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THE PRESIDENTS CUPOctober 1, 2013Jason DayDUBLIN, OHIO JASON DAY: Looking forward to getting the week started. I know that it's going to be tough competing against the Americans. They have a very strong team but we have a lot of strong players on our side and we are looking forward to seeing how it goes. Q. (Regarding advantage of knowing the course). JASON DAY: I think the biggest thing is just being familiar with the course and knowing that you've played it a hundred, 200 times or whatever the number is, but you've played it a lot so you're really familiar with certain clubs that you're going to hit off the tees and certain irons that you're going to hit off par 3 tees. So you're not too surprised by anything that really happens because you're so used to the weather conditions that we get out here and how the ball runs. Really we play here, this is our second time that we've played here this year. This is normal TOUR stuff for us. The Americans have typically done pretty well playing here for the Memorial. Definitely looking forward to playing the course and hopefully doing the best job that I can for my team. Q. How many times do you play here? JASON DAY: I probably, want to say, anywhere between 30 and 50 rounds this year, sometimes I play two or three times a week here, but most of the time in my off‑weeks, I probably play once or twice. Like I said before, it's a regular TOUR stop, so most of these blokes that have played out here, you know, they are very familiar with the course but obviously not as much as myself. But they are used to the greens running at 13, 14 on the Stimp. The fairways are not as tight as they would be at any other TOUR event but it's a second‑shot golf course. Q. Inaudible. JASON DAY: As you can see, Louis and Charl have the same haircut. Went in to get the same haircut and they got the same one. I don't know if that was by chance or if they just‑‑ the guy came in with a long iron and just chopped their head off. Q. You play here a lot when you're not on TOUR, a very tough, up‑and‑down course? JASON DAY: Yeah, definitely‑‑ Q. But it is a difficult‑‑ JASON DAY: It really is. When we play tournaments here, like I said, there's a lot of undulation on the greens, a lot of pitch. The greens are running 13, 13 1/2, maybe more during the tournament here. It's a lot of touch, and that's the thing; the second shot you have to position yourself the right position. Q. Living here in central Ohio, what do you hope the people can take away from Muirfield Village and the Dublin area? JASON DAY: Just how pretty it is. You know, a lot of people don't give Columbus enough credit. I think this area, Dublin and Columbus area itself, with the buckeyes and the blue jackets, Columbus is a really great place to raise a family. You have I've been here for a couple of years now and the only bad thing I think is the weather because I'm from Australia, which is very hot over there. It's kind of like Florida weather, so I'm not used to it. Even still when I'm not playing golf, I'm usually inside so I'm not outside during the wintertime. I really enjoy coming back home, and finally, for the first time, other than being home in Australia, I enjoy coming back to my home. I lived in Orlando and Fort Worth and it just didn't feel like it was that special place. Here, it feels special. And even being a member out here, the members are so great; they give me my time, but they are so lovely when they come up and talk to me, they are very supportive. So very interesting to see if the members are going to root against me or root for me. So we'll see how it goes when we come Thursday and we tee it up. Q. Internationals, not huge, huge names, at least not recognized in this area. What would you say about some of the guys, de Jonge, Grace? Branden Grace, I think he won like five times won year, like three to five times on one year on The European Tour, which is very, very good playing over there. To win on any tour is tough enough. De Jonge, the guy makes a ton of birdies, which is good for match play. You need a ton of birdies. When you're playing foursomes or even like a four‑ball, to have a guy on your team like that to have a ton of birdies is what you need. Leish, he's new this year, and he's had great finishes this year in Majors. So he's not‑‑ you know, he's not scared to the challenge of playing in front of a lot of people. And Hideki, same thing, he's finished great in the Majors this year and he's only 21. We have a lot of guys out there that a lot of people don't know but they finished really well and have played very good golf to be in this team. So we're happy with the people that we have on our team, and everyone is blending together nicely and we had a lot of fun today, and hopefully we can get into the tournament and play well. Q. How well do you know these guys? That's been an issue in The Ryder Cup, they know each other all the time. Here, it was the first time you were in the room together at one time. How do you bond quickly? JASON DAY: I think all of us are pretty similar in personality. The South Africans, Canadians, Australian, the only real tough one is Hideki from Japan. He speaks broken English but he's a sweet kid. We all have very similar personal ties and we are giving each other crap, which is nice. It's good to, it's good to have that in a team because you want a little bit of banter there.  I think it makes you stronger, and you know, everyone seems to blend well in the last couple of days. The vibe feels‑‑ it feels like the team is really blending well together, than, say, two years ago when we played down in Australia. It was up in the air a little bit. I didn't think we blended as well two years ago than we did this year. Q. Straight just personalities? JASON DAY: Yeah, well, it was just‑‑ there's a lot of rookies there, as well, two years ago. And it was tough, because being in Australia, and I wanted to play so good, and I felt like I let my team down a little bit by maybe trying too hard, but it just feels good for the team to blend well. I don't know how to explain it, but everyone is fitting in, and everyone's having fun. Q. Good pairing yesterday with Branden‑‑ JASON DAY: Yeah, definitely. We had a really good pairing. Me and Graham, we both love hockey and we had a lot to talk about. I've known Graham for a couple years and he's a really good guy. Hits the ball great, gives a lot of opportunities on the greens, which is nice. If you look at it, our whole team, we are filled with a lot of good ball‑strikers, so that's kind of what you need around here. Q. Have you set yourself any targets, given that you're the second guy on this team, you and Adam, there's a lot on your shoulders to play well and win? JASON DAY: You know what, I haven't actually sat down and made out a goal to win as many or win a certain amount of matches. I think‑‑ I'm really not trying to think about it at all because I just want to prepare the best I can. With this being my home course, I feel like I know the course enough but it's still good to come in early and prepare like a normal TOUR event. And it's obviously a different format this week, so it's different kind of nerves, you don't want to let your team down. But definitely looking forward to playing with maybe Graham or whoever they put me with but I'm happy with how everything is going. Q. Are you taking on a veteran this time around, not having the challenges you had as a rookie? JASON DAY: I'm just trying to pass along my experience to people, the guys that have not played here before. Whether that's taking on a leadership role or just passing on experience, I'm just trying to help the guys as best as I can. A lot of the guys are open to listening and a lot of guys are open to giving their two cents on how to attack a golf course or not. There's a lot of give and take there but it's been pretty good. Q. A lot of people are writing you guys off. Can you just explain how much a win would mean to you and this team? JASON DAY: Oh, it would be huge. To beat the Americans, I mean, like I said before, they got six out of the Top‑10 guys‑‑ well, seven out of the top 11, so that's practically their whole bloody team. Yeah, their team is so strong. But obviously we are the clear underdogs, and we have a lot of talented guys on our team. It would mean a whole lot, to the to myself, but just to the whole team and to the rest of the world that follow The Presidents Cup, because it's not‑‑ we are not winning it for just us. We are winning it for the rest of the world, which we enjoy that, and hopefully by Sunday, it's close and we can make it a good show for the people. Q. What do you hope to see from the fans that are coming out this week? I know it's a little bit of a different environment; what do you hope the fans are like? JASON DAY: You know, I'm not too sure. I don't know if they are going to be mean to us or if they are going to support us on. But definitely we are going to hear a lot of USAs out there, which is fine. We are in the USA, and you expect that. So I think the biggest thing is we just don't pay attention to what's going on in the crowd. We just have to get going, play our own game. It's going to be tough, but I've never played in front of America in a team event before. Last time it was down in Australia, and it was fun to play down there, but it's definitely going to be a good experience to play here in a team event to see what it's like, and even to feel and hear the sounds that are coming through the trees here. Q. Related to that, with your wife's family, that whole side of the family, United States; how do you think‑‑ what does this do to the family? JASON DAY: It breaks it up. It breaks it up‑‑ no, I'm just joking. No, they are supporting me all the way which is good. Even got some friends that are supporting me, even though they are Americans, they just want me to do well and they want to see the Internationals win. It's been a long time since we've won and the last time was '98. It would be good to see the Internationals win and really keep The Presidents Cup going. Yeah, it kind of gets a little‑‑ if it gets one‑sided, then people start losing interest, so it would be nice to see the Internationals win this week, and you know, we have just got to go out there and play well. That's pretty much it. Q. I know it's early in the process, but how would you compare Nick as a captain to Greg? JASON DAY: Great. Just two different heads. Nick has been very involved in texting and sending e‑mails a lot. He's been great. He's listened to the guys a lot. I think two years ago, we had a lot of dinners and it was very exhausting, especially after matches. I mean, every night we practically had a team dinner that we had to go out. I even talked to the American guys after that Presidents Cup; I said, what did you guys do, and they had dinner in the hotel in this room, everyone could come in and get their stuff and go, that's kind of what we are doing this year. I kind of stressed that a lot to Nick and I said it's a long week, it's mentally and physically demanding and we just need as much rest as possible when we can. Because when you go out with the team, you're going out for 2 to 3 hours at most and you're sitting there talking to people. It's in a relaxed environment but you're sitting there concentrating and sometimes you just want to sit down and relax in front of the TV and just do nothing. So we are having maybe two dinners and that's about it. We are not really doing too much. We're having dinners inside the hotel and that's it. Q. What are some of the fun things that you're doing with the team this week? JASON DAY: You know, Graham is a Calgary Flames and I'm a Blue Jackets guy, so we are going to go to the game on Friday. I'm going to try to get as many of the guys to go to the game. We have a dinner that night, so we might catch up in the second or third period, so that should be exciting stuff. I think we have a team dinner tonight, and yeah, other than that, nothing too busy. We are just going to keep it in house. But I am pumped to go and watch the Blue Jackets play. Hopefully they get off to a good start and win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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