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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2011

Jason Day

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

TOM NELSON: Let me welcome 23-year-old Jason Day of Australia to the interview room. In his first Masters appearance, he followed up an even par 72 with a magnificent 8-under par 64 today. Jason, ranked 38th in the world, former winner of the Byron Nelson. Let me open it up to questions people might have.

Q. Can you start by describing your eight birdies today and what clubs you hit?
JASON DAY: Yeah, I have to tell you which holes I birdied -- the second hole, I hit my drive in the bunker there. I knew I had to lay up to like about 110. So I hit 7-iron out and hit a pretty good wedge shot in there and left it just above the hole to about five, six feet and I holed that putt.
Then 7, I hit a really good drive down there and had about 115 yards wind was down off the right and I wanted to play just left of the pin and hit a good shot there. It was just a little bit short but I role in about a 15-foot putt there.
9, I blocked my drive right and was in the pine needles, if you've ever been on pine needles, it's like skating on ice, very, very slippery stuff. Rolled up to two feet which was nice.
Then going onto 11, I tried to stay away from that pin because of what happened yesterday. I hit a good drive down the middle. Had 7-iron from about 178 and I just played it right of the hole and rolled it to about 15 foot and holed that putt.
13, 4-wood down the middle. I had 215 yards to that front pin. I just needed to get it in the middle of the green. I just wanted to get it so I could have a putt at it. Hit a hybrid up there and just cleared the water and 2-putted for birdie.
14, obviously pulled my drive and got lucky, went through the trees and hit a wedge shot to about 15 feet and holed that putt.
16, I shoved my 9-iron right and got lucky. I was just trying to play it ten foot left and I shoved it a little bit. That putt is probably one of the biggest putts I've ever had in my life. I just tapped it and it rolled and went dead center which was good.
18, I just knew I had to hit a good drive and smashed a drive down the middle and had 145 yards to the pin, a little downwind, hit wedge just past it and got lucky and rolled it down the hill and rolled it to about a foot.

Q. Can you describe the atmosphere with you three tearing it up and doing your thing?
JASON DAY: It was a lot of fun. I said to the boys this morning, Rory and Rickie when we were walking up the first hole, I said, you know what, I'm going to have to start paying people to yell my name out because everyone is yelling their name out. It got a bit better on the back nine which was nice. The atmosphere was great and all three of us played wonderful.
Obviously I had a great round today. I got a little bit of a slow start yesterday, but I came home strong today and I'm just looking forward to the next two days obviously. It's just really good experience.

Q. After your round yesterday, you said that one day you would like to get the applause that Rory got when he walked up with what he shot yesterday, 65. Did you think it would have happened this quickly?
JASON DAY: No. No. No. No. Not at all. (Laughter).
That's the thing, I have to look at this scoreboard, because I really didn't know what I was shooting out there. I didn't want to get too high. I didn't want to get too low. I just tried to stay as patient as I could. If the putts rolled in, they did. I was just having fun out there, and at the end of the day, I'm very happy where I am. I'll take 8-under all the time.

Q. First timers haven't really done all that great here in a long time. How do you attribute how fast your learning curve is?
JASON DAY: I watched Rory shoot 7-under yesterday, and he put himself in the right positions on the course. He played the course exactly how it's supposed to play, and I just tried to stick to my game plan. I had a game plan at the start of the week and I'm just trying to stick to that. There are certain holes that you want to respect out here, and then there are certain holes that you want to try and jump on and hopefully get a birdie.
But you know, there's a few shots out there that I got lucky, and at the end of the day, I shot 8-under and I'm very happy that I played really good today.

Q. Obviously it didn't bother you, but with their pace of play, did you feel like you had to keep up?
JASON DAY: Those guys walk very fast. I'm the veteran of the group at 23 years old, so I'm getting old these days.
Like I said, I just wanted to slow myself down. I haven't had much experience in major championships, and this is only my third major tournament. So I just wanted to just pace myself.
The groups in front of us, they weren't going too fast, so I just had that really good speed going. It worked out good.

Q. They say experience is supposed to be very important around here; is that overrated?
JASON DAY: No, no. You need a lot of experience around here.
I played wonderfully today, and I shot 8-under, which was good. Obviously you need the experience on Saturday and Sunday. They are the two big rounds that you obviously need to play well in.
So hopefully I'm just going to go tonight and just relax and have a good sleep tonight and come back tomorrow and hopefully shoot a good one.

Q. Can you kind of convey how important the Masters is in Australia? We have always heard about how it's covered and no one in Australia has won it; how much did you watch it as a kid and how early did you become aware of what this tournament meant?
JASON DAY: '97, watching Tiger, and he just blew away the field. That's when I wanted to play well and one day play the Masters, play Augusta National.
You know, I'm here, and I'm just having a lot of fun. You know, just obviously in Australia, we have to wake up early to watch the Masters, but man, I feel -- it feels amazing to be in my position right now. So I'm just going to go out there and have fun.

Q. Do you believe that you could have shot 64 today if you had not played with a kid two years younger than you and watch him shoot 65 yesterday?
JASON DAY: You know, I don't think so, because I learned a little bit -- I learned a lot from Rory's game yesterday, where he placed some of his shots. So I got a little lucky with that yesterday. It's amazing; I'm surprised that he's 21, because he's very, very mature for his age.
You know, it's going to be a lot of fun. Hopefully we get to play together tomorrow, and I'm just going to be looking forward to it.

Q. You mentioned experience is important on Saturday, Sunday; how will you overcome not having very much here at all?
JASON DAY: Sorry what was the last bit of the question?

Q. How do you overcome not having very much experience here?
JASON DAY: You know, obviously I've played two good rounds to get myself here in this position. Obviously I'm not going to back down because I've got lack of experience.
You know, I'm just going to go out there and try and stick to my game plan and not worry about the score. Like Rory said before, you have to play the course; you're not playing the leaderboard. You're not playing anyone else. You're playing yourself and you're playing the course. So as long as you can stick to your game plan and just keep plugging along, you know, hopefully you'll walk down 18 having the lead.
TOM NELSON: Great playing and best wishes this weekend.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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