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THE 145TH OPENJuly 11, 2016Jason DayTroon, South Ayrshire, Scotland MIKE WOODCOCK: I'm delighted to welcome the World No. 1, Jason Day, to the interview room. Jason, thank you for joining us this afternoon. Last year at St. Andrews you came so close to making the playoff. Does that give you some added motivation coming into this week here at Royal Troon? JASON DAY: Yeah, it was kind of, I guess, the start of my run where everything kind of changed my world, really. As time has gone on through the years coming here and playing the Open and really falling in love with what the Open brings, not only playing, but just the feel of it is totally different than what we are used to back home in the States. I grew up playing some Melbourne Sandbelt golf courses, but it's not really the same as the links golf that we get over here. Coming so close last year was definitely a motivational factor in that I would love to one day hold the Claret Jug and be able to put my name down in history with the best that have ever lived and played the game. So I'm very excited to be here and looking forward to a nice, challenging week. Q. Just before Oakmont you had said that you had never been more stressed trying to live up to being No. 1 going into a major. How different is now? Is it the same feeling? Have you got your head around that now? JASON DAY: The stress is only from what you put on yourself, really. I've been one of those people that hold on to a little bit more stress than others. And I think Rory, when someone asked him about being No. 1, he never really thought about it at all and never really got stressed out. People take certain situations a little bit different. And I see that stress, and stress you can look at it two ways: I think the stressor of being No. 1 in the world is more of a motivating factor for me just because I don't want to lose it, so it's really important for me to make sure that I stick to my process and do all the hard work that I can to try to stay there for as long as I can, and really try to extend that lead from one to two to really give myself that gap. But the stress factor that comes along with just really everyday things that you normally -- before you were No. 1, you really didn't think about having to deal with a lot more media, fans, a lot more time with sponsors, just pretty much having to plan your day around those things can add up and be a long time. But I wouldn't want it any other way. I can live with it. It's great. It's good to be in this position. Being able to have these distractions to a point be in your world is great, because if they weren't coming up to you and they weren't doing this stuff, then you'd be playing bad and I don't want to do that, so it's good stress. Q. You have referred to it a little bit, but can you be a little more specific about what about last year at St. Andrews kind ever propelled you forward? Just kind of take us through that. JASON DAY: Well, I can't really. I mean, I can tell you exactly what I was feeling. I mean, it was just for the whole week, I played some pretty solid golf up until the Open Championship. I finished top 10 at the U.S. Open after leading it for 54 holes, tied the lead and then came into the Open Championship feeling pretty good about my game. I don't know. I just felt really calm, like it was the Open Championship, but I really wasn't thinking that it was a major championship, and I really didn't feel like it was like any other day. It was just a strange feeling that I just felt so calm about things, and no matter what happened, it was going to be okay. I think subconsciously I just finally got over the hurdle that, it's your time to start winning and play well. And I think I finally found that belief in myself to be able to really say, "You're a good player. You deserve to win these if you put yourself in these opportunities." Unfortunately, I didn't win that week, but then I followed up with a win in Canada after that. Q. Jumping forward to the PGA, were there moments at Whistling Straits where you drew on what you felt at St. Andrews? JASON DAY: Yeah, definitely. You know, looking at 9, on the last day I chunked my second shot, and at those times back before the Open Championship I probably would have thought about it and kind of really it may have messed with my head a little bit. But I just said, "Don't worry about it. Be calm. Try and get this up-and-down." Really didn't think about the situation too much of what just happened, chunking my second shot. Because if I had bogeyed that hole, I probably would have let a lot of people in. It probably would have opened the door and let a lot of people in, and that par save had kept my momentum going forward going to the back side. Q. Could I get your thoughts on the course, and especially on what you think of the postage stamp? JASON DAY: Yeah, I got here Saturday morning and I played 18 holes yesterday. No, sorry, on Saturday, and 18 holes yesterday. So played 36 holes already. We had a westerly, southwesterly kind of wind, and apparently that's not the prevailing wind. It's more sort of out of the opposite direction, I guess. Yeah, it was great. It's a very challenging course. I think midway through the round, 9, 10, was it 11 and 12 are pretty -- even 13, they're all pretty difficult holes for that middle stretch. So trying to get through there with how tough the wind and the rain could be is going to be a very difficult task. But the postage hole is pretty neat with regards that it's so short, but you get that left-to-right wind either in or down off the left, but it's always left to right. And if you get anything kind of curving on the wind, it can go down and feed into that bunker down in the bottom right there. And if you overdo it, that bunker on the top left is pretty devilish. So, yeah. I think if there's a back pin, I don't know if I'm going to go for it. I think I'll just try to aim for ten paces on and try to stick it there and putt to the back location, because it does get a little bit narrow up there. And I think if I can do that -- if I can get through there with par or just 1-under or something like that, even though it is a short hole, you can't underestimate that hole, even though it's so short. It's going to be a difficult task this week, as the whole course is. And you've just got to be patient out there and hopefully give yourself the opportunities. But I do think this golf course is more of a driving course than it is more so -- I mean, obviously it's key to hit good second shots, but to set yourself up, at least you can have anywhere from one to three choices of what you want to hit out there off the tee. You can lay it back well short of the bunkers. You can kind of take mid-range and go between the bunkers or you can take all the bunkers out and hit driver, and that also depends on how the weather is obviously progressing through the week. Q. Can you think of another failure that's motivated you like last year did? JASON DAY: Two weeks ago, whatever it was. Yeah, that was pretty motivating. It's very easy to look at the negatives. After sitting down for a day or so and thinking about it and talking to Cole and really going over why things went down at Akron. It wasn't so much the double-bogey that obviously propelled me out of the tournament and to lose that tournament. It was more so the bogey on 15. You get up there and you hit it in the middle of the green, you two-putt, you've still got a one-shot lead going down to 16. The 16 tee shot is pretty hard, so if you have that one-shot lead, it takes a lot of pressure off your shoulders having to get it on the fairway, so you don't really think about it too much. Obviously bogeying that hole and getting back to a tie of the lead going into that hole puts a lot more pressure on the tee shot. Thinking about it now, I probably should have hit driver and blown it way right, even if I didn't feel comfortable, because a shot 100 yards right on that tee shot is better than 5 yards left because that brings in the pine trees. I think just really kind of, obviously other than St. Andrews, that was more of an eye-opening kind of you need to get back to -- even though you're playing great golf, you need to get back to the process of hitting good golf shots, and that's communicating with Cole properly. Because if you look down at it, 15 was okay, 16 it felt like I played that hole in 30 seconds, even though I took a double there, because it just felt so quick. When I've been playing my best golf, I feel like everything's so slow. Even though I look like I'm playing slow, it just feels slow anyways, and I can take my time and really kind of divulge the situation and kind of workout the best plan possible. Q. What's the difference between coming into this Open and coming off a failure and coming off what would have been great confidence if you had won? JASON DAY: It's more so about the learning, because obviously I learn more so when I fail than when I win. To be honest, we're not going to win every single one. It was great to -- even though I don't like losing, it was great to be able to learn something from that and turn this into what I would say a learning experience and try to move forward and get better from it. Because at the end of the day, I'm just trying to get as good as I can and the only way to do that is to learn from failure, and the way you look at it is not in a negative way. You have to look at it in a positive light that, okay, I did this for a reason. I've got to try to get better and move on. If I can do that, then you can't do anything but go up. It sucked. It was really bad. I hated losing. It was a terrible way to lose, and it was frustrating and disappointing. But things like this, you can't win them all, and that's just the way of life. Like I've always said, we got spoilt with Tiger Woods, how he dominated very much so through his years and did so well. That's what we're shooting for. That's what I'm shooting for, to be able to finish off like he did back in the day. Will I ever get to a point like that? Maybe not. But that's what I'm shooting for right now. Q. You obviously go into this as one of the big favourites. Can you sum up what it would mean to win the Open Championship here at Royal Troon? JASON DAY: It would be, just to be able to be called the Champion Golfer of the Year would be fantastic. I never really, obviously, when I was growing up there were two major championships we looked at: It was Augusta National and the Open Championship. And back in the day when Norman came, Norman obviously came over, a lot of Australians would start their career in Europe and that's what their favourite major would be. This is pretty special. The 145th, obviously it's been around for a very long time. The greats have all held the trophy, the Claret Jug. To be able to hold that once in my career, it would be very pleasing and satisfying. Every year I start out, I get excited for all the majors. I get excited to be able to play the Open Championship, not only because of the fans itself, but because of how challenging the golf course is and the weather. You have to somehow adapt your game to the weather and the golf course and really plot yourself around these golf courses. That's the most, I guess, most satisfying thing that you can get out of being able to beat the best in the world on some of the most challenging golf courses that we don't usually get to play. I'd be over the moon if I could hold the Claret Jug one day. Q. As World No. 1 you're not exactly flying under the radar. But do you feel what Dustin's done in the last two events might work in your favor, take a little bit of the spotlight off you this week? JASON DAY: Yes and no. If I had all the spotlight, that would be great. I'd be happy with that. If I didn't have the spotlight, that would be great as well. I just want -- all I'm trying to do is I want to focus on trying to make sure that I prep correctly for this event, making sure that my game plan is rock solid, even if we do have different changes of weather, wind, rain or whatever we get. It's been neat to see what Dustin has done. Obviously, when you see guys like that playing well, it motivates you to try to get better. Dustin is obviously a TaylorMade guy as well, and that is definitely motivating for me to try to step up and play some better golf and try to beat these guys as well. But I'm sure he has a lot of spotlight on him this week, because he has won the last two events he's played in, and they've been pretty big events. You know, he's typically played pretty well in the Open Championship, so he's obviously going to be a very tough guy to beat this week as the rest of the field is. But, yeah, I'd take either way. It's all good stuff to learn from and get better. Q. What was your first experience with links golf? Did you take to it straightaway or did it take you some time to embrace it? JASON DAY: In links golf down in Australia, obviously the Sandbelt golf courses, the links golf on the Peninsula down there in Melbourne, it's similar. But obviously when you come over here it's the real deal. My first Open Championship was St. Andrews. Yeah, it was a special one. We had wind delays back then, and I think that's when Rory shot lights out the first round and came out and didn't play that great in the second round. But we had wind delays and all that stuff. It was just, I don't know. It was hard because everything was obviously different because I was just so used to the American culture and the American way of things and playing a certain style of golf, and then coming over here having to keep the ball low and not only off the tees, but even around the greens, and trying to adapt your game to certain shots and certain way of thinking was very difficult for me at the start. Then obviously as time went on I started to really grow into loving links golf and the Open Championship. Every time I come back, I get excited. It's just really me, Bud and Cole that are here this week. I don't have the family with me, but it's just exciting to be able to come here and play links golf. It really is. Q. Can you give us the five-day weather forecast? JASON DAY: Well, I think it's going to be okay tomorrow. Wednesday it's going to rain. Thursday, currently from what I looked at this morning, Thursday's going to be all right, and then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it's going to rain, too. So percentage of chance of rain for Friday, Saturday, Sunday are like 50%-plus. It's Scotland; it could change. Q. If you had a one-shot lead going into Sunday, who is the last guy you would want to see on the tee with you, Dustin or Rory? JASON DAY: It doesn't matter. Either or is fine. I'm happy to take either or. I'm not so worried about them beating me. I'm worried about myself, beating myself, and that's the biggest thing. To really try to conquer yourself and try to conquer your ego at times. If they beat me just because they play better, that's fine. But if I beat myself and let them beat me, that's what's disappointing and frustrating for me. Q. What do you mean by conquering your ego? JASON DAY: Sometimes you stand up there and think you can play shots that are not percentage shots, and being able to hit away from certain locations. Even though you want to take them on and hit that heroic shot and turn out to be the victor, sometimes it's just not the right time. That's kind of conquering your ego a little bit. Q. What is the most important things you learned from Tiger? JASON DAY: Well, this is more so -- I mean, the chats that we have it's all about -- when I talk to him, it's about how mentally tough he was. Being able to -- I want to put it this way, he was the smartest guy -- not the smartest guy at times, but for the most part his game plan was, when he would try and play against us and when he didn't have his best stuff, he would just find away to get it done. Miss it in the right spots. His game plan was, I just got to get this ball in the hole. If it was trying to catch someone, he wanted to cut that lead down maybe one or two shots or whatever it was, just cutting into that lead will show that there's presence there. Even the same way, if you have the lead, being able to extend that lead shows that you're playing some pretty strong golf. But I've learned a lot about him. But the mental strength that he had, just the will to try and get the job done regardless of how you're hitting it is probably the biggest thing. Not everything that I take from him works for me. But that's why we're two different players and I play a different game to him. So it's kind of really just sifting out all the stuff that I think will work and work for me and trying it out. From there trying to put that in my game and hopefully it works. Q. What is it about Zach Johnson? What is the thing about his game, please? JASON DAY: Yeah, well, there's three things with Zach: Got a driver good, got a wedger good, and got to putter good. He's obviously not the longest player, but he hits it pretty straight. And when he doesn't, he wedges it pretty good, and that usually saves him, because there's been times where he's, take Augusta National for instance, he didn't go for the green once, and he won it. So when I talk to him about it, he says they're the three keys for him, got to drive it straight, wedge it good, and got to putt good. And mind you, he's very gritty. He's very mentally tough. He's like a bulldog almost that once he's out there and he's competing and he's playing, he's all over it, and he's very tough to get rid of, because he doesn't make too many mistakes. He's very smart in that way that he'll plot his way around because he has to, but take his opportunities when he can. And when he does, it's pretty big. MIKE WOODCOCK: Jason, thank you for joining us. Best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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