MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 4, 2017

Jason Day

MODERATOR: We are very pleased to welcome Jason Day for his seventh Masters appearance. Jason is coming off a stellar 2016, during which he claimed victories in the Arnold Palmer International, THE PLAYERS Championship and the WGC Dell Match Play. His performance in the majors was brilliant, finishing tied 10th here at Augusta National, tied eighth at the U.S. Open and runner‑up at the PGA Championship.
Jason, the past few weeks have been a pretty emotional time for you and your family. We are very pleased to hear your mother's operation was successful. Maybe before we open up the floor for questions, you can give us an update on how your mother is progressing.
JASON DAY: Yeah, as everyone knows, my mom, she went through a successful surgery on her left lung and she was told by the doctor, don't have to do chemo, which is really, really exciting stuff. Obviously we have to be cautious because the first two to three years are very, very important.
Once again, it was right on the border of having to do chemo or not, 3 1/2 centimeter cancer that was cut out. Anything above kind of 3 1/2, they look at doing chemo. She was right on the border, so it's all good things.
I'm very, very pleased and very, very happy with how things have progressed from the start of the year to now. And I feel kind of a lot lighter in a sense that my mind is not weighing very much heavily on the situation that my mom was going through. So to be able to have that happen and then be able to come here and get my mind off things, is quite nice.
MODERATOR: Your family is in our thoughts and we're really excited to have you here at the Masters.
JASON DAY: I just wanted to say a quick thank you to not only everyone in the room here, through their well wishes and prayers, from peers to sponsors to, all the sponsors to fans; the amount of text messages and e‑mails that I got and my agent got, I mean, it meant a lot. Even though I apologize for not being able to get back, but I was obviously going through an emotional time.
But to be able to have people reach out to me and my team about the kind of situation that we were going through was very special to us. It meant a lot to us and we really do appreciate it.
It's just, I mean, cancer, it affects so many people. Usually someone‑‑ and I'm sure everyone in this room knows someone or has seen someone being affected or even is going through it. It's a very painful thing to go through and watch a loved one but you really don't expect your loved ones or yourself to actually go through it. I just wanted to say thank you very much for the support that everyone has given me and my team and especially my mom. We're very, very pleased to be able to get through this stage and hopefully she can live a very long life.

Q. When you won at Whistling Straits, it was obviously a very emotional moment with tears and whatnot. It was pretty intense. Can you fathom what a win here on Sunday would be here emotionally and how that would look and feel for you, given what's obviously happened as well.
JASON DAY: I think that you can just multiply that by a hundred, I think. I was very emotional when I won my first major, because I knew how hard it was, and under the circumstances of beating Jordan who was the guy at the time; and obviously there's some other contenders like Rose and Grace who popped up during the middle of that round, as well. But that whole week was pretty special.
You know this, is a tournament‑‑ two things in my life, Tiger Woods and Augusta National, the Masters, is why I play golf. And this is my favorite week of the year. It always is. To be able to do it this week would be great.
Obviously with all the emotions that happened beforehand, being our ‑‑ and hopefully be nice to have my mom here; even if I don't‑‑ even if I don't win, it would be nice to have my mom here. She's never been here before. She's never had the opportunity to come over here and she's here now, so hopefully she's healthy enough to fly down.
But it's great to even think about it. It gets me excited thinking about the possibility of actually winning and obviously accomplishing one of my life goals. With that said, I can't get too far ahead of myself because, yeah, it's only Tuesday and Sunday is a very, very long way away.

Q. How close did you come to not playing here, playing this tournament? And secondly, did you say your mom is able to fly down or you're not sure?
JASON DAY: Well, it just depends. We need to talk to the doctors. And it depends on her recovery, as well. Because right now, she can't really walk far. She's doing well, but she can't‑‑ it's nothing‑‑ obviously part of her lung was cut out. A quarter of her left lung was cut out, so I don't really know if that's good for flying (laughter).
But it was just all determined on how the surgery went and what kind of results came back. I mean, I think ultimately, I still would have played but if it would have came back with a bad result, I would have been thinking elsewhere. But now it's past and I'm thinking about playing golf. You know, once I knew that she came out of the surgery well and no more talk about chemo, I pretty much said, I'm going to go down and see how it goes and then come back if I need to.
But it's hard to miss a week like this, even though there's a lot going on. I needed to make sure that my mom was okay and once I knew the surgery went well, I was okay with flying down here.

Q. Was there a gesture or something said by a fan‑‑ you talk about the outpouring that you got from sponsors and other people and everything. But just from a fan, does anything stick out in your mind as something that was said to you or even shouted out to you, maybe yesterday?
JASON DAY: Well, a lot of people were asking how my mom is and they were concerned. It just makes me feel good.
I think, I was just saying, I think I was saying to Ben or someone earlier in the week, that we just need more people like the people that were sending me love and well wishes. I think it just brings a lot of people together.
I know that cancer is such a bad thing and that's unfortunately why it brings a lot of people together, but we need more people like that in this world because there is a lot of chaos going on right now. I think if we can have more people like that, the world will be in a better place.
I got a lot of that yesterday and I had people send me books to me as well through the mail, obviously about cancer. So it's just a number of things. Once again, people are just wanting to know how my mom is and how I'm doing, and that means a lot.

Q. Between the really good news yesterday and today, did your mom give any kind of message to play well at Augusta, and not do it for her, but to go out and enjoy yourself?
JASON DAY: If you knew my mom (laughter), she doesn't talk very much. She is like‑‑ when I went over there‑‑ before I came down, I went over and I gave her a kiss and I said, I'll see you later.
And she was like, Okay, I love you. And that's all she said.
And then I talked to her yesterday about the no chemo and she's said, Oh, that's good news. And that's all she said.
She's a woman of very few words. She's only 4'11", so she's really tiny and she can be very intimidating. I don't say too much to my mom. She just kind of has to give you this look and I know.

Q. Tiger lost his dad before winning the British Open; did he have any advice for dealing with not the best preparation?
JASON DAY: I haven't talked to Tiger too much. Obviously everyone knows that he had to withdraw this week. I sent him a quick message saying he's going to be missed and all that stuff. So I haven't been able to talk to him too much.
When things like this happen, everyone handles it different, like a different situation. I was saying to Rex yesterday, I feel like everyone is my family now, because I've been hurt in front of you guys, I've cried in front of you guysnow. Practically everything. The only thing I haven't done is showered in front of you guys yet (laughter).
Yeah, so I mean, once again, I haven't really talked to Tiger.

Q. You played six holes of the Match Play before you had to withdraw. Can you describe the difference between playing with that sort of weight on your shoulders and playing afterwards once you received the better news?
JASON DAY: I think it was a culmination of it just building and building and building and building. Obviously I knew surgery was Friday, Friday at that Match Play event. My mom was telling me, just go out and play, forget about what's going on and go out and play because ultimately that's what a parent will say.
Unfortunately, in my mind, I'm not like that; I can't think like that. I felt selfish being there and playing, and I was just saying, I was stuck between two worlds, because my mom was telling me to go; I'm defending champion and I should go, but I don't want to be there because I want to be with my mom and making sure that the surgery went well.
So I mean, I was‑‑ the emotion of the roller coaster of saying that she only had 12 months to live; then I brought her over here and the diagnosis was a lot better. There was a roller coaster of emotions and, once again, I was torn. Some days I would wake up and I would feel really, really bad and sad about what's going on with my mom and other days I would wake up and then I would start feeling guilt because I don't think‑‑ I didn't feel like I was feeling bad enough for the situation that my mom was going through.
So golf was the last thing on my mind, and when I was playing at the Match Play, I knew it was going to be a non‑event week for me. I was standing there with a wedge in my hand from 145 yards and I hit it 160 yards, you know what I mean? When my mind is not there, I'm so far off. When my mind is focused and ready to play, I'm usually one or two yards off. I'm pretty spot on to my numbers and what I need to do. That's with regards to golf. But I just knew that I had to be back home.
And once again, this week, I just feel a lot lighter. I feel refreshed in a way. All the hard stuff is behind us and we've just got to make sure that we're staying on top of it, and that I can actually get back to kind of physically just kind of focusing on golf even though I know my mom is getting well taken care of now and kind of the hard part is behind us now.

Q. If I can follow up, is there a palatable difference in your swing with more tension or less tension? Can you feel it?
JASON DAY: It's not so much the tension. It's the mind that wanders. It's the mind; you miss information. You're standing over it and you're thinking about other things and not actually thinking about the target or hitting the golf shot.
As you guys know, I close my eyes and I take my time and I'm very deliberate when it comes to hitting a golf shot. And I was kind of like walking in there, not really concentrating at all because of the situation, because I was just like, I would look at the flag and I'd be thinking about something else.
It's very difficult to be able to stand up there and play golf, which is a very mentally‑driven game, at this level, against the pros and all that stuff, at this level‑‑ because everyone out here is talented. It's more so about the mind and the mental game more so than the actual physical attributes.
So if you don't have that, then it's very, very difficult to compete against the best players in the world.

Q. Your mom is someone who doesn't even like to take a holiday off. So how did you get her to come out here? And you talk about the guilt you're feeling. Do you think she feels some guilt that she's not holding her own by working like she always has?
JASON DAY: She wanted to get back to work. She's worried about work. She's like‑‑ I'm like, You're 60 years old, don't worry about it.
Honestly, right after‑‑ even before surgery and after surgery, she wants to get home. And before surgery she wanted to get home so she could get back to work. I'm like, what are you thinking.
At the start it was kind of tough to get her over here because she's stubborn. She's very, very stubborn. She was coughing up blood for three months and she didn't even bother telling anyone about it. That's how stubborn she is. And for her to, like at the start‑‑ well, so we knew that there was a mass in her lung and I talked to her and I said, Oh, we're going to get you over here.
She said, Oh, no, we'll kind of do our thing over here.
And when she heard the news about the 12 months and all that stuff, she told me, and I said, You're getting over here now, like we're not messing around with this stuff.
Fortunately enough, Dr.James at Ohio State, tremendous doctors, Dr. Kai He and Dr. Merritt have looked after her. I think when something hits you like that, then you start to listen. And it was pretty simple to get her over after that.

Q. Did you remember what you said when you got the news, that the surgery had gone well and there wasn't chemo? And secondly, how has this whole experience put things in perspective for you?
JASON DAY: So I woke up‑‑ I flew back from Match Play the Thursday, and I picked them up from the hotel that they were staying at and I took them out to my place. We woke up the next day like 3:45 to go. I went and took her to the hospital, made sure that she was prepped and ready, and she was in surgery for five hours or so.
Then she came out and once I knew that everything went well‑‑ I think the biggest thing that scared me the most was thata day after her surgery, she came out or I came and visited and she still wasn't quite there. And it almost looked like she was dying in a way, because it reminded me of my dad when he went through cancer and it hit him pretty quick and he just‑‑ like he wasn't there. He was kind of loopy and would see things and hear things. That's what my mom was going through, as well. I was kind of like, I mean, I know the surgery went well but what's going on.
I gave it a couple of days and she started to come back to life, which was great.
And then yesterday, I just heard that she had no chemo. So it's just been, there's a lot of negative stuff building up and then the surgery went well and then there's no chemo. I know that we take it for granted, and in every situation like golf as a whole, we're very, very selfish and we need to be selfish with our time to try and get better at our craft. But sometimes when it comes to family, family has to overcome anything else, obviously golf and other things that you're worried about.
But we're very selfish in our ways. But when you sit and think about, okay, well, I don't have a dad, I don't have grandparents and if she goes, I've got no one, other than my two sisters. So you just forget that maybe you should have spent a little bit more time with your family and spending more time with them and just enjoying your life.
Once again, everyone in this room, we're all going to go at some point and we have to enjoy ourselves while we're here and on this planet. So once again, it was emotional but everyone is blessed and happy and we're thankful that the Big Man upstairs helped out.

Q. Do you find yourself playing with perhaps even more purpose now, more inspired?
JASON DAY: I sure hope so. I think that the biggest thing for me is that I'm really thankful just to be here. I guess in a way that you're just‑‑ you get so used to being‑‑ when you get in a situation like I am and the World Rankings, you're just so used to coming here and playing Augusta National and playing the Masters and playing on the TOUR every single year. That's just your job.
But I think the overall outlook on it is I'm actually thankful that I have a place that I can‑‑ or a job that I can actually enjoy every single day I'm alive, something that I love and enjoy and like to get better at.
I'm in a really good situation being able to sit up here in front of you guys and be able to talk about the situations that I'm going through and to be able to tell you honestly and truthfully from what's coming inside my heart. I feel like that takes a lot of pressure and a lot of ease off my shoulders. So that's why I feel like I'm so honest about things.
But yeah, you're right. I think I'm hoping that, you know, this week, it has not really hit me and I don't know how to emotionally or articulate the words verbally to you about how I feel and the purpose. But I feel plenty and I feel good about everything. I'm just, once again, I'm happy to be here.

Q. I wondered if you keep any of the golf balls that may end up being a bad shot, do you keep playing them or do you discard them? Have you ever hit a ball in Rae's Creek?
JASON DAY: Oh, yeah, I've hit some balls in Rae's Creek. A few too many.
Yeah, so I'm not like Ernie Els where if I birdie a hole, I give it away, or someone that bogeys a hole and gives it away. There's no scuffs on it or no smilie marks or if I skull it or anything like that, there's no of those, then I'll keep using it.
Sometimes I'll go through some rounds with one or two balls, where some guys use a ton of different golf balls. They've maybe gone through 12 balls a round or ten balls a round. But I kind of‑‑ if it's hot, I'll just keep going with it. Then as time goes on, then it starts to wear out a little bit‑‑ if I see a kid, I'll throw it to him. But yeah, I keep it pretty much.

Q. Did you keep your golf ball from when you won the PGA or PLAYERS Championship?
JASON DAY: No, usually either throw them away or sign them or something like that. Did you get one, Benny?

Q. Yeah, they are in my closet.
JASON DAY: Fair enough (laughter). That stuff is not too sentimental to me. The one thing that I do keep are the flags, the 18th hole flags. That is one thing that I do keep. That's very sentimental to me. So if I win, I get the 18th hole flag.

Q. On the golf here this week, what do you need to do differently to get over the hump and have you pinpointed holes in the past, like 17 and 18, something that you want to do better at?
JASON DAY: Yes, definitely 18 is obviously‑‑ I mean, 18, to a point. I would like to bogey that and still win, would be nice.
There are certain holes that come up. You've got your 4, your 5, they are difficult. 7 is very, very difficult. Getting through kind of Amen Corner is obviously key and then 17, 18. But if I had to boil it down, I think just showing the course a little bit more respect.
Now, granted, we're going to have some pretty tough winds. It's going to be cold and it's going to be pretty tough winds Thursday and Friday. 20‑ to 30‑mile‑an‑hour winds is not what we're used to around here, and it is going to be cold, so the ball is not going to be flying very far.
So typically, when it's tougher conditions like that, I kind of like those tough conditions. I feel like I'm kind of a grinder in that sense. But yeah, I won't really pinpoint it until today or tomorrow. But once again, it's not about the bad holes I play so much. It's just that I need to respect it more and not really be too aggressive. Because if you're too aggressive out here, you can put yourself in a very, very bad position. Not so much off the tee. There are spots off the tee that you can't put yourself but it's more so on the greens.
It's a second‑shot golf course; if you don't position yourself, you're pretty much done. You won't make‑‑ it will be a very, very difficult task to make par, and sometimes you can make bogey or worse and you can't keep giving the field shots like that. It's just too easy for them to catch up or overtake you. I think a little bit more respect and I'm hoping that I can play well this week.

Q. What are impressions of Curtis Luck, the young Aussie coming through?
JASON DAY: Curtis, he's a good bloke. His game, the way he reminds me, he reminds me of me growing up, because obviously I think he obviously turned pro at a young age. If he's mature enough, which I think he is, he's ready for it.
I played a practice round with him at Bay Hill and obviously a little bit of a practice round out here at Augusta National.
Yeah, as long as he keeps improving over time, gets stronger obviously, if he can get stronger and faster, and as he does that and improves his mental game, gets better and better‑‑ he's obviously won big tournaments before, so he has the gut to do that.
If he can keep doing it, he's definitely got the short game. He's not afraid, which is a good thing. And at such a young age, to have maturity and not be afraid is a lethal combination. As long as he can stay on the right path and keep going to work, and it seems like he does. He has his little team that he has and it seems like he's worked it out. As long as he still believes in that and keeps going on that path, he'll succeed.

Q. Given everything you've gone through and dealt with off the course, do you feel prepared for this week, or is it in some way made it easier?
JASON DAY: I'm a little bit unprepared, to be honest. Usually I have a week or two more weeks of tournaments under my belt, maybe a week or two more weeks of practice, as well, and I didn't pick up a club from Match Play till when I got here Friday. Because obviously I was busy with my mom and busy with my family and all that stuff and not really thinking about playing golf.
I don't know, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it's a good thing. But once again, I'm going to just do the best job I can with what I've got. Obviously my priority and my main focus was my mother, and now that's kind of evolved and taken care of, and I can start to focus more on the golf side of things and do the best job I can. That's all I can really do is control that.
I feel like things are coming along. The swing feels much‑‑ it's amazing. Just being a lot happier and enjoying myself a lot more, the swing feels like I'm hitting it a lot better. The short game, I feel like I have more touch in my hands. I think the main shift, it's shifting from off course back to on course now, and that's my focus, has done that, and I'm starting to get all my touch and feels back in my swing.

Q. Golfers seem to have an amazing memory to recall shots‑‑
JASON DAY: I've got the worst. I'm telling you right now I've got the worst.

Q. But you can remember shots that you hit years ago whether they were good or bad, and we know what happened last year to Jordan on 12. Golf being such a mental game, how do you overcome those demons when you're back at that hole next time around?
JASON DAY: In golf, you have to be very, very smart or very dumb, or have a really bad memory, which I've got a bad memory.
The biggest thing about, I think I explained this maybe at the Match Play. What happened to Jordan, it was obviously unfortunate and it was a bad error at the wrong time, but how many errors do we make over the course of a tournament that put us either out of a tournament? Who knows, the three‑putt on a Thursday on the fifth hole has an effect on the score at the end of the week. Just unfortunately it happens on a Sunday where everyone is watching.
Everyone makes mistakes and sometimes it happens Thursday, Friday, Saturday, but like unfortunately everyone is watching Sunday. On the biggest stage, on a hole like that with what happened, it's not so much with the situation that, oh, I'm worried about‑‑ yeah, it sucks. He lost‑‑ he ended up losing the green jacket again. Obviously defending champion but he ended up losing the tournament because of that.
But it's not so much looking at it as a negative. You've got to look at it as, okay, what do I need to do next time when I'm in that situation. As long as you look at it as a learning experience, and do that, then you'll be able to gain experience and look at it, not as a negative but as, okay, this is what I need to do. And from there, it won't be over your head all the time.
And yeah, it stings a little bit. But it won't be kind of lingering back there. You'll know that it's more of a learning curve and you'll get better from it, and that's the outcome or the outlook that you need to look at it from.
Because there are plenty of tournaments where I've went awayand in golf, you're going to fail more than you succeed. That's just the hardest thing about it. It's not like any other sport where you're up and it's kind of, you know, it's easier to keep that lead or not. But in golf, it's very, very difficult. Always you're going to fail more times than you succeed and if you can always have that constant outlook of I'm learning and trying to get better, then you'll gradually get better and better and better over a long period of time.
But with what happened to Jordan, I don't think there's going to be any worries with him because he's obviously won this year. He's gotten past that and I think a lot of golfers tend to typically get past that.

Q. I'm just wondering, going back to last fall and all the stops and starts to your career in the last six months or so, does this feel like maybe your season is just starting now because you've never really been able to get going.
JASON DAY: Yeah, I've had a lot of stuff going on in my life. I'd like it to be‑‑ I'd like it to be just like this (indicating calm) and not have anything going on, no distractions would be good.
I feel like my body doesn't start warming up until the warm stuff comes anyway. I think this is like the last cold week that we get.
Looking at it now, like I said earlier, I can start focusing on golf a lot more than what I have had. I said it this way: I said, I'm kind of back into the rebuilding stage, and it's weird for a person in my position to say that. It has been a while since I've won and it has been a while since I've actually thought about golf because of what has gone on. So right now I'm in the process of actually trying to just do my work. Try and get better each and every week, each and every day, and hopefully the ultimate goal is to make sure that I fit the puzzle or the pieces of the puzzle together and it turns into a tournament win down the road.
I'm kind of, that's where I'm at right now, and I think with this tournament this week, I'm going to try to do the best job I can. But at the start of the season, I mean, it happened a long time ago obviously and I haven't played too well. I've just got to know that I don't need to panic and I don't need to live on the last week that I played or the last tournament I played, because out here, on the TOUR, it's the flavor of the week. A person wins the tournament, they are very popular for a week and then they are talking about the next person, you know what I mean? And they are talking about why this person is so good and why this person is not playing so well.
I think the biggest thing is that there's a lot of expectation that is put on our shoulders because of it and everything is result‑driven, and it's not about what people think or expect or try and put you up against. It's more so of what you need to do, and so try and do the best that you can prepare.

Q. What's your goal going through Amen Corner?
JASON DAY: It would be nice to par 11 all four days. It would be nice to birdie 13 a couple of days and probably snag another birdie‑‑ it would be good to play 13 two‑under, 12 one‑under, and 11 even. That's a pretty big ask, isn't it (laughter)? Especially with the weather we've got coming on Thursday, Friday. But that's the ultimate goal is to be able to get through that little stretch.
With 12, my thing is I try and play to the middle of the green. So it sits on a 45‑degree angle. You have your bunker in the front and bunker in the back, kind of back right. The green sits 45 degrees, if you can take center of the green and cut it all the way across, you know, that's the number that you need to hit for the front left and that's the number that you need to hit for the back right. Like you take the middle of the green and you just kind of snip it off just to the left if it's front left from the center, and a little bit to the right if it's back right. So that you can never really, if you can get that number right, you'll never go over the back, if you go left and you'll never pull up short if you're right, do you know what I mean.
So there's a little planning ahead with stuff like that. But obviously 11 is just a brutal hole. It's long.

Q. Do you think eagle on 13?
JASON DAY: Do I think eagle on 13? Yeah, I'm thinking good drive. If I can get a good drive away‑‑ the hardest part is getting a good shot away on the tee and then the hardest part is trying to get it on the green. I think what a lot of people don't realize is how the actual pitch on the slope for the second shots, that can be very, very difficult to hit second shots into.
But yeah, I don't really think eagle there. I mean, once I hit the green, you know, I'm like 60 feet away and I'm like, okay, there's a chance. But I don't really think eagle there. I'm like just get it to the middle of the green, play it as a par 4 and try to make par, which is a birdie and get out.

Q. One more question about your mom. A lot of people during Masters week are casual fans who don't know your whole backstory. Can you describe a little bit about how your mom‑‑ what your mom's role is in making you a pro golfer?
JASON DAY: Yeah, this could be a long one. Cut it short. So my dad passed away when I was 12, and she took a mortgage out on the house and borrowed more money from my aunt and uncle to send me away to a golf academy because I was getting in trouble at home. She is the reason why I'm playing professional golf now.
I went and met Col, who is my coach and caddie, at the golf academy that I went to and from there, it was just kind of one door opened up another door, opened up another door and it was all because of the unfortunate situation I was put in when I lost my dad. That door closed and another door of opportunity opened up, and it was all because of what my mom did. She sacrificed a lot, and so did my sisters, just to get me to a golf academy seven hours away from my family and friends.
With that said, I owe everything to her. She's the one who got me from where I was to go to golf academy, meet my coach and get to where I am right now talking in front of you guys. We've only got one mom, so we have to make sure that we spend the time that we can with her.
MODERATOR: Jason, that was a really great press conference. We wish you the best for the week again.

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