PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 8, 2020

Jason Day

Harding Park Golf Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: Good evening from the 2020 PGA Championship. We're pleased to be joined by Jason Day, who posted an even-par-70 today in his third round. He is at 6-under for the championship, three shots off the lead.

Jason, good start to the day with a birdie on 1, but it's the birdie on 16 that I think may be what you're trying to seize upon and carry into tomorrow and in the midst of a thick and deep leaderboard.

JASON DAY: Yeah, it was nice to be able to start off with a birdie. I think there was plenty of opportunities out there. Just off the top of my head, 4, 7, 10, easy birdie opportunities when you're playing from the middle of the fairway.

Unfortunately I just didn't give myself the opportunities that I could have on those holes, but overall I actually struck it pretty well going into the greens, tidied up the driving on the back side. Gave myself more opportunities. Just didn't really hole anything on the back side, but just trying to save those up for tomorrow.

Q. What's the excitement level of being in this mix for tomorrow, first of all, how hard you've worked? As you look for that magic Sunday round for you, what's going to be the biggest key to that?

JASON DAY: Just holing more putts, really. I think I'm still No. 1 in approach to the green, which has been nice for a change, to not have to rely on my short game to get myself into contention. But I just haven't capitalized over the last two days on the opportunities that I've given myself, and I feel like it's right there, just if it clicks I can shoot a low one, and if I can do that tomorrow, then hopefully I'll be walking out of here with the Wanamaker.

Q. I guess the key is then spinning it into a positive, right, that you've given yourself so many looks?

JASON DAY: Yeah.

Q. And if you can just stay focused and stay positive you'll get this thing --

JASON DAY: Yeah, no, I feel good. I feel great about my game.

Overall I feel good about my putting, as well. I feel like that's coming around nicely. Even though it didn't look like I putted that great, I'm getting the lines right, unfortunately just not starting it on the line, and sometimes the speed may be just a little bit out, but overall I feel like I'm hitting good putts, just unfortunately they're not going in.

Tomorrow is another day, and you can wake up totally different tomorrow and feel great and everything is going to go in, so I'm really positive about how things are progressing.

Q. And once again, you're happy that you hung tough?

JASON DAY: Yeah, that's the biggest thing is I was 5-under coming into 16, I get to 16, I birdie that with a nice putt from about 20 feet away and then hit a nice one in close on 17, and then you're sitting there going, I'm only two strokes back if I hole this putt. Unfortunately I didn't, but it's nice to be able to just hang in there, like major championship weekends you don't have to do too much to move up the leaderboard, but you can do a lot to move away from the lead, unfortunately, by forcing things too much.

Overall it was a solid day even though I didn't have a lot of birdies. I didn't have a lot of bogeys, either. Hopefully that's my poor round for the week and I can move on.

JOHN DEVER: That leaderboard is deep; it's talented. Does it invigorate you to kind of measure yourself going 18 more holes, to measure yourself against what is a roster of the best players going?

JASON DAY: Yeah, I'm not focused on the lead at all. I'm just going to try and focus on myself tomorrow and add them up at the end of the day. I know that there's going to be leaderboards out there and I'll look what's going on.

But I'm really going to just try and stay away from just really trying to focus on each and every shot, and if I can do that and walk off at the end of the day knowing that I gave everything, then I'll be happy. Hopefully it's enough to win.

Q. Given your ball-striking numbers this week, the tougher, the better, tomorrow?

JASON DAY: Yeah, the tougher the better. I'd like to hit a few more fairways. That would give me more opportunities to get it close to the pins, but tougher the better tomorrow.

Once again, it just -- I feel like the cream rises to the top once it's tough, and it's going to be Sunday at a major championship. Everyone is going to be feeling it tomorrow. There's a lot more nerves. It's the last day. There's no more days after this, so there's going to be a lot of pressure out there.

Q. Just wondering how much you're looking forward to the first major Sunday of the year.

JASON DAY: Yeah, I'm actually -- it feels like -- well, we haven't played a major in ages. It's strange, but to be honest, I'm just excited to be here, have another shot at winning the PGA Championship and get things going.

But we've got two more majors after this, so it's nice to be able to at least have one major going into the Playoffs because the Playoffs is obviously a really tough stretch for us. We've got three weeks in a row there, and hopefully I get to Tour Champs, you know, tomorrow, make that happen.

But overall it's just nice to be able to be in contention at a major championship again and know that your game is good enough to get in contention.

JOHN DEVER: Jason, thanks for your time all week and best of luck on Sunday.