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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDEMay 31, 2017Jason DayDublin, Ohio MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Jason Day into the interview room at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. Your adopted hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Busy week for you, I'm sure. Talk about playing in your backyard. JASON DAY: Yeah, it's good. Today was the first round I've played at Muirfield this year. I've played here for many years now. I've been so busy and been on the road that I haven't had the opportunity. And the weather has kind of spun out a little bit longer during the wintertime. We haven't had the opportunity to come out and play as much. With that being said, looking forward to coming out here and trying to change the way that I usually play around here. This has always been one of those tougher stops for me. Not so much the golf course, itself, I think it is a little bit of hectic week when you're in town and you only live 25 minutes away. I'm interested to see how things go. I'm very excited, obviously coming out from the back end of a good tournament week. Hopefully I'll keep the momentum going and hope for a good week and see how it goes. Q. Obviously you talked about it's hectic week with a lot of friends, family and everything else. What about the course, itself? Have you found the course fits your game? Do you like playing it? Tell me how you've played the course in the past years. JASON DAY: It's a course where I think if you hit it like 280, it sets up perfect for you. You can hit it to the corners, you don't have to try to take over the bunkers. Like for instance, 10, 11, 12, 13, the par-4 in the corner, I can take it over that bunker. But once again, if you take that on and you don't hit it on the correct line, you hit it straight, you can hit it in the trees and it's difficult. But if you hit it just above average out here, it sets you up in perfect position. And I think the biggest thing for me is that typically in the past when I've had 3-woods in my hands, which I do have a lot of 3-woods in my hands around here that has made it tough for me. When I can get a 2-iron in my hand off the tee, it makes it a lot easier to hit fairways and give myself opportunities. But once again, it's all about not short siding myself here. If you short side yourself, the greens are very fast today. They are receptive, but fast. It's a second shot golf course, and you can't short side yourself at a place like this. Q. Earlier this year you've had some situations that you had to deal with and found very difficult to play through and so forth. But I'm sure that's not always been the case. You've had other things in the past that you were able to play through, concentrate on your golf game and sort of -- JASON DAY: A little different when someone in your family is about to die. Q. Unquestionably. How do you continue to deal with things and concentrate on your golf, whether it's a personal issue -- JASON DAY: Injury or something? Q. -- injury, whatever it is? JASON DAY: It was probably the toughest that I've ever had to go through. With an injury you can kind of semi control it to a certain degree with your body, you know what's going on. Vertigo is the same thing. It's all within kind of what you're -- when it comes to someone that has cancer and you're told not to worry about it, but you worry about it. It's difficult to play with that in the back of your mind. Because really I didn't want to be on the golf course. All I wanted to do was be with my mom. And that's obviously tough. I think after the surgery and after my mom went home, I just felt like I found a little balance. The balance started coming back. And that's the biggest thing with playing competitive golf, you have to find a balance between personal stuff and playing competitive golf. And if you can do that then that's when most of the stresses that you have are kind of low and you can go out and kind of focus on golf. Because it's very, very difficult for me, personally, it's very difficult for me to have too many things going on in my life and try and play competitive golf. I can't do it. I just have to single focus on playing and getting back to the No. 1 spot, and that's what I want to get back to. I have to really focus on that, and all my life is pretty much doing that. If I get distracted here and there then it takes me away from being able to accomplish that goal. But there's no easy way of dealing with something like that, you just have to kind of take the time, understand that you're probably going to go through a low or a slump and understand at the end of the day golf is really not the most important thing right now and you have to focus on something else. And once that's taken care of, come back and focus on trying to be a champion again. Q. I want to ask you about turning corners, a couple of specifics. Obviously, here last year you were just three back with a round to go. Have you turned the corner on this course by that final round? JASON DAY: What did I shoot in the final round? Q. 74, you were three back. You turned the corner here. For this year, do you feel you've turned the corner? JASON DAY: You had to put that in there, didn't you? (Laughter). I said, I think a couple of weeks ago, I think it was at The PLAYERS when I was in the rebuild stage of trying to get back to No. 1. And obviously, as you reach a certain stage, getting back to the top, it just slowly gradually gets harder and harder and harder. And it's not so much the tournaments or the people that you play against, it's the amount of workload that you put into it, how much the desire is there to reach the top again, how much you really want to put into it. And just saying earlier that it was tough for me at the start of the year to really focus on trying to get back to No. 1. And like I said, I didn't want to be on the golf course because I wanted to focus. And then now since everything's balanced again, I do think everything is starting to turn. But it's more about the mental switch that's gone off that now I can really focus on my golf again and try to get back to the top. And I've been kind of busting my butt to try to get back there. The biggest thing for me is I've got to be patient. I had a great week the Byron. It would have been great to win. Unfortunately I missed the putt. I got in the playoff and I failed at winning that tournament. But it was a good learning experience. I think I handled myself great. I just need to keep working hard and know that the delayed gratification is always the best gratification, rather than the instant, like I need a quick fix Band-Aid. I've got to focus on the long-term stuff rather than the short-term stuff, and hopefully through the little process -- through the process and the little stuff I need to do will add up to the big picture. Q. If you could just talk about what it means to have Jack at this tournament, and how that elevates the game. JASON DAY: Yeah, other than the economic impact of the Tour being here and the amount of people. You saw the amount -- the crowds that were out there with Peyton Manning being here, and how big Nationwide has been a part of this tournament for Jack and his family, to have the best player to ever live in his backyard, the golf course that he built which is a spectacular golf course, one of my favorite golf courses to play, it's a very, very special place. And obviously it is special to him. And he's done tremendous work at the Nationwide Children's Hospital. And obviously a lot of the stuff that goes from here goes over to there. He's touched a lot of lives, which is amazing. Not only on the golf course but off the golf course, as well. So it means a lot to this city, this state. So it's really, really cool that he comes back every year. Looking forward to many more with him. Q. Given the personal nature of your relationship with Tiger, where were you on Monday when you heard the news? What was your reaction, and have you had the opportunity to communicate with him? JASON DAY: I was actually downstairs in my basement. And I was with my agent, Bud, and just meeting a new trainer. And when the photo came out and obviously the story came out, I just -- I haven't really read into it too much. Obviously, I just -- the biggest thing for me is to just hope that -- when I first thought about it, I'm just hoping that no one got hurt, he didn't get hurt, everyone was okay. And then from what I've heard, it was like different dosage of prescribed medicine that he took. I mean, he's had four back surgeries and seven knee surgeries and some Achilles and stuff like that. It's tough to see him go through this. Hopefully, he's on the right dosage and he can get through this stage and hopefully come back. We talk about it, people -- I don't know if people forget, but -- we talk about it, I remember watching him at Flint, Michigan, at the Buick Open or Buick Invitational or something like that, he shot 6-under all four days. And just the aura about the guy was so special. And I miss that out here, because I really do want to play against him at his best and I want him to be healthy and playing. So hopefully he rests up. I did contact him, but obviously I'm sure a lot of people are concerned about his health, as well. He didn't get back to me, but that's totally understandable. I'm totally fine with that. And once again, I'm hoping that his health comes back and he can get back out on the golf course. Q. If you look at your record here and draw some parallels, I think you had similar type records at Bay Hill and the players before winning last year. JASON DAY: Yeah. Q. In hindsight, what pushed you through that were so different in those weeks, when you didn't have a great track record? JASON DAY: I think at the start it was more of an attitude that I took into that week. It helps that I was driving it straight, long with that 2-iron and putting the dot off it, too. That's what I'm hoping this week. I'm not going to say the attitude gets you over the line, because it won't. It will probably get you 25 percent of the way there and then you have to go and execute. But obviously it starts with -- I was talking about U.S. Opens. And we've got the U.S. Open coming up at Erin Hills, it's a difficult golf course, it's a 9.7-mile walk. And usually when it comes to stuff like that, or tournament venues like that, people tend to either complain or something like that. And that's just the attitude part about it. Major championships are tough; they're a grind. You have to have the right attitude going into it. And I think that's something that coming in here I've had some decent finishes, but not the greatest. I know that I can play well around here, because I have played well around here. I've just got to piece it altogether and have four good rounds instead of having three and then a bad one. The attitude, and hoping the execution is right, and trying to leave myself below the hole. It's difficult to get an above the hole. It's hard to hole putts. If you get above the hole, you're defense putting all the way around and you can't really be aggressive with those. Hopefully that all combines into a W this week. Q. Can I get you to elaborate on the new trainer, and what your goals are physically and what do you need to do to get your body right with three majors left? JASON DAY: He says I need to add about 14, 15 pounds of mass on my legs. Because I used to have -- I was 195 pounds about a year and a half ago. And I dipped down into the 170s this year. So I'm down 15 pounds, 15, 18 -- 15 to 20 pounds at least since when I was playing some good golf. My legs were bigger, very, very big compared to my body. I had a lot of power, a lot of strength from those. And then obviously was loose up top and I could unwind and hit it long. I think I've gotten a little bit too top heavy. The training style that I was doing helped a little bit getting through that initial stage. But the way I was training, I think I was training myself to swing it slower. And I think with the new guy hopefully that I can train more explosive power, and hopefully turn that into more speed, get my speed back up, get my distance back up and from there hopefully make the game a lot easier. If you're coming two clubs less, the game is a lot more simple with regards to that. So that and just trying to get a lot more weight back on. Because I have dipped down too much. I feel fit and ready, but just too skinny. Q. (No microphone.) JASON DAY: Yeah, so Kevin, he's worked with -- he currently works with Andy Sullivan and he works with Tommy Fleetwood. So he's out of the UK. We've literally had our first meeting this week. I'm interested to see how everything pans out. I'm looking forward to the future. Obviously I was kind of in limbo after I lost my trainer early in January, and then these five months I've kind of been lost a little bit. And I've been trying to interview people, but just hasn't turned out. So I've finally got someone in place and hopefully that part turns into good results in the end. Q. Obviously, as a player who knows how hard it is to get to No. 1, what have you seen from Dustin Johnson this past year that's allowed him to break through and have the season he's had? JASON DAY: You know what, I think he drives it well, hits wedges well and putts well. So that's a very lethal combination, for someone who hits it as far as him. It seems that he's doing it very easy, though. And when it comes to looking at him and his body language, he's very confident. When you're watching someone play it looks like he's hitting it to exactly where he wants to, like he's hitting at a target. Sometimes when you watch guys it seems like they're staring a little bit, seems like he's going full out and hitting at his target. But it seems like to me that he's actually comfortable with being No. 1 in the world. And that was really hard for me, was being comfortable and having to deal with all the stuff that came with it. And it seems like he's doing a good job with it. It doesn't seem like it's changed too much to what it was before to what it is now to being No. 1. If he wakes up in the morning, and regardless if he's 10 in the world or No. 1 in the world, if he's the same, then life is going to be pretty simple. He's handling himself really well and playing some tremendous golf. But once again, there's a lot of good players that are working hard, trying to get back up to the top of the mountain. I'm certainly one of them. And trying to keep a good round, especially with three majors coming up. MODERATOR: Thank you for your time today and best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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