THE AMERICAN EXPRESS

January 20, 2023

Jason Day

PGA WEST Pete Dye Stadium Course

Quick Quotes

Q. That's got to be a pretty satisfying day. Just describe that round for us and what you liked about it the most.

JASON DAY: I felt like I peaked a little early on the front nine when I shot 6-under. So I was kind of like, Okay, let's just shoot at least 1-under. If you can snag another one that would be great on the back side.

Shooting 8-under out there, the conditions were great. We've had great conditions the whole week pretty much. It's been like this. It's nice to be able to get that course out of the way. Got La Quinta tomorrow. So typically that yields more birdies than these two courses over here.

So, but like everyone's saying, you can't get ahead of yourself too. Because if you start thinking about it too much you can definitely go out there and just have an average day. So I got to try and stay as focused as possible and just take it as it comes.

Q. Everything's good with you body-wise?

JASON DAY: Yeah, touch wood, I feel good. I've been feeling great actually for a good long while now. So just been kind of seeing myself healthier. I feel like I'm doing the right things. Not only on the golf course, but off the golf course as well. That's kind of yielded into, I feel like, a better motion at it out here on the golf course.

Still some of the stuff, the old stuff is in there still, but I kind of got to work through that slowly. Because if I try and press too hard on some of the swing changes the body doesn't really adapt that quick and can potentially hurt certain areas of your body.

But overall this past year to, six months to a year it's been really, really good for me. So I feel pretty good.

Q. You played this event for the first time last year. What made you decide to come back? With the multiple courses and the weather and getting some things, I'm sure there's a number of factors.

JASON DAY: Well, I'm here anyways. And then I just, I feel like it's a good opener for the start of the year. Typically in the past I would, if I'm not in Hawaii I would go straight to Torrey. And, I mean, I felt like I was playing like a U.S. Open times a thousand when you go from doing nothing for a month to two months and you go straight to Torrey and you're playing.

This way I can come to a tournament like this where typically the conditions are like this and you can kind of see where the game's at then adjust accordingly going into next week.

Q. If you look at your season so far, the tournaments that you played, the results look very consistent. Is that something you've been striving for? Is that something that you worked towards and you're happy with?

JASON DAY: Well, typically when you are battling injuries or you're trying to change something that's when the inconsistencies come. So your body can't be a hundred percent. That means from day-to-day that changes and that brings inconsistency. Same thing as changing your swing.

So I've been at, for me personally I feel like I've been in a good spot for awhile where I could just focus on a few key things in my swing and my body and that has, I guess, brought some consistency. But like I got to just kind of slowly bleed this stuff in and then hopefully six months down the road, a year down the road, then everything's just firing on all cylinders and I can go out there and freewheel it a little bit.

Q. How close do you think, how close do you have your body to where you were at your peak in the mid 2010s, 2015s?

JASON DAY: I mean, I would say that my body -- well, I was still in pain through those years, I just kind of sacrificed myself to get to No. 1.

I feel like -- I'm hoping that I'm doing the right things to not only get back there, but get back there healthy and I can hopefully stay there a lot longer than what I did.

But I think, overall, like the way that I go about things now I'm kind of glad that I went through that. Just that I can prepare a little bit differently. I can kind of understand what is good for my body, what isn't great for my body and then just take it from there.

The body is almost there. It's more so the swing now. It's more swing-related stuff. Kind of like really cementing the changes in. That way that I can just go out there and see a pin and just hit at it. Instead of focusing on like a few key areas where I actually have to focus on to be able to create or hit a shot. So really, really close.