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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

June 1, 2018

Jason Day

Dublin, Ohio

Q. After the round yesterday we talked about 68 being a good number every day and you hit that number again today.
JASON DAY: Yeah, it was good. Got off to a pretty decent start on the back side, which was the front side today. And then obviously I had a couple bogeys, kind of went down to even par through nine holes. But nice to be able to get through the front side again 4-under.

Q. The scramble on 9 to preserve that number?
JASON DAY: Yeah, I wasn't too pleased with the tee shot. Obviously there's just so much room there. Just unfortunately it's one of those actual pin locations that you can get at and maybe have a birdie. But overall very pleased.

Q. As an example, too, that second shot where the rough you had a decent lie, if you can get a decent lie in this rough this week?
JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean I knew I didn't want to lay up. If I would have laid up it would have been somewhere where D.J. would have laid up. I just thought that if I could either get in that bunker or get over it into the up slope, which I did, everyone's kind of walking that way, so I know that the grain's going to go that way as well. So fortunately got a pretty decent lie and I could get underneath it, get up in the air and leave myself a nice tap in.

Q. Quite a round of golf, started out hot, then a little bit of a lull but then you finished on a good note. But your short game is marvelous.
JASON DAY: Yeah, I've been practicing very hard, especially over the last couple weeks, week or so, especially in this kind of grass. This Kentucky bluegrass can be pretty difficult, especially the thickness that we have right now, it can sit really deep down or it can kind of sit on top. So there's a number of shots that you actually have to play out of the rough to try and get enough softness when it lands because obviously the pitch of the greens.

Q. We talk about how far you guys can hit the ball. But here I saw more of the game of management than I did just go ahead and strength and just go ahead and take it down the fairway as far as you could?
JASON DAY: Well and that's the thing. With the rough the way it is, I think it's taking a lot of -- it's more of a premium to hit fairways and I think that's taken the drivers out of a lot of guys' hands. You'll see a lot of guys hit drivers still, but it's more along the lines of 2-irons, 3-irons, 3-wood, a lot of 3-woods this week, and I think that's what it calls for as well. But once again, these are pretty forgiving fairways, but it's in the back of your mind where you just can't miss a fairway. If you miss a fairway, you may not get to the green. That makes it a very difficult day to try and shoot anything under par, if you're just missing, just missing fairways. So you got to try and lay back a little bit, take a little bit extra club maybe and try and hit the greens.

Q. 8-under par after two rounds, your 10th time around here, but we haven't quite seen you get into contention quite as much?
JASON DAY: Just warming up.

Q. Are you sneaking up on it this year, or what's different this year, do you think, in your mind's eye?
JASON DAY: I think that I feel good about my game. I've had two wins this year, so that's, I'm not searching for a win. And you're coming here trying to do a little bit extra and push it a little bit. So I just -- coming off a couple wins, obviously that eases kind of tensions coming into it. I haven't had great finishes here, so the expectation of me playing is a little bit different this year. I'm here to win and I just got to not so much play it differently. I know how to play this course, because I played it before, a number of times, I haven't done very well on it. But I just feel a little bit different this year. My game feels a little bit different. My short game's where it needs to be and it's kind of shown over the last two days.

Q. Yesterday we talked kind of a lot about how good you are on the greens right now. I got to say, I got an up close personal view of it. How good is that putter actually feeling in your hands, because you looked brilliant with it right now?
JASON DAY: It's good but I didn't have the greatest putting day today, I felt like. I felt like I missed a few easy birdie putts and missed a really short par putt on 14. So yesterday was great, today was great. I mean, it's just, all I'm trying to do is just really get involved in the line. If I can get myself involved in the line, see the line, start it on that line, but also have good speed, then I know that I've got a really good chance of holing it, and that's what I feel like right now. But mind you, you've got to spend an hour and a half to two hours every day when I'm practicing putting, so hopefully if I do that long enough I'll be good at it.

Q. You put yourself in good position and this is a place that you haven't really done that well at, but you've got a chance now.
JASON DAY: Yeah, there's still two days. I know that we're going to have some pretty decent weather tomorrow. But I think that the Sunday's going to be tough. You'll need probably need a good short game that day. But that's two days away that I don't need to really kind of worry about. I'm just going to get some good rest today, see how the guys go, and hopefully it doesn't rain. It's actually been pretty decent weather this morning. And we got a little bit of wind yesterday, but for the most part it was pretty fair. So in good position going into the weekend.

Q. I know you're asked about that every year here, but why you haven't really performed as well here over the years. Is there any common denominator at all?
JASON DAY: No, no, I think that typically you have a lot more 3-woods here. When you have a lot more 3-woods here, 3-wood wasn't kind of the strength of my game. When you're missing fairways, they are very wide, I think they're wide fairways, when you have wide fairways and you're missing fairways, it makes it difficult to hit the greens. And just a lot of stuff going on this week with family and that.

Q. That was going to be a follow up. A lot of guys talk about, hey, it's nice to sleep in my own bed, but aren't there a lot more factors of other things to kind of deal with. What other things --
JASON DAY: I think I just truly -- this is my home course and I think I just sucked on it for a long time. I didn't really, I don't think there was anything, any reason why, I just didn't really play well, but I'm hopefully I can change that, because I feel different this year. I was just saying that I've just, I've got even two wins under my belt this year already, so you're not trying to come into a week like this if you have no wins and trying to get something going or push it a little bit. On a golf course like this, you can't short side yourself when the greens are quick and when you're trying to push things and trying to get things going for the season, you can typically get yourself into some pretty poor positions. I think that over the last 10 years it's taken me awhile, I think I know where the bad positions are now.

Q. Do you put more pressure on yourself because this is your home course?
JASON DAY: I think possibly a little bit. I think everyone's like, oh, you should play good, it is your home course. Well I've only played twice here before the tournament, so it's like, it is my home course, but I really don't play here too often. But saying that, I know the course well enough to come out and play well, so it's not an excuse. But, yeah, I just, I don't know why, why I haven't had, I mean I could look at my stats and break it down and tell you exactly what, but I just don't have the stats.

Q. Does it annoy you?
JASON DAY: Yes, it annoys me. I want to play well in front of my family. Family and friends come out and they -- I want them to be yelling in the crowd when you're in contention. So that's, that annoys me a lot.

Q. (No Microphone.)
JASON DAY: I saw halftime, I saw Curry's long 3-pointer at halftime, but I didn't, I didn't end up seeing the last two quarters. So, yeah, there's, I'm sure the boys are kind of, they're a little bit disappointed, but they just got to forget it. It's hard to go there and win anyways, but they gave themselves -- they got themselves in good position. If they can take it, great, but unfortunately it is what it is. I know that those guys just got to forget about it and move on.

Q. In this calendar year, in Tiger's latest comeback, his weekend score average is two strokes better than his Thursday, Friday scoring average. Does that make sense to you? Can you explain why that might be?
JASON DAY: I think you come out and you probably, he hasn't played a lot of tournaments. He's played a little bit but he hasn't played a little bit. Say, for instance, you're playing like two or three in a row, you get the sharpness -- I'm not saying sharpness back, but he's always kind of had it, but you get that playing mode back. Sometimes you, like I don't know if he's thinking about it, but you think about the cut line sometimes.

Q. Do you think even he --
JASON DAY: I don't know, I'm not putting words in his mouth, but maybe there's a chance that he's thinking about the cut line. That's why that once he's into the weekend, he can kind of relax and go, I can just go out and play golf. But there's a good chance, I mean there's a chance where, obviously, you saw him yesterday, he didn't come out strong. And he came back, he came home strong which was nice. But I think that he might be thinking about that kind of thing more so than just coming out trying to start off like that.

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