WM PHOENIX OPEN

February 10, 2023

Jason Day

TPC Scottsdale

Quick Quotes

Q. Happy the day is over? How many holes did you play?

JASON DAY: 26. It wasn't too bad. But you're waiting on every hole pretty much. So it's like you just try -- well we got four more players than what we usually do. So you just kind of cramming in as much play as possible. You add some wind into the mix and you add the crowds out there which are pretty healthy.

So that is a good formula for a lot of slow play, unfortunately. But I'm glad I'm in the house and I'm just going to go rest up.

Q. You talked, you said at AmEx about getting everything back together again in your swing changes and cementing those. With your result at Torrey Pines and then your play through 36 so far would you say that those are cementing pretty well?

JASON DAY: Not really. I mean, yes and no. I feel like some weeks the body is reacting perfectly to what I'm trying to do in regards to changing certain patterns in the golf swing.

Then there's just been pretty much like a learning curve with regard to changing. It's been really difficult to change the swing and compete out here. I would love to have a swing like a Rahm or Rory that is tested over time and it's been successful.

But for me I've had to make those changes because of my body. Unfortunately, I'm just through that, I'm going through the testing phase right now of trying to change that as I compete. That can be difficult. Because you wake up some days it's like absolutely good and perfect and some days it's just, you know -- like, I mean, first round to second round here, it's just totally different. It's amazing. But I'm just grinding away trying to do the best job I can.

Q. While you were out there playing Tiger announced he's playing next week.

JASON DAY: Is he?

Q. Get your reaction to that?

JASON DAY: That's great. That's awesome. That's actually really good news. I'm actually really happy about that. It's good that he's out, he can walk and it's nice to be able to see that. So, yeah, I'm excited to see him next week. That's going to be fun.

Q. You said in the past that you really sacrificed your body to get to world No. 1. Do you believe you can get back to world No. 1 without sacrificing your body?

JASON DAY: Yes. Yeah. I know -- yeah, I do. I just feel like that it will be just from a different place getting back to No. 1. You have to have that belief in you to be able to try and at least have that as a goal. If it doesn't pan out, then it doesn't pan out. But like that's the goal in mind is try and get back to being -- well get back to No. 1.

I feel like if I can make the changes -- because I know that, like when I hit shots on the range, hit shots in practice rounds and the changes that, like, slowly cementing in, I would say. But like, I mean, it's funny, like I see the shots and I know that I'm like, Man, there was no chance it was going to go off line.

If I can add that in with good putting -- and I feel like I putted, I've started to putt really well over these last few months. If I can get just some sort of consistency in like the changes of the swing and the ball flight, the trajectory and I kind of know where things are going and I putt well I'm hoping to be up there each and every week.

If that happens then it's just a matter of time before you start kind of knocking on the door. Then you kind of get one and you get another one and you go on from there.

Q. You've been saying that it's not quite there yet with your swing. You got to be encouraged then with the results and the scores being the way they are?

JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, the results that I had over the last two years it was just obviously a struggle with putting and the short game and other things that have gone off on the golf course and off the golf course.

It's very encouraging to be able to be at 6-under and four back, currently four back. Playing well at Torrey Pines and then kind of getting in the mix here with 36 holes to go.

Q. You had that electric hole-out at Torrey Pines last year where it looked like you might actually win that one. Did you actually think maybe your return to the winner's circle was maybe happening on that timeframe and now you're sort of on a different timeframe?

JASON DAY: I didn't feel like I was going to win that tournament even after I holed that shot. I was just -- I was too like amped up going into 15. Like I was out of sync and out of comfort. I just knew that I should have brought myself down. Like I don't need to react and be excited about a shot that went in. Obviously it went in and it was great. But that was the time when I go, No, no, no, I got to pull my head in. It went in, great. Just react like it was nothing. Because I think if that was the case then I wouldn't have worked myself up so much.

But if I win this year, great. If I don't then I'm just, I got to keep working. I was just talking to Michael Thompson about it and he was asking me about, Do you feel like you have to work harder now. Just because the competition is so difficult. I said, I don't think I have to work as hard because I've always worked hard. I just feel like I have to be super disciplined on pretty much every aspect of my game in regards to making sure that everything is perfect.

When I was younger I could kind of get away with things not being as perfect. Now that I'm older I kind of have to make sure that I'm disciplined in my process.

Q. You say you want to get back to No. 1. Rahm and Scheffler, two of the guys you're chasing this week, they're at the very top. They're there week-in, week-out. You were there week-in, week-out, 2015, 2016. Do you miss all that stuff? Do you miss being asked about every single shot you hit, whether it's good or bad?

JASON DAY: Yeah, I do. Look, I miss, obviously, talking pretty much every week and being in front of the media and playing good golf and trying to win tournaments. That's like the big thing for most guys out here. They're trying to get in contention. You miss those feelings on Saturdays and Sundays.

Typically when I'm in the mix on Sundays I get no sleep that night. I miss that. I've been sleeping quite nicely over the last two years. And that's, like on a Saturday night, that's not what I want to do. I want to have no sleep.

Q. I was talking to Como earlier and I would love to hear more specifically about some of the stuff you're working through with your swing and what you're hoping to accomplish.

JASON DAY: So, over the last couple of days I've been talking about shallowing the club. It's just, unfortunately, like I was doing it a little bit wrong over the last couple days. I was just kind of getting the club stuck underneath me and extending up and just doing it from -- shallowing it for all the wrong reasons, I would say.

But we did a lot of work, body work for like the first, like for a year and a half. Just trying to get the body motion correct. Now it's like all like the small little minutia of small, tiny, little changes that are really difficult to make. Like keeping the left arm internally rotated at impact. But also just making sure that the forearms kind of turn over, but keeping that left arm in and the right arm underneath. But then it's all of that release pattern stuff and getting it up and out of the way.

Yeah, I could go, I could talk for hours and hours. I'm so obsessed with the swing and getting it to a certain point that I call Como at 1 o'clock in the morning just because I have an idea.

But I think things are progressing in the right way. Right now I have to deal with kind of a wipey fade. And that's okay. I'm okay with that. But, yeah, at some point if I can get the release pattern the way that I want it to it will come out like a, kind of more like a Jon Rahm bullet fade. Which would be nice. But I feel like there's a lot of work left to do.

Q. For the first round to second round overall seems like this golf course has been very scorable in the second round much more so than the first. I know you said you played 26 holes today. When did you feel this golf course became a little more gettable as far as low scoring?

JASON DAY: The boys yesterday morning, they had a tough round of it. I mean, obviously, there was a ton of wind. And we came in the afternoon, like later in the afternoon, it kind of died down.

We got a little bit of wind this morning. But we had the better side of the draw. I just think guys are starting to -- the greens -- the whole golf course is in perfect shape. The greens are in perfect shape. Pin locations -- I mean, it's just set up for -- I wouldn't say that it's crazy like low scores out there. But it's set up for the 4s and 5s, if you can kind of just chalk those up over the next four days then you're going to be not too far away from winning the tournament.

Q. What was your approach when you felt that the golf course was ideally setup for a bit more scorable rounds?

JASON DAY: Trying to hole some more putts would be nice. But I missed, you know, three makeable putts and that would have put me one back currently. But it is what it is. I just got two more days. Things, especially here, things happen pretty quick.

Q. How did you handle seeing your game go from No. 1 in the world down to 150?

JASON DAY: It was very humbling. Yeah. I was telling Luke my caddie last week, or at Am Ex, I sat -- I got lost going out of the golf course because they had that concert on. And I got lost and I just sat on the side of the road looking at the mountains for like 30 minutes. Because I just, it felt like no matter what I did, it just, I was going in, I was just turning the wrong way every single time.

I was struggling with my body. Struggling mentally. Struggling with my mom passing. Struggling with a lot of things.

I think finally over the last few months I feel like things are finally settled down where I can actually focus on golf and playing golf and really just trying to do the best job I can.

Yeah, I mean, it's hard. Because like you go from being the best player in the world, everyone kind of knowing you and doing this. Then all of a sudden like you're kind of, you know, you're like scraping it around trying to make cuts. That can be a difficult process.

It's not an easy fall, but I feel like I have been nice enough to a lot of guys out there that the fall wasn't too bad. Now I'm just trying to work myself back up.