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TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIPOctober 3, 2008Jason DayVERONA, NEW YORK JOE CHEMYCZ: We'd like to welcome Jason day in with a 3-under par 69 for the second consecutive day. I know difficult weather conditions for the first two days. Maybe just talk a little bit about that and your round today, and then we'll get to some questions. JASON DAY: You know what, it is really cold out there. It started hailing on us. I've never played in hail before. First time for everything, I guess. But, you know, I played really solid out there and I gave myself chances. I got up-and-down -- I short-sided myself a couple times on the front nine, which was the back nine, and I saved myself and kept the momentum going. Then had a really nice hole-out on 6, which was pretty good. You know, I just wanted to birdie the Par 5s on the back nine, which was the front nine. Came home with 4-under and got myself back into the tournament, which was great. JOE CHEMYCZ: Talk about the hole-out on 6, the ace. How far was it, what club did you use, and did you see it? JASON DAY: You know, I had a 6-iron in my hand. Like I said, before, we were undecided with the wind. We didn't know if it was coming left to right or right to left. You know, you're kind of covered in there and the Par 3 goes down. I had about 180 to the pin, and we caught it from the right. I hit a great little punch shot there and it turned or for me. I don't know if it hit the flag first or not, but -- no, it hit the ground and bounced back in the hole and I started jumping everywhere. JOE CHEMYCZ: How many is that for you? JASON DAY: That's three actually. First one the TOUR, though. Q. You had an eagle yesterday as well. JASON DAY: Yeah, I holed out on 14. Q. Quite an eventful couple days. JASON DAY: Yeah. Been pretty good. No, I had 118 there. Hit a little punch 9-iron came across and landed it straight in the hole on the fly, and then today I nearly holed-out again. Hit it to like about a couple inches, so... Q. Did it start hailing before you hit your hole-in-one or after? JASON DAY: Just after. Yeah, hole-in-one then stood on the next tee and it started hailing. Q. And Michael Allen said he made triple bogey on that hole he said it was hailing then. JASON DAY: It was hailing while I was putting, yeah. I think he should have called it then and just got a ruling, but he putted through it. Same with Tom as well. It was a first. Q. Obviously this is a time for you to sort of make a move. I'm wondering as the tournament progresses here, how do you not put pressure on yourself or focus on what you've got to do? JASON DAY: It's hard not to think about it. You know, you're 129 on the Money List and 125 gets in. It's hard not to think about it. You got to go out there and just try and play your best and try and shoot as low as you can. If the chips fall your way then it does. If it doesn't, you're going back to TOUR school, I guess. This last six tournaments I'm going to try and enjoy myself and have a lot of fun out there with my caddie. Q. What turned it around for you on the back nine today? JASON DAY: I was always hitting it pretty solid. Short-sided myself a couple times and got up-and-down, and that kind of kept the momentum going. This year my momentum has been a little bit backwards. But kept it going forward and, you know, all I said is if I can birdie the par-5, you know, I'll get back to even or 1-under or whatever it was. Then I birdied the par-5, holed out the next shot which went to 5-under, and then birdied the 8th. That's pretty easy how it goes like that, especially if you have a hole-in-one. Q. What was the weather like where you grew up in Australia? JASON DAY: It's totally hot, yeah. I grew up in Queensland and Brisbane, and it's kind of like Florida. It's very hot and humid in the wintertime. It's perfect. Hardly every rains and hardly ever gets cold. You're always playing in shorts and shirts our there in wintertime. Here in beanies with three layers of jackets and two layers of pants, pretty amazing. Q. How would you rank this in your top 10 of challenging days on the PGA TOUR? JASON DAY: You know what, I played one year -- last year on the Nationwide Tour in New Zealand that was tough. But with the wind yesterday and the cold weather and with the amount of stuff you have on, it's kind of restricting how far you take the club back on your swing. It's probably the hardest I've ever played in. Q. Does to make it that much more satisfying that you've been able to shoot back-to-back solid scores? JASON DAY: Yeah, makes it much more satisfying. Make it even more satisfying if I come out with a win, so I just got to put my head down and just keep playing as well. Q. You kind of alluded to this earlier. You're kind of known for your, I'd like to catch Tiger statement. How would you assess your play in your first year out here? JASON DAY: I would say it's more of a learning experience for me. You know, Tiger is an amazing golfer, and it's going to be tough to catch him. Like I said, it's going to be a slow process for me to reach where he is. I may not ever get there, but I'm going to try my hardest. This year's been a good learning curve for me. I hurt my back during the middle of the year. I've had a lot of things go off course, personal. But it's just been a great experience for me, so I know that I'm a more experienced player now than I was a year ago, so... Q. When did you hurt your back, and how much did that really keep you down? JASON DAY: I was out for a month. I hurt it -- I hurt my -- actually started creeping in at Verizon Heritage, and then I pulled out of the Byron Nelson. I was out for about a month, and then took me about another month to get back into playing mode. It was a good while. Q. Did you or any of the other young guys, do you chat about what kind of strategies you have this time of year, where you are on the list, and what you need to do to make a move? JASON DAY: It goes along with -- I say talk to more of the older guys, and they just said, Be patient and just let it happen. Just play some solid golf and everything will fall through. Most of the guys out there say to me that I should have no worries getting into the top 125. But there's still a lot of good golfers out here to compete against, so I'm just going to take it easy and have fun. Q. The field is, I don't want to say not as good, but the top 30 or 40 guys generally aren't here in the last few weeks. Does that help you in terms of making a little more money? JASON DAY: Anyone can win on any given week. The players out here on the PGA TOUR, whether it's a weak or strong field, they're always going to shoot really good scores out here. So, you know, it's great that Tiger is not here. That makes it easier on us. But, you know, it's -- I guess it's good to play against a weaker field obviously because, you know, you may play a little bit better and you might get more money. So you know, try and soak it up for this Fall Series. Q. What did you do during the rain delays? JASON DAY: Sit around and talked in the locker room with the guys. Lay down. That's pretty much it. In Canada, I know that couple of us went to sleep in the locker rooms. Just do a number of things. Q. Did you have any kind of specific game plan going in here? Did you change anything physically, mentally, or anything? JASON DAY: I think I'm just having more fun. I just don't need to worry about anything. I'm twenty. I've got my whole life to worry about things. I'm just out here to have fun. It's just great to be out on the PGA TOUR playing golf and earning a living playing golf, doing what I love and playing in front of a lot of people. It's great to be out here. It's an awesome feeling. Q. Do you think you put too much pressure on yourself and expectations? JASON DAY: I'm very hard on myself at times. I always talk to my coach, Collin, who is on the bag. He always says, You're too hard on yourself. That's just because I expect much more of myself. That's a lot of golfers going out here. They expect more than what they should. Q. Do you think that the conditions will discourage any players from coming back here because of the way it's been the first two days? JASON DAY: No. Not with the way the course is and the tournament is run. The tournament is run great. And with the prize money, a $6 million event in the Fall Series is just -- no, not for the guys. That's a good event to play in if you're behind the 125 mark. JOE CHEMYCZ: I noticed on the stat sheet that your longest putt today was 7'1" on No. 12. JASON DAY: Wow, that's amazing. JOE CHEMYCZ: Were you hitting it close, or... JASON DAY: No, I wasn't. I was getting up-and-down. JOE CHEMYCZ: Anything else? Let's go through the card real quick. Started on the back with a bogey at 10. JASON DAY: Uh-huh. Hooked it left and hit the cart path and nearly went out of bounds. Then kind of hit a little chunk 9-iron up there and missed my up-and-down; made bogey. Birdie at 12, par-5. I hit driver down there 3-wood just short and chipped up and made the putt. JOE CHEMYCZ: Double at 13. JASON DAY: Oh, yeah, that was a good one. Hit it straight down the middle. Had about 159 in. Had an 8-iron in my hand and I was aiming way left of where the flag was. Came up out of it and block cut straight in the water and then didn't get up-and-down. Made double. 14, birdie, I hit driver just left in the rough and had wedge in my hand. I had 119, 118. Hit wedge to about a foot and made birdie. JOE CHEMYCZ: And birdie on 5, the par-5 in the front. JASON DAY: Hit driver left on 5 into the bunker and hit 3 on. I knew the greens are soft, so even if you do short-side yourself you can hit a pretty high shot and land -- if you short-side it's going to land soft anyway. Hit driver left in the bunker and hit 3-iron jsut over the putt bunker jsut short of the green and hit a flop shot to about four feet and holed it. 8, I hit driver down the middle and 3-wood down just short of the green. Chipped up to about three, four feet and holed it. JOE CHEMYCZ: Okay. Anything else? End of FastScripts |
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