MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2023

Jason Day

Quick Quotes

Q. (No Microphone.)

JASON DAY: Yeah, it was definitely a good. It was big. The putt was very important. Yeah, I had a lot of good looks out there for birdie early on, missed 'em. I just couldn't quite get the speed right at the start. I just kind of kept on blowing it through my, through the break. And then the back side things kind of started easing back into where I could see the ball go into the hole a lot better and, obviously, it was nice to be able to get up-and-down on the last hole.

Q. It's a really stacked leaderboard. It's important to --

JASON DAY: Oh, yeah, it's great. I look at that leaderboard, and it's like all the names are up there, which is fantastic. So I think it's important -- more imperative to actually get off to a good start here just because of what we're going to have on the weekend.

So it's nice to be able to get off to a good start, but you can't get too far ahead of yourself. It might end up turning into a marathon if we have a pretty wet kind of windy conditions on the weekend.

Q. Scotty's up there as well. It's nice to see a couple of Aussies up there. Cam is in the mix as well.

JASON DAY: Yeah, it's great. I had a chat with Scotty yesterday. He was on the way to the gym to go throw the weights around pretty hard, and I was sitting on a golf cart just eating food. (Laughing.) So, a little bit different. Scotty's been a good mate of mine, so it's nice to see him play well. I know that he's got off to a little bit of a slow start this year, but things can change in major championships, and I'm not sure where Cam Smith finished.

Q. 2-under?

JASON DAY: That's a nice start. With how little those guys have played, coming into, especially Cam, it's nice to be able to see him that -- you know, I did chat to Scotty about his short game. Scotty said his short game is absolutely filthy right now. So that's a good thing. So you definitely need it around here.

Q. When you look at that leaderboard, it's such a stacked leaderboard, you're 5-under, two off the pace, do you think you're going to have to keep that standard going?

JASON DAY: No. It just depends on how the weather goes. I think where tomorrow morning it's going to be very similar to what we had, from what I've been looking at from this morning. I haven't looked at the weather this afternoon. But going off of what my calculations as a meteorologist is, it's not very good.

But I feel like we're going to have -- we potentially could have the better side of the draw. So with that being said, I think you are correct in regards to like you kind of have to keep pushing because we'll have better conditions, but just got to keep yourself somewhere around the lead. If you can do that going into the weekend, who knows what happens.

Q. Not being here last year is there any trepidation on the first tee this morning on a Masters on Thursday?

JASON DAY: No. Actually, to be honest, I was kind of flying under the radar, which was nice. It was nice to -- like, I mean, I played with Gordon Sargent and Zach Johnson today, so we were in a group that were kind of flying under the radar totally. So it wasn't one of those big marquee groups that we have in the afternoon or early morning. So it was nice to be able to have a group that was very relaxed out there.

Q. You've been running some really nice form the last couple months. Do you think there's other guys looking at you saying this guy's a legitimate threat this week?

JASON DAY: I hope so, but, I mean, you look at the leaderboard, it's very, very stacked right now. I mean, any one of those guys can win easily and there's big names on that leaderboard right now. So I just got to keep my head down and keep pushing forward.

Q. (No Microphone.)

JASON DAY: Depends on when, how I wake up in the morning. (Laughing.)

Q. Any thoughts on the changes to the 5th hole?

JASON DAY: No, not as of right now. I think it's definitely a better hole coming into it with a 7-iron, which is what I had today. It's difficult because if you pull it left into those bunkers it's automatic bogey, if not double. Very rarely do you make par out of those bunkers. And then you obviously hitting driver up as far as you can. If you hit 3-wood then you're hitting 4-iron into it and it's not a 4-iron green.