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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 15, 2015

Jason Day

Lake Forest, Illinois

DOUG MILNE: Jason Day, thanks for joining us for a few minutes prior to the start of the 2015 BMW Championship, making your sixth start in the event, and your best finish was here in 2013 with a tie for fourth. Four wins under your belt so far this year, and certainly as a result No. 1 in the FedExCup standings. With all that said, just a few comments on being back here at Conway Farms.

JASON DAY: Week off last week. It was kind of a good break for us. I was just kind of running on fumes, especially after Deutsche Bank week, it just hasn't stopped for me. To be able to get a week off, I didn't start practicing until Saturday, so Saturday, Sunday, and then played 18 holes on Monday, not here, though, but back home, and I arrived late last night. It was a good week off for me, but really looking forward to coming back to this course.

I know this course is a fun course to play, especially with the holes coming in, the par-5, 18th, the drivable par-4 on the back side, as well. It's an exciting golf course to play. And with how the weather conditions are supposed to be this week, it should be very difficult with the wind. I'm not sure if 16-under is going to win it again, but I mean, I'll get a better indication once I get out on the golf course and really see how good the golf course is looking.

Q. Did you shave?
JASON DAY: I did. Do I look like a teenager?

Q. You look 12.
JASON DAY: I know, I know, I know. That's why I had the beard in the first place. My wife was actually telling me I should get my scruff back. She likes it better that way. I'll change it again this week, so we'll see.

Q. Besides shaving, what do you do to relax and get stress free in your downtime?
JASON DAY: Mate, I'm a very boring person. I went to the gym, I hung out with family, and that was it. I mean, I'm not Jordan Spieth or Tiger Woods who hangs out in the boxes in the Dallas Cowboys' games, but they looked like they had a lot of fun. But you know, I really just tried to relax as much as possible.

Obviously this is a big two weeks for us. It's kind of crunch time. I mean, obviously to get off to a good start here would be great. But I'm looking forward to not only this week but obviously making sure that I stand -- I mean, I think I'm going to stay in the top 5. I'm pretty sure I'm going to say I'm top 5, so just being able to stay at No. 1 would be good going into Atlanta, TOUR Champs, for the FedExCup. The only way I can do that is just go out and win, and obviously I think I've got another opportunity at maybe getting to No. 1. I haven't really looked at it yet, but I've got an opportunity to get to No. 1 this week, and if I can pull that off, that would be fantastic.

Q. Do you do any TV show watching?
JASON DAY: Yeah, a little bit. I'm just so busy with dash. We've got another one -- to be honest, life is so crazy because we're always on the road, and then we've got back we've got so much stuff to catch up on, a messy house, stuff like that, normal people stuff, and then by the end of the week, it's kind of been -- you're trying to relax but also trying to accomplish all these things, and the week is gone and you feel like we've got to go and you want another week off but we've got to play this week. Not much TV watching at all, I watched the footy last night, watched Jarryd Hayne play, and that's the first time I've sat through a whole game and watched it from start to finish just because of him, and it was good to see. Obviously he didn't get off to the greatest start, but I think he had a pretty solid game.

Q. For as long as you've wanted to be No. 1, and you've gotten closer, the last tournament was your first time playing with that opportunity. What was that like? Did it weigh on you as you look back on the week?
JASON DAY: No, not really. I don't think I was thinking about it too much. I know that I was more frustrated at how tired I was and with that tiredness or that lack of energy came a lot of mental errors, and that's what was more frustrating to me because I felt fine. My swing felt good. But just -- it was one of those weeks where no matter how hard I tried, things just were happening, and I look back at 17 on the fourth day, on the final day. I'm 15 feet up the hill for a birdie putt and I end up three-putting it. Things like that where you just -- from 15 feet you hit it to 20 feet away past the hole. Just little mental errors like that were really frustrating to me.

It wasn't weighing on me too much because to be honest I wasn't even in the tournament. I think it would have weighed on me a lot more if I was -- if I had the chance to have the opportunity to get to No. 1.

Q. Off the back of that, obviously that No. 1 goal has been something big. Now you're looking at the FedExCup, as well. You've got two weeks to go for both. Where is the balance in being ready for next week as much as it is this week, and obviously having a chance and not wanting to let the chance slip this week?
JASON DAY: I think just playing good golf and trying to win both tournaments. That's the plan. And winning takes care of everything, and if I can do that, then that would be great. That's great to say right now, but it's obviously harder to do.

But coming off a week off, I feel refreshed. I feel good to go. I know that I just have to suck it up for the next two weeks and just go out and play as hard as I can because then I get another week off after that. The off-season is coming up quick for me, so I've got at least two months after, a month and a half, two months off after that, so I've got no excuses, I need to go out and play good. That's the only thing that I have to focus on right now.

Q. And we have precedents of guys winning the last two in a row anyway, so it's not like it can't be done?
JASON DAY: Exactly. You look at Billy Horschel last year and Camilo a few years back. Things like this can happen. If you get on a roll, it can go pretty quick for you because looking at Billy, he finished second at Deutsche Bank last year and he went on a tear and won this week and then TOUR Championship to win the FedExCup. I got off to a good start at the Barclays, played okay at Deutsche Bank, and I'm looking forward to kind of moving forward on this week going into next week, as well.

Q. The idea of a team leader in the events like the Presidents Cup, is that an important role among player or is there a lot made of that, and do you feel like your role on the international team is different this year?
JASON DAY: This is my third time being on the Presidents Cup, so I mean, I'm slowly but surely starting to become more of a veteran kind of, I guess. But I'm looking more towards Adam Scott. He's kind of our veteran. He's been on the team I think five or six times now. You know, he was -- he's been our leader probably over the last couple of Presidents Cup events that we've had, and I think he's finally understanding what that means to become that leader as a player. Obviously we have Captain Price and the other assistants, but for him to step up and start being that guy is neat because we definitely needed a captain for our players. We didn't have anyone there, and we didn't have any -- it's kind of like having a hockey team without a captain. It was hard for us to kind of voice what we needed to, and then obviously go forward to Nick, and especially with the point structure change that we were trying to accomplish over the last couple years.

Q. And can you think of a good leadership moment that you look back on from the past two times?
JASON DAY: Not so much -- it's a number of things. It's really trying to -- him being the voice for the players and pushing in regards to whatever it was, you know, the point structures, or something else that we needed to get through. He's always emailing, always calling myself, other players, Captain Price. He's been the voice for us. That's kind of where he's kind of stood up and really showed how much of a leader he is.

Q. The great seasons is the ones who are there every single week which you've done really since Chambers Bay, which Jordan has done most of the year and what Rory has done in pockets. What kept you from doing this sooner, and what got you to do it now?
JASON DAY: I think it was the belief, knowing -- I always thought that I had the skills to play and win at the highest level and be competitive, but mentally I think the last piece of the puzzle was to really believe, and I mean, it's easy to say, just go ahead and believe in yourself. But yeah, go ahead and believe in yourself; how do you believe in yourself when you don't know what to believe in? That was the hardest part for me, just to really kind of understand that over the last eight years it's kind of finally clicked, something finally clicked ever since kind of the U.S. Open Championship, something kind of clicked for me, and things are starting to -- I look at things a little bit different now. I feel like everything is a lot more clearer to me, and I don't think -- I always said that I don't know what it was, but it just happened out of the blue, and that's kind of how it happened. As a junior and an amateur, I'd walk onto the putting greens and feel like I was the guy there to beat, and it took me a long time to really try and feel that way. Obviously I'm not saying that I feel that way all the time here, but especially when I was playing some really good golf at the PGA, the Barclays, I felt like I was the guy to beat. That's what I've got to get -- that's the mentality I have to get to all the time, and I think once I get to that, then I'll be a lot more consistent, not only in my finishes but more consistent in my wins, as well.

Q. You kind of lost me on when you went deep there, when you said you didn't know what to believe, you had to figure out what to believe in.
JASON DAY: Yeah, believe in myself.

Q. You seem to hit the ball pretty good. How can you not believe in that?
JASON DAY: It's easy to say, like -- it's easy to say, okay, I look at a wealthy person and say, you're rich. But if they don't truly believe that they're wealthy, then they're not going to believe it. It's easy to say that you have a great swing and you're one of the best players out here, but if you truly don't believe in it, you're never going to be. That's what I was talking about, the last piece of the puzzle is really understand up here.

Everyone is good to be out here. Everyone is a good golfer. Everyone can be great. The biggest thing that separates the best players in the world from the good players is upstairs. I think that was kind of the last piece that I needed to -- and once again, I'm still trying to get better at it each and every year, and I think the goal of mine to try and get better each and every year is obviously helping that because, I mean, you can never be happy with okay. You can never be happy with, okay, I've had a great season, what do I do from here. You've just got to keep pushing forward and keep trying to get better, and that's the only way to really improve over the years and go from where I was at the start of my career to now and then hopefully five, 10 years from now be even better if not double better than what I am now.

Q. From like 9-ish through 11-ish, whatever years you want to take, did you ever walk onto the putting green or the range --
JASON DAY: Not even through my major championships when I finished second and all that stuff. I had confidence but I didn't have like the I'm going to go out there and beat everyone here confidence.

Q. So that confidence actually requires a calmness I would think?
JASON DAY: It does. It requires a number of things. Really understanding the potential that you have, working at it through the work ethic -- I've said this before, once you work at it, then you get the results, and then from the results you get the confidence, and then it goes back to the potential, so it works in a circle.

Once you understand that, you start seeing results, your confidence gets higher, you believe in yourself a lot more, you understand that you are improving as a player and as a person, and over the years you start to evolve into a player that is good to a great player, and hopefully from a great player to a superstar.

Q. You've always obviously played with Jordan before, you've played with Rickie before, but I think this is the first time you've been grouped together in the same threesome. How much fun do you think the first rounds will be and how much interaction do you anticipate and do you think there will be any Presidents Cup talk?
JASON DAY: There may be some Presidents Cup talk. I think we're all going to trying to focus on playing well and getting ourselves into contention. But I think it's good flavor for the week. It just goes to show where golf is right now, how young it is. I mean, looking back at it, 2013, Tiger was in a similar position where he was -- won five times or something and we were looking at Tiger Woods the whole time. But now you're looking at the younger guys, and with myself, Jordan and Rickie, I think it's going to be -- I think that's a pretty good group, the first two rounds, especially with how Rickie has played.

It was kind of Jordan, Rory and myself that everyone was talking about, now with Rickie having a three-win season, you know, winning over in Europe and then obviously two over here, he's kind of inserted himself in that conversation now, as well.

It's going to be interesting. It's going to be exciting because Rickie is always full of confidence. You can just see that he's always full of confidence, and right now should be -- it should be exciting to watch him play because he is -- he's starting to become a lot more familiar with winning, especially over the last couple seasons. And Jordan, he's obviously -- Jordan has had a stellar year.

I think it's going to be a fun two days. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people out there. I'm just hoping that we get good weather because obviously good weather will bring out a lot of people, and it's always fun to play in front of a lot of people.

Q. I read in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday about the Greg Norman Medal. Is that something you're familiar with? First year it's going to be given to the best Aussie male or female golfer. Growing up did you look up to Greg Norman and what's your relationship with him now?
JASON DAY: Yeah, Greg was a little bit before my time. I was born in '87. I think the height of his career was kind of like '80s, early '90s, and I mean, he's done wonderful things for golf, especially back home in Australia. He doesn't get enough credit for it. I remember playing in the Greg Norman Junior Foundation events. I would go back -- especially where I was from because he was a Queensland boy, and he helped support that, and without those tournaments -- my first-ever big tournament I won the Greg Norman Junior Foundation Sub-Junior Championships at Coolangatta and Tweed, and that was a big tournament that kind of propelled me going into playing more competitive golf. It got me onto the Greg Norman team, and without his support, then obviously -- he had some part of me getting to where I've been, and then obviously on top of it, being able to have him as a Presidents Cup captain but also be able to talk to him, as well, with regards to things on the golf course, things off the golf course. He's been a huge help. I know he took Adam Scott under his wing when he was kind of at the end of his career, but he's been a huge help with my golfing career, especially over the last couple years, just being able to talk to him about certain things, because he was No. 1 in the world for I think 331 weeks. Any time that you can have someone that has been dominant for that long and be able to get feedback is huge.

Q. Do you think about your place in Australian golf just yet?
JASON DAY: No, it's further down the road. I feel like I'm young enough still to try and just focus on what I need to. Once I get a little bit older -- to be honest, I don't even think I'll think about it. The only thing that I'm trying to do is get to No. 7, and then after that get to No. 8, and I'm talking about wins here, not World Ranking, because that would be bad if I went from 3 to 7. But yeah, get to -- and that's all I'm thinking about right now. Someone asked me about money the other day, and it's great to have all that stuff, but right now my focus is get No. 7, then No. 8, then No. 8, then No. 10. That's all I'm trying to count for right now.

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