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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 13, 2013Jason DayARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA Q. Nice way to finish. JASON DAY: Thank you very much. As everyone said before, it's very crucial to get the ball in the fairway. So it's tough to try and hit a driver on those long holes and try and keep it in the fairway because they actually narrowed the fairways a lot. And once you're in the rough, it's very hard to get to the green from there. But very happy with my wedge game today. I think every time I pulled the driver, I missed the fairway so I had to lay up and got up‑and‑down which was nice. Q. How many drivers did you hit? JASON DAY: Oh, roughly around five or six, something like that. But I hit a lot of good quality shots into the greens, hit a lot of good putts and that saved me. And I played with Rickie today; he shot even as well. And he holed a lot of feet, which was good to see. But other than that I'm very happy with how everything's going. I don't know how the weather is going to be this afternoon, but it's a little bit of a pain in the butt with the weather the way it was. But I'm glad that the tournament's underway and we finished our first round and we can go on to the second. Q. A lot of talk about the wet conditions at this course would really be slaughtered, you know, low scores. JASON DAY: Yeah, everyone that I saw on TV was saying that we're going to rip up this course. I can't see it. You still have to hit the balls in the fairway. Yes, it's easier to hit the fairways because it's wet, but the fairways are so narrow and the rough is so thick that it's crucial to hit the fairways. And they're not easy to hit. So I know that Phil's leading at 3, and I'm going to be hardpressed to see anyone else better than that. But hopefully they prove me wrong. Q. Phil said that out of many U.S. Opens, he said he told Mike Davis during the round that this is his favorite setup. You've played, this is your third, and you played three very different courses? JASON DAY: I like Congressional's setup. (Laughter.) No, it was, I think it was very fair. I think it was fair. U.S. Opens, they want to test you, they want to test how good your game is and with the amount of irons that you are hitting off tees and how fresh the rough is, you would say. I think that the course played fair for a U.S. Open. This is my third one, and I haven't played in as many as Phil, but if he likes it, that means it's a good thing. He obviously likes it because he shot 3‑under today and he's leading the Tournament, but I think that the course setup is fair for a U.S. Open. Q. How tough is 5 playing? Is that a fair setup on 5? JASON DAY: 504 yards into the breeze today. I hit driver, actually, pretty nice driver, just a little bit too far. And it's just a tough hole. And you're going to get that out here. Because we have some easy holes with some medium holes and some very tough holes. The stretch through 2 through 6 is pretty difficult once you're off the fairways, difficult to make birdie or even make par. I made bogey at 5 today and, no, I just hit it off the fairway and unfortunately got a bad lie in the rough. Q. You mentioned Congressional. To have been able to be right there in contention on Sunday, when you get a taste of what it's like and then you get the experience of what it takes to be able to perform under that pressure. Hungry for it again obviously, but can you also take some confidence from that? JASON DAY: Yeah, at Congressional, I was very patient with myself. I hit it off the map. I hit it everywhere that you could think of except for the ball washer. I just got up‑and‑down out of everywhere. I think I played the last 45 holes without a bogey. So my short game really, really saved me there. It was a little bit like that today. Hopefully we can straighten it out tomorrow and play well. Q. To follow‑up on this golf course, soft, the shortest in almost a decade, no wind. How do you possibly explain the fact that there aren't many low scores? JASON DAY: It's difficult.  It's very tough. People don't understand how much, there's like subtle slopes on the greens. So if you leave yourself a 10‑footer, they're not very easy 10‑foot putts to make. And it's the U.S. Open. It's not that easy. I don't think ‑‑ I think everyone's saying that it was, that they were going to rip it up because of how easy the course conditions were playing. It's not as easy as everyone thinks. And plus you add a U.S. Open, the U.S. Open name and the the trophy, there's a lot of pressure there as well to get out and play well. And then I guess once you're behind the eight ball a little bit, you start off and maybe have two or three bogeys and you think you're kind of out of it, which you're really not, some people just may take their foot off the pedal a little bit and just kind of cruise in and get in there around 5‑over or 3‑over or something like that and think they're out of it. But they're really not. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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