THE 151ST OPEN

July 20, 2023

Jason Day

Mixed Zone

Q. Are you satisfied with that?

JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, it's just made a poor error on 10. Another five yards, it's probably close to a makeable birdie putt. But I wasn't just quite happy with how I was hitting the ball today.

I think short game was nice, but it is the first day. Looks like the leaders are currently at 5, but there's a ton of guys that are still left to play.

Just keep -- I'm going to go to the range and kind of work on it and plug along.

Q. 1-over, that's pretty --

JASON DAY: I'd rather be under, but I guess you're not -- yeah, the hard thing is I had it going early, which was nice, and then obviously it would have been really nice to be able to kind of get a couple on the back side.

When you're sitting there thinking 2-under through five holes, you're going, okay, I've got to get through the tough stretch, which is kind of the middle part of your round, and then you can birdie 15 and 18 and then you're sitting 4.

Unfortunately didn't go that way, but it is the start of the week, so just -- it's easier to play your way out of the tournament.

Q. Did you think that little stretch, those two holes, maybe it was going to be your day early on?

JASON DAY: I mean, yeah, it was nice. Obviously those two holes you're looking to birdie anyway. They're kind of the ones that you want to capitalise on the front side.

I think I've just got to keep plugging along. It's The Open Championship; anything can happen. I've just got to try it day by day and see how it goes.

Q. Do you think you've never quite done yourself justice here at The Open?

JASON DAY: This is a major championship that I haven't really had good results in; is that what you're saying?

Q. Yeah. Sorry.

JASON DAY: Yes, you're correct. Played great at St Andrews that one year, one shot out of the playoff. I enjoy links golf. I was telling you yesterday that I enjoy links golf.

It's the first day, so I'm not going to get too disappointed by it. We'll see how it goes at the end of the day, see where the guys are, and then -- right now 2-under is tied for fifth. We've just got to try and get that back under par.

Q. With the 17th, Lucas got a triple there this morning --

JASON DAY: Did he? I hit it short and got up-and-down out of the bunker, so I was kind of happy with that.

Q. Which bunker?

JASON DAY: The front one, which wasn't fun. It was a good effort.

I like that hole. I think they've done a great job with it. There's definitely a lot more character than what we had before, which was the hole going back down the hill.

I think it's actually a pretty good finish with the par-5, tough par-4, pretty tricky par-3 that's at a really short distance.

And then you've got the par-5 finish.