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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE INSURANCEMay 28, 2014Jason DayDUBLIN, OHIO THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started. Like to welcome Jason Day here. I'll turn it over to you for some comments on being back. JASON DAY: It's obviously never the best thing to be injured. I've had injuries in the past, but to be able to come back at the Memorial in front of my friends and family, especially here at my home course, in front of Columbus, the place I live in now, I call home, is‑‑ it's exciting for me. I've got a great pairing over the next two days. That's going to be fun. Threw me in the deep pretty quick. I'm looking forward to it. The thumb, it's totally fine. At the start of the injury, I thought it would be two‑, three‑week, maybe, break, and it will be fine. But it just gradually got worse and worse. So I'm glad to put this behind me and I can just focus on golf and focus on the second half of the year and hopefully produce a lot of good golf. Q. With this being your home course, what's this week like for you with the family and all, and what would it mean to win this tournament? JASON DAY: Oh, it's huge. I mean, to be able to‑‑ I play this course a lot and I practice out here pretty much every day. So I've been able to get along with ‑‑ become friends with a lot of members here. My wife's side of the family only live an hour away. So we're going to have a lot of people in town for that as well. And it's just exciting. It really is exciting to be able to play here. To be able to win in front of Jack and the fans here, it would be obviously a great honor. But I'm trying to put that out of my head, because that obviously can be a double‑edged sword, where you put a little bit too much pressure on yourself. So I've just got to go out there and try and really focus on all the good stuff that I've worked on over the last week. I know I've been working really, really hard and the preparation has been really solid coming into this week. So I feel good about my game right now. Q. How difficult was it to be out and not be able to play, and how did you pass your time? JASON DAY: Like I said, it was frustrating. It was really frustrating, because everything felt great. My whole body felt great except for one thing, my thumb. And you don't understand, as a lot of people here probably don't understand that. You can probably get away with maybe a bad back or a bad knee, but if you can't hold the club, then that's obviously‑‑ it's not fun. So you have to‑‑ you underestimate your hands and the fingers. I'm just excited that I can actually swing a club without pain. I went and played Augusta and I kind of forced myself to play Augusta. It was sore then. And that probably set me two to three weeks back in my schedule to come back. So all said and done, with Augusta mixed in there, I've been out for three months, and that's a long time. But I'm very, very happy with what Dr.Graham's done with my thumb up in Cleveland, out of the Cleveland Clinic. We were a little patient on what we need to do. But I'm very happy with the work he's done, and I'm hoping now for a good week. Q. How did you pass your time? JASON DAY: To be honest with you, I have no idea. I think I watched a lot of golf and I got really‑‑ I went through phases. I'd be like very happy at the week, and on Sunday I'd be like moody because I'd see the guys winning, and I'm like: I want to be out there playing with them as well. So my wife I guess, Ellie, knew when to come talk to me and when not to. (Laughter). But it's exciting to really see the boys again and have fun and talk to them and get all those‑‑ just to see the guys again is exciting. Obviously this is a big week for me and a big week for a lot of guys, and I want to do well here. And I think this is a good warm‑up for ‑‑ obviously to see where my golf game is for the upcoming U.S. Open. But it's exciting to be back. Q. You mentioned the U.S. Open. How do you balance your expectations for this week given you have been out for so long, and obviously you've always tried to peak for the bigger events. So where is your expectation? JASON DAY: It's hard to say, because you want to play well in every tournament. You want to try and play every tournament. Tiger does it, why can't you do it? It's obviously harder than what it is. I've been preparing since last‑‑ not this last Sunday, but the Sunday before. I've been practicing and playing a lot of golf and trying to prepare the best I can. And that's all I really could do, other than tomorrow I have to just go out and execute the game plan. Whatever happens happens. As long as I give 100percent out there I can't be too disappointed. And U.S. Open is obviously huge. I was at Pinehurst years two ago, played nine holes there. And I love the changes. I'm looking forward to the challenge. I know you'll require a lot of good short game around there. I've been working on my short game very, very hard over this last week. But this week I've got to focus on what needs to happen, and I've got four good days ahead of me. Q. Why do you think your results here in this tournament haven't been so great? And I guess did you take anything out of playing so well here at the Presidents Cup given you hadn't played well in this tournament? JASON DAY: I just don't think I knew how to play this golf course, I didn't know how to play it. And then something really kind of clicked for me at the Presidents Cup. I just felt a lot more confident and I think just a lot more reps on this course helped a lot, just knowing where to miss it and where not ‑‑ obviously where not to go. I feel good about my game. I feel good about where I should go out there. And I feel confident that I can play well out of here. So the past results, I think I may have put too much pressure on myself just because I want to play well in front of the family. And it's such a huge‑‑ obviously it's my home course, so everyone's expecting you to go out there and play well as well. But I just gotta put that out of my mind and just go out there and focus on what I need to do. And that's to play, to put myself in position and in contention on Sunday. Q. Going back to the match play, how much pain were you playing in and was there any thought during that week at all of withdrawing? JASON DAY: Yeah, it was sore. I wasn't as sore as, say, Doral, but it started‑‑ it would come and go during the rounds. And there would be pain. But it wasn't to the point where I could ‑‑ at Doral where I couldn't swing a golf club. It was just kind of like‑‑ it felt like it was just like the start. Because it started hurting before Pebble as well and it got gradually worse and worse. And it wasn't to the point where I couldn't‑‑ I didn't think of it but after the round it was really kind of tender, but I didn't really‑‑ I didn't tell anyone about it because I thought it would just go away. And that's kind of me being a little stupid sometimes. I don't tell my team that something is sore, and then after a while, after a month or so, then it just gradually gets worse and worse. I've experienced it, and now I just need to be smart with injuries because I'm 26, but I feel like I've been out here for a while and I don't heal as fast as when I was 18. So I sound like an old man, but I'm really not. So I just gotta manage when I do start feeling that I'm getting an injury that's going to come up, I've gotta manage it better and I've got to tell my team and really manage it better so it doesn't turn into something big where I'm sitting out for three months. Q. I think we all know that in big tournaments you've built a pretty good record already, several Masters runner‑up and good U.S. Open finishes. I think you were 20th at the Masters this year, which was pretty good considering no practice and the thumb being bad, whatever. Could you share maybe a few thoughts about the mindset you bring to a major that maybe is different than another tournament, and obviously it seems to work for you? JASON DAY: I think if I putted decent this year at Augusta, I think I would have contended. I had two 4‑putts and three 3‑putts in the first two days. If you do that around there, you're just fighting an uphill battle, which you shouldn't do around there. I really like competing against the best players in the world. I think it gives me a real rush when you know you have to hit clutch shots. And I feel like I'm more of a grinder, especially on tougher golf courses. I never give up because I don't want to, and I think that's what requires‑‑ that's what it requires in major championships. You can't give up. You just gotta keep pushing through and set yourself mini goals through the day. Even though you might find a few speed bumps and so on on the golf course, you just got to keep setting yourself little mini goals and try and get through the day with the best score possible. From there, hopefully by Sunday you're somewhere around the lead and you can put yourself into contention. I just look at it as experience. In my career I've had great finishes in major championships, and I just only look at that and go: That's an unbelievable experience that not many people get to have, especially at a young age. I feel like I will win a major championship. I've just gotta pay my dues and really keep working hard and hopefully I'll get a few by the end of my career. But I don't know what it is about major championships that really get me going. I think it's the biggest stage with everyone watching and you're trying not make a fool of yourself. That's what I just kind of like, just hitting the clutch shots when you need to. Q. What was it like playing with Archie Griffin, who is a fairly popular figure here? JASON DAY: Signed more autographs out there than me, which I understand. He's really popular here. He's a blast. True gentleman, not only with myself but with the fans. He signed every autograph out there that someone put‑‑ either a ball or a hat or even a piece of paper‑‑ out in front of him. He was signing it and taking a lot of photos, and it's really fun. I understand everyone here is very excited about Ohio State and their Buckeyes. And I've been to one game, but it was pretty fun to play with Archie. Q. Can he get it around? I noticed he piped a drive on 10. JASON DAY: Oh, he can play. He's obviously busy these days. He would like to get out more. That's what he was telling me about it. But just a little bit more practice. He had some good quality shots out there. Q. I missed your opening remark, so I apologize if you've answered, but you said you like what your doctor has done with your thumb as far as treatment. Can you explain what you have had done with the thumb while you've been off? JASON DAY: I've had three cortisone shots, a Dosepak, which is an oral steroid, a compound cream, being in a cast, being in a number of splints. All for a thumb. But it's really amazing. The first two shots was from a different doctor, and then the last cortisone shot was spot on. He hit it, bang, straight in the middle. What he did was he would go in and just numb it, just little small spots. And I'd go hit golf balls, and I would go‑‑ I'd tell him if it hurt or not. Then he would go and numb different other spots and get it until I could hit golf balls without pain. And then once I could hit golf balls without pain, he would go in that same spot and hit it with the cortisone. Q. Did he give you a diagnosis as far as arthritis or‑‑ JASON DAY: It's tough ‑‑ Q. ‑‑ or tendonitis or ‑‑ JASON DAY: No, no, no. Just I've got 30 more degrees of extension on my left thumb. So if I've got neutral here, then I've got 30 more degrees on this side. And what it was, there was just a lot of inflammation that was inside the joint and outside and there was a lot of fluid around the knuckle as well. So anytime I gripped a club, I put it in hyperextension and it hurt. So it was kind of difficult to grip the club. But we're hopefully‑‑ he calls it golfer's thumb because there's been a few golfers that have had it before. And I don't think a lot of people realize that there's been some people that have had surgery over it. And a lot of people have been injured with it. Q. So you didn't hit a tree root or anything like that that caused it; it was just use, overuse? JASON DAY: He said it was overuse. But I don't know how many balls I've hit on the range and hit through my life. I think it's just you look at it as a rubber band. You keep stretching it out and out and out; it slowly loses its tension. That's what happened with my thumb. Finally got to a breaking point, and I was lucky enough to get it after my win at WC. So I'm happy about that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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