PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2021

Jason Day

The Ocean Course at Kiawah

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We are really pleased to be joined by 2015 PGA champion Jason Day. Jason posted a second-round 3-over par 75 today. He's 5-over for the championship.

A mixed bag today and a couple double boxes that kind of got you in a little trouble. Maybe talk about the conditions -- your playing but also about the conditions and how they compared to yesterday.

JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, obviously the breeze is a little bit stronger than yesterday. I think it's going to gradually get stronger as we go along. It's a tough finish, obviously. I think I hit 4-iron -- this morning I hit 4-iron into 14, 5 into 15, 3-iron into 17, 3-iron into 18.

You can't really bail out anywhere on 17. Made a double on 17, just had an awkward stance in the bunker and just obviously didn't get that second one up-and-down.

With how hard the course is, I think the course is playing pretty fair. I think there's definitely a lot of opportunities if you get yourself in the correct position. You've just got to play -- if you drive it well, you can definitely give yourself a lot of opportunities on the greens. That's all I'm saying.

I know it's tough and the wind is tough, but I think the guys are starting to kind of adjust to the wind. You see the scores that we've had. There's obviously a mixed bag of good players playing bad, and I think they're just getting used to it.

Q. I'm just curious what you saw in Phil's game. I know you were grinding out there yourself, but he seemed to really get it going yesterday and today on the back nine.

JASON DAY: Yeah, there was no foul balls. Usually with Phil you can get some pretty wide ones, and he kept it straight out in front of him. And his iron play was pretty tight. There was a lot of quality iron shots into the greens.

When he was out of position, he just kind of -- you know Phil, get up-and-down. But no kind of off-the-map drives that get him out of position, make it really tough on him. So he's driving it really straight.

Q. I know he's been taking care of himself pretty well, but is it kind of remarkable to see a guy that's about to be 51 do that kind of thing and be atop the leaderboard at a major championship?

JASON DAY: It is and it isn't just because obviously he's worked on a lot of speed over the years, and he's made that well known, that he can keep up with -- obviously he outdrove me on 9. I don't hit it very short. That means that he's still got short irons in play.

Like I said, if he can keep it straight and hit it the way that he's been hitting, he's going to be around on Sunday for sure. With Phil, you kind of get some off-the-map drives that make it very interesting, and he's kept it very, very straight over the last two days.

Q. Is it baby time now? Where to from here for you?

JASON DAY: Yeah. I mean, obviously home. Yeah, obviously we're waiting for the baby. That's a given; it's going to come sooner or later in the next two weeks. Yeah, I've just got to work on my game.

I know that things -- it's funny; I feel really positive about my game. There's a lot of good signs out there. I just somehow just got to get over the putting part.

It's not that I'm putting bad. I'm actually hitting good putts. It's that when I stand in there, I can't trust where I'm lining up because it feels like I'm aiming so far right, but I'm aiming straight. So when you get in there and you feel like you're cross-eyed, you can't trust the lines, and that's just the way it's been over the last year and a half. Even with the red putter, the Spider putter that I had, everything looked straight to me, but it was coming off left and I was aiming left. I've got to kind of figure that out. I think once I figure that out and get my putting back, then good play will come back.

For me right now I'm going to go home and try and work on it and get into Memorial.

Q. Is there any chance you wouldn't play Memorial?

JASON DAY: Why wouldn't I play it?

Q. Just if the baby is sort of close to --

JASON DAY: I mean, see, that's a difficult one because me being at home, because I'm staying home, I'll probably end up playing it unless she has the baby on one of the tournament days. Yeah, I'll definitely probably play the Memorial.

Q. Nice up-and-down on 9; were you thinking that may be to make the cut?

JASON DAY: I really have to ask a lot of the wind today to try and move a lot of scores. I felt like 4-over was probably going to be the number.

I tried to do the best I could with what I had out there, especially on the greens. Unfortunately just pulled up a little bit short on that last hole, in the heart for birdie on that bunker shot.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming in and finding us. Good luck and we'll see you very soon.