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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AMFebruary 8, 2008Jason DayPEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA NELSON SILVERIO: Welcome, Jason. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us. Why don't you get us started, 70 today at Spyglass Hill. Just talk about some general comments on your round. JASON DAY: Actually I had a couple bogeys there. I can't really remember my round. It was just a really long day out there today, six hours, and I just tried to drink a lot of water and just make sure my nutrition was up and just try and keep a lot of energy in the fuel tank. I came away with 2-under, and that was fantastic. You know, I had a few errant shots out there that I shouldn't have hit, and I guess that's just from stopping and starting. That's obviously -- this tournament, that's what it's about. I ended up, my score was much better than I thought. My putting saved me a lot today. Q. You're probably thinking it's about time for you, right? You're in contention now after a few tournaments where you weren't, so this must be a pretty good feeling for you? JASON DAY: No, it is a great feeling. Obviously, you know, the first three tournaments were great but not that great. Tied 28th last week was good. It was obviously a confidence boost. After the Buick I felt like my putting was really lacking, and my putting out there the last few days has saved me a lot. Now I'm in contention, just a couple behind the lead. Now I'm just looking forward to the next 36 holes and if I keep hitting the balls in the right spots, who knows what can happen. There's a lot of golf to be played. Q. You're starting to see some progress? JASON DAY: Yeah, I guess if I mark down in time, the Buick would be the main thing that I've learnt this year is that I learned a lot from the Buick this year, obviously coming out and starting and getting killed by like 25 shots. No, I learnt a lot that week, and I put it into play through the FBR and now I've been working on it through this week, too, and it's been great. Q. What specifically did you learn at the Buick? JASON DAY: You know, obviously -- what me and my coach call it, we call it stress-free golf. It's pretty much like every other champion golfer does. I guess like you hit it to a certain -- if the pin is to the left, you hit it 20 foot right and try to work it in. Don't try and short-side yourself here because it's very hard to get up-and-down. I've been leaving myself about 20-, 15-footers. Once I improve my putting I'll start scoring really well, and that's what I did last year. I had three and a half months off and I kind of forgot how to play. I just needed to work on my game and try and get some feel through my hands so I can work the ball both ways because I like to hit a lot of draws and fades into the greens. Q. So you were not doing that at Torrey? JASON DAY: No, well, the first two tournaments, Sony and at Torrey, you know, I wanted to hit it in a certain area of the green, and I just couldn't hit it there. Obviously if I was looking at the pin I'd pretty much go at the pin, and obviously you can't do that. Like I said, you can't short-side yourself out there. You've got to work the ball in and leave yourself on the fat side of the green and give yourself opportunities, and that's the biggest part from last week at the FBR where my stats were great. I had a lot of birdies last week but I had a lot of mistakes. The thing with me is I make a lot of mistakes and I make a lot of birdies, so if I can minimize those mistakes I can hopefully go out there and win, but the biggest thing for me is just trying to give myself opportunities on the greens. Q. How much fun has it been playing with Greg this week and have you learned anything in particular from him? JASON DAY: No, it's been really fun. We've been talking about back home in Australia. He used to live up in Orlando around the area where I used to live. We've just been talking on and off. I've probably had more fun with Greg, Jr., than Greg Norman. Obviously Greg has played great. Today he played awesome. Greg, Jr., is right around my age, I think he's 22, so we hit it off pretty much right at the start. Obviously it's great to play with a former world No. 1 and try and learn what he's done. Q. You're the youngest guy out here. Would it mean something for you to win or carry the flag of young guys, or are you just worried about yourself? JASON DAY: You know, it would be great if I could come out and win so early in the season. It's obviously a great achievement. That would be great. If I could do it then it would kind of egg the young guys to go, I can do this, as well. I'll take it one shot at a time out there. I've got a lot of golf to be played. If it happens, it happens. We'll see how it goes. Q. When you left Australia, there's precedent from the other boys that have gone the European route, Greg for one, Adam did that, well. Aaron did something that was different from a lot of things. What was your thinking on the route you chose? JASON DAY: Biggest Tour and Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is over here, and this is the biggest Tour in the world. And if you want to climb up the World Rankings quick, this is where you need to be. Obviously this is where I want to be long-term, and that's pretty much what me and my coach were thinking, if we can qualify through their qualifying school onto the PGA TOUR, that would be great. If not, we jump on the Nationwide Tour for a year and play Tour golf for a year and learn how to play and do all that stuff. Now here I am today; I'm 20 years old. I'm just enjoying myself out here. It's been a lot of fun. Yeah, that's pretty much why I came over here, because in the end everyone wants to become the best golfer in the world. I'm afraid you've got to be over here or in Europe. Q. Would you give us the short version of what you thought when you read the book on Tiger? JASON DAY: Yeah, I was 14, and my life was -- really wasn't going anywhere, and I read a book on Tiger and really inspired me obviously. Just what he had achieved and how his life has evolved like really inspired me to go out and practice. I worked out the next morning, at 5:00 o'clock every morning, and I didn't stop practicing until I finished high school. I had a lot of great tournaments through my high school years, and that just got me more confident to come out and to play and turn pro young. Q. Was it the fact that he was striving for excellence or what was it about him? JASON DAY: There was results in the back of his book that I saw, and I was just like, why can't I shoot those scores? He was shooting 69s and 68s and I was shooting 78s. I pretty much said, I've got to practice harder on my short game. I practiced hard on my short game and went to a golf academy. I watched a lot of guys who would always go there and just hit balls, hit balls. They always used to strive for hitting the perfect shot. I knew that I could hit the ball but I knew I couldn't get it in the hole, so that's what I needed to learn. Q. Did he have sort of a big target, were you saying someday I'm going to play this guy? JASON DAY: Yeah, I wasn't really thinking about that at the time. I was in high school, I was thinking about trying to beat all the other juniors in my area. Looking back on it, like four years ago, like when I was nearly 11 or 12, I never thought I'd be here as a 20-year old. Q. Have you met him yet? JASON DAY: No, I'd like to. Q. How long had you played golf at the time? JASON DAY: I started golf at -- I started golf around six, but I really didn't start competing really strongly until I was about 12. Q. Were you a pretty good athlete? Did you play other sports, too? JASON DAY: I did play other sports when I was younger. I liked a lot of other sports that I played when I was younger. I liked to play football and cricket and everything, but I like to do a lot of exercise and everything. Q. I don't know if you've been asked this, but playing with Greg must have been sort of exciting in a way. Here's a guy when you were growing up who was at the top of the game. Did you have to keep your mind on your own game today and not -- and yesterday and not think of playing with a guy of his stature? JASON DAY: Yeah, I've heard a lot about Greg and how good of a golfer he was back in the day, but I was born in '87. He was in his prime when I was born, so I didn't really get to see when he was really killing it out here. The only time I got to see was Tiger, and that's why I'm out here today, trying to get that spot. Q. Did you pick up anything playing with a guy like Greg? JASON DAY: I've played with a lot of good golfers out here, and they all do pretty much the same thing, like whether they hit it 220 off the tee or whether they hit it 300 off the tee, they always give themselves chances out there. They don't make many mistakes and they make the right choices at the right time, whereas me, I kind sometimes make the wrong choices when I need to make the right choices. Q. His son obviously is young. Did you communicate at all? JASON DAY: No, we were always talking about like riding motorbikes, snowboarding, watching cartoons funnily enough. Yeah, we clicked off -- we got off pretty quick. Q. He's older than you, right? JASON DAY: Two years older than me, yeah. Q. When you do talk to Tiger, what do you think his reaction is going to be about your comments about wanting to be No. 1? JASON DAY: Well, everyone else wants to be No. 1. I'm sure that he wanted to be No. 1 when someone was No. 1 before him. I think he'd be pretty all right about it. Obviously he's winning still and he's killing everyone. Until I go out there and actually beat him for the first time, I guess it's going to be really good competition. I think he's going to be fine with it. He's obviously had a lot of media, people come up to him and say a lot of different stuff. Q. Why don't you just talk briefly about your start, not today but yesterday. I don't think you hit but one out of the first four or five greens and made some nice pars. JASON DAY: I haven't seen the courses at all, none of them, so I just pretty much just came on Monday, did a little bit of practice. I haven't seen the courses. I just got my caddie to walk out there and do the course. I did miss a lot of greens early yesterday. I don't know, my putting saved me a lot. I chipped very poorly, and I've been holing a lot of 10-footers and 12-footers. I got off to a really bad start yesterday, and I said you know what, just have fun. I'm very new to this kind of format where you're playing with amateurs and obviously another pro. It's a lot of long hours out there on the course and a lot of stop and start and a lot of people moving around that you're probably not used to. You've just got to prepare yourself for that, just go out there and just try to play. Q. Describe what happened on 7. You thought that ball was in the water. Was it embedded in the bank? What was your reaction? JASON DAY: Yes. I wanted to smack my club. But no, actually I really -- I hit it so bad. I hit it really, really bad. I hit a 2-iron. I had 245 to the pin. I hit 2-iron, a smother hook into the -- thought I hit it into the water and then I walked up there and it was plugged into the ground. I hit a really good shot there and I ended up with a birdie, so I can't complain. Q. Third to last hole you could have gotten in the water? JASON DAY: Yeah, well, that would have been -- the thing is with that, it's obviously momentum, and it's pushing me forward. If that would have gone into the water the momentum would have been against me. Who knows, I might have finished with a bogey or a couple bogeys. But I was lucky enough that plugged and I got a drop there and got up-and-down. Q. You mentioned the long rounds, which a lot of people who don't come here use as an excuse, and the weather is obviously beautiful this year. What do you think of this tournament, having been here? JASON DAY: I think the tournament is great. The greens have been fine to me. I've heard a lot of stories that the greens can be really bad, but no, the greens have been really good. They are long rounds, but I've got great partners out there, and it's been really fun. I think the format is fine. Q. Are you surprised no one has gone lower than 7-under? The greens are soft and receptive, obviously played longer because of that, too, but -- JASON DAY: Yeah, there's a few sucker pins out there, you know? Like there's a few sucker pins. If you short-side yourself on some of those pins you're never going to get up-and-down. But yeah, I'm very surprised. I thought it would be probably around 9- or 10-under that was going to be leading after two rounds. Q. Do you remember watching Pebble on TV over the years, and does anything surprise you about the course? JASON DAY: No, I'm going to play that tomorrow. I haven't seen any of it. The only thing, I can't wait to go out and see the 7th hole. Is that the par-3? Q. Yeah. JASON DAY: And then 17 and 18, I have no idea. Q. You've watched this tournament on TV so you're familiar with the course? JASON DAY: Yeah, I'm familiar with the course. Apparently they're pretty small greens out there. I've got to make sure that I hit a lot of fairways tomorrow and just make sure I put myself in the right position on the greens. My speed on the greens have been a little bit poor, but as long as I leave myself uphill putts, then I can -- Q. Did you watch any of The Open in 2000 when Tiger won here? JASON DAY: Yeah, I'd like to win by that many, too (laughing). No, some of the shots he hit, it was amazing. But I watched a little bit of it, just on replays when they have those Tiger rompings (laughter). Q. Did you play Pebble in a practice round? JASON DAY: No, I didn't play any of the courses. Q. Why is that, tired? JASON DAY: I just knew that -- I played two weeks in a row, and I just knew that they were going to be long rounds and I was going to be very tired after the rounds, so I thought if I can conserve some energy during the early week of this tournament then it would be better for me in the tournament. I trust enough in my caddie that he can steer me in the right direction. Q. When you played San Diego you weren't committed here. What made you change your mind? JASON DAY: Well, the biggest thing for me is the reshuffle right now, obviously getting the right number in the reshuffle because as a rookie you need that right number, a good number out here to get in some of the tournaments. Pretty much I've got to play in as many as I can early to get enough money. Q. You generally don't want to play a lot, right? JASON DAY: Pretty much I'll play maybe three at the most and I'll have a week off, two weeks off. Q. Have you figured out if there's any scenario for to you play the Match Play? JASON DAY: No, actually. I'd love to. Maybe a win, a couple wins. That would be good. Q. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received? JASON DAY: I'm always asking the guys, the older guys out here, and they've always said, be patient, be patient. It's a long year. You've got the world at your feet. As long as I'm working hard, you know -- I feel like I want to push things quicker because I want to win. That's just human nature. Everyone wants to win. The quicker I try and push it, I guess the poorer I play. So I've just got to make sure I take my time and make the right choices, and like I said, just be patient and just let it happen. Play golf. NELSON SILVERIO: Thanks a lot. End of FastScripts |
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