, if I -- I explained a little bit earlier that if I was 50th and hitting it this way, then I'd be grinding every single day. But I'm tied lead right now, and I need to conserve energy right now. If I can do that, I'll be able to focus a little bit harder and try and grind it out a little bit more than if I was just trying to find something on the range and wasting energy out there because I may not find anything out there. I'm hoping I'll find something in my sleep.

Q. You've said all week that this is going to be a grind of a tournament but you wanted to give yourself a chance and put yourself in or near the lead going into Sunday. Now that you're there, how does your perspective shift going into the final round?
JASON DAY: Yeah, I definitely grinded out this whole week. My perspective doesn't really shift much more than it did Thursday. I know that's going to be tough tomorrow. I know we're going to have very similar conditions to what we had today. I'm just -- if I come out tomorrow and hit it everywhere, then I'm just going to embrace it and try and grind it out. If I hit it better, then that's great, give myself more opportunities, hole the putts. But the good thing about it is that I'm tied lead going into tomorrow's round, and that's exactly where I wanted to be at the start of the week. All good, positive stuff going from here on forward, and if it happens tomorrow, great. If it doesn't, then obviously I've got to try and improve some stuff with my hitting, and if I can do that then hopefully the winning becomes a lot easier. But until then, I've just got to keep focusing on trying to win tomorrow.

Q. How many people are still in this thing?
JASON DAY: I haven't really looked at the score. How many guys are under par?

Q. Nine.
JASON DAY: If you go out and shoot -- if you're even par and you shoot a decent score tomorrow -- it just depends how they set it up. We're going to have very similar conditions to what we had today. You're obviously going to have opportunities out there if you hit it good. Greens are pretty receptive and the green speeds are pretty good. Anyone that's kind of even par, under par have a good chance. I'm hoping not. I'm hoping I just blow it away. That's the plan, but unfortunately sometimes it doesn't work that way.

Q. Do you make a habit of looking at the weather forecast?
JASON DAY: Yeah, every single day, every single night I look at it and see where it's coming from, look at it on a map and see if it's going to be down on some holes and that determines what clubs I'm going to be hitting. And for the most part it's pretty spot on, but I'm always looking at the Weather Channel app just seeing where the wind is coming from. But we're going to have some light winds tomorrow. I think it's like a southwesterly wind tomorrow, so it's going to be light, and it's more just go out there and try and hit it down the fairway.

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