	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 5, 2016

Jason Day

Augusta, Georgia

THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everybody. It is with great pleasure to welcome a very talented young man to the interview room, Jason Day.
Jason is making his sixth appearance at Augusta National, having already recorded two Top‑5 finishes here. 2015 was a year to remember for Jason. He won five tournaments, including his first major title at the PGA Championship where he posted the lowest score ever to win a major at 20‑under par.
Jason recently claimed two consecutive PGA TOUR victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC Dell Match Play. With back‑to‑back wins, Jason is now the No. 1 player in the world.
Before we take some questions, Jason, could you comment on what it feels like coming to the Masters with so much anticipation on your current performance.
JASON DAY: It's obviously good to be back here in this room. The room's a little bit more full this year than it's been in the past, which is nice (laughter). It's a good feeling to be here, No. 1 in the world and coming off the back of how I've been playing has been fantastic.
But to be honest, I don't think I'm the favorite this week. As you know, there's a lot of people out there that can play well this week and win, as well, because you know, Jordan and Rory and Henrik, how he's playing lately, and even Phil is a favorite here. There's so many players that can win around here, and there's not just one heavy favorite this week, which is fantastic. I think it's good for the game of golf and I think it's good for this tournament, as well.
I'm excited about the week. I'm excited about getting ready and preparing and getting the week underway.

Q. The back problems that you had at Match Play, was that a new thing, and what steps are you taking to ensure that your back will be okay this week?
JASON DAY: No, it's not new. It's pretty much something I've been dealing with ever since I was a 13‑year‑old kid. You can walk up the range here and ask how many players have back problems and probably a good percentage of them do.
It's nothing new. It's the same old bulged disc that I've always had, but every now and then, it flares up and you just can't do anything about it. I've just got to keep on top of what I need to do to keep myself strong and fit and ready to go play tournaments, and then hopefully over time, strengthening it each and every year. If I maintain that, then slowly it will go away, which it can.
Right now, I'm not even thinking about it because I don't have any problems at all. My back is fine and health is fine and everything's great.

Q. How would you describe your comfort level on this course, and how has it changed through the years?
JASON DAY: My first year, I finished second, and 2013, finished third. I feel comfortable around this course. I know it sets up well for me. It's a golf course that I can compete and play well and win. But then again, it just depends on how they want to set the course up.
The course last year, I felt like maybe the greens were just a tad slower than we expected them to be. I think they are going to‑‑ I mean, obviously I don't know what they're going to do because they keep things under wrap pretty good here. But I can already tell that the greens are very quick, especially yesterday on a Monday, that it's possibly looking for‑‑ we're looking at a pretty difficult Masters this year. The greens, if they keep going with how they are, the greens are going to be pretty quick, and the wind is going to be pretty steady out there. Thursday, Friday is going to be a very difficult first two rounds.
It's going to be a little bit cooler this year, too. So with all those conditions wrapped in, I mean, 12‑ to 13‑under usually is the average winning score around here. I probably wouldn't look much past that. I'd probably would look anywhere between 10 and 12 to win the tournament right now.

Q. You've been here since Friday; how many practice rounds will have had before you tee off and how does that compare to the past? How do you think that's going to help you and in what ways?
JASON DAY: I've been here since Friday and, yeah, I played the back side on Saturday, front side Sunday, back side yesterday, and then I'll play the front side today, so 36 holes.
Play the Par 3 tomorrow, get some more practice in today and a little bit tomorrow, but really just try and rest and recover, because it's really easy to sit here and with the facility that they have here, it's very easy to get here and practice too much, because it's just an amazing facility to practice on.
So I just want to make sure I don't overdo it. And this has been a tournament in the past that I've tried too hard and shot myself out of the tournament, so I've just got to kind of relax; understand that I have a certain process that I go through each tournament to get ready to compete and I need to stick to that. Don't do anything more; don't do anything less, and from there, just try and go out and execute.

Q. When do you normally come to this tournament?
JASON DAY: I usually come Thursday, but I delayed it a day because Friday last week was kind of stormy, rainy conditions, and obviously you can't really get much practice or play in.

Q. As you know, we've been talking to you in the past few weeks about coming here to Augusta, but now you are here at Augusta and having won a major and also getting to No. 1 in the world, how much is that a weight off your shoulders, even though you say you're not the favorite?
JASON DAY: Of getting to No. 1 in the world and winning a major?

Q. And also winning a major since we were here last time.
JASON DAY: Yeah, it's definitely a lot of‑‑ I wouldn't even say it's a crazy amount, but ‑‑ I always wanted to win a major championship, but it's great to win the PGA last year. And coming off the form that I had in the second half of last year and then kind of, not so much rolling into, but picking it back up at Arnold Palmer then Dell Match Play, the current form, I feel good about my game. I feel comfortable with where I'm at, walking around the grounds, No. 1 in the world; it's a good feeling.
But I know that I can't take it for granted, because obviously in this game, things can change pretty quickly. It's such a competitive sport now and so many guys can win, and it's so tough to win. But I do feel good with how I'm playing right now and where I'm at mentally and physically.

Q. You talk about trying too hard here. For you, what does trying too hard look like and feel like?
JASON DAY: I guess it's just maybe looking too much into a shot, overplaying a shot or making things too complicated where they should be simple, and just trying to just‑‑ trying just way too hard. I know that if I'm reading a putt, usually I don't read it from all anglesand try and ‑‑ it's weird how I ‑‑ mentally, it's more me mentally trying too hard, trying to force and will it in, where it's just okay, I need to relax. I know there's certain steps I need to take to read putts or get information, or how to execute a golf shot. I've just got to through that normal pattern and try and do it that way rather than missing a step or trying mentally too hard. That's kind of the way I do it.

Q. So doing well here in the first couple years, did it almost raise your expectations too much right away?
JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, I've got to understand that the first few years, I just enjoyed myself. I had a lot of fun here. It's something I've always wanted to play in as a young kid, and I enjoy coming here and I enjoy being on the grounds and playing the tournament.
And then as time went on, everyone would keep on asking me about, you know, when are you going to win it and how are you going to win it and all that stuff.
I guess I thought about it and just, okay, I've got to kind of force it this year and that's when I started missing stuff and making mistakes and mental errors. I kind of shot myself out of tournaments.
So this year, I'm not going to say it's going to be different. I'm just going to go through my normal game plan and just play, try and play the way I have been and hopefully I'll give it a good run at the end of the week.

Q. You mentioned the competition; how difficult does it make it for any player to stay No. 1 for very long right now or to have the kind of prolonged dominance that Tiger had?
JASON DAY: Very simple answer to that, and that's winning. Winning takes care of everything, and if you win, usually win the big ones, and you can extend the gap between being No. 1 and No.2 in the world. That's kind of the focus that I'm really trying to focus on right now is trying to extend the gap.
Because, I mean, there was a point there when Tiger was dominating so much, that I think he could give up the game of golf for a certain period of time and he could still be No. 1 in the world. I mean, that would be a fantastic thing to have, but it's all the hard work that he put into and all the tournaments that he won that got him to that point.
Same with Rory. He went on that tear where he won two out of the four majors in one year, he won four majors pretty quickly, winning all these tournaments around the world, and then he had a bit of a gap. And it also depends on how the guys behind us are playing, as well.
Like you said, the competition is very stiff. It's really tough with how everyone is playing. Jordan and Rory are young guys, so we're all kind of motivating each other and Rickie, as well, all motivating each other to try and play better each and every week and each and every year.
If one of us plays well, then usually there's two‑out‑of‑three or three‑out‑of‑three guys that are going to step up practicing and play harder, because it's inspiring and motivating to watch the other guy win because you know that you can do it, and why can't it be you.
So right now, I'm kind of doing that right now. Jordan was at the start of the year; Rickie was at the start of the year. Rory hasn't won one yet, but he's very close to winning. And obviously I'm kind of right here right now doing my thing.
But yeah, it's fun. And then obviously you've got the 30‑somethings, which you guys call the old ones now. They are not that old, but they are still very, very young and they are still very capable. Adam Scott and Bubba Watson are doing a fantastic job. It's just really fun to see how the health of the game is right now and how competitive it is. I guess that's what we love the most is the competitive nature of everything.

Q. A few years ago, who did you turn to for advice on how to play this course, and now is there any sense of responsibility to pass those insights on to the next wave?
JASON DAY: I didn't turn to anyone actually. I tried to turn to, actually no one. I just went out and played. I guess just from watching the tournaments and then I came in early, and I had Chris, who used to caddie for Marc Turnesa out on the Tour, and he's one of the local caddies out here. He went out with me and we just went around the holes and he was telling me where to go.
From there, it's just kind of watching the old footage and seeing how guys play shots and stuff like that. But for the most part, I just kind of went out and played by myself for the first few years, then kind of found a game plan.
I mean, to play this golf course, I mean, there's a lot of drivers around this golf course. There's a few metal woods, but there's a lot of drivers. Obviously if you're driving well‑‑ the fairways are kind of wider compared to normal tour events. There are some that are a little bit tighter, but this is a second‑shot golf course. If you can place yourself on the greens correctly on the correct quadrant of the green, you can give yourself a putt that's semi‑easy, because these greens, the green complexes are very, very difficult, knowing where to miss it and where not to; and really trying to understand how to go about this golf course, even though you're not playing that great but still trying to grind out a score, that's kind of how I found out; and hitting to the corners rather than trying to overtake the corners sometimes works out great.
I know that people like to play draws around the corners, but if you can hit to the corner, like 13, if you can just get to the corner and hit an iron on, even though you're leaving yourself a longer club, instead of trying to drive it over the trees and take that risk of hitting the trees, sometimes that works better than taking that risk.

Q. And will you help other guys?
JASON DAY: Oh, yeah, if they want to ask, I'm happy to help anyone at any moment if they ask. I'm very open about what I work on with other players, and if people want to ask me what I work on, I'm happy to help. I'm never going to lie to their face and tell them I don't work. I do work. I do do a lot of work, and that's what you need to do to be at the top of the game.
If other players or other fans come up and ask what's going on, I'll usually tell them.

Q. In your conversations with Tiger, has he offered any advice on how he peaked for majors? And if not, how did you learn to peak as well as you did at the U.S. Open?
JASON DAY: I've never asked him, no. I always felt like that I've mentally and physically, I've always kind of got myself up for the majors just because of how big they are. At the start of my career, I've never really thought about peaking at the right times in the majors, and then all of a sudden it's just a different feeling, every time you walk through the gates of this place and you walk through any other gate of the major championships, it's just a different feeling. I've never had a hard time getting myself up physically and mentally for those tournaments.
But then, earlier on, I would say that my team has had a big part in that, too, because we've kind of geared ourselves around the major championships. You know, the Masters, U.S. Open, The Open Championship, I always go a week‑‑ I always get there the Thursday or Friday before and prep, make sure that I'm ready for that week.
Obviously you try to get across the pond to The Open Championship just to kind of get the jet‑lag out of my system, knowing that I'm going to be here for a while, and by Thursday I'm sleeping on a good sleep schedule. So little tricks like that, just knowing, okay, this is what I've done well in the past to prepare and it's worked pretty good.
The only championship that I don't get to do is the PGA, and I won that last year. So maybe I'm doing something wrong (laughter).

Q. How important is scheduling in this, if it is at all?
JASON DAY: It's very important. This year is very difficult because the Olympics is kind of throwing a few things around the schedule and we're playing The Open Championship‑‑ I'm going to go back and defend Canada, obviously, the Canadian Open, and then go down to the PGA. We're covering a lot of ground in three weeks and it's going to be very tiring. But I've got to do it anyway, so I'm just kind of mentally preparing myself.
But schedule is huge, and yeah, I mean, I've always kind of, ever since at the start of my career, like I said, I've always geared myself around trying to prep and get ready for major championships, and I think that's why it's worked so well for me in the past.

Q. You've been involved in a lot of big final nines here on Sundays. How hard is it to stay in your own world, and do you watch a lot of leaderboards?
JASON DAY: I watch a lot of leaderboards. I remember sitting there and watching with what happened to Rory back in 2011, yeah, there was five or six guys that could have won that tournament.
Bo Van Pelt eagled 13 and 15. There was crowds and cheers going through. The Patrons were going nuts, and you could hear it from one side of the course to the other side.
Tiger Woods was playing fantastic on the front side. I mean, he drained a par putt on 9 and it sounded like he had just eagled the hole. It was a different sound.
It's very difficult to kind of stay in your own world, but there's no other way to go about it. I was sitting there on 11 and just watching the numbers kind of smack up against the board, and then you can hear the oohs and ahs from what's going on behind me. It's easy to get caught up in it, but then again, I was trying to win the Masters and be the first Australian to win that, as well.
I feel like early in my career, I didn't‑‑ I couldn't really handle that, especially in 2013 when I kind of gassed it coming in and didn't play that well. I had the opportunity to win, but yeah, now with what I've done the last year and a half, I feel like I'm preparing myself for a good Sunday here and a good final nine hopefully.

Q. You mentioned that you study old footage. I was wondering if there was any DVD in particular that you've almost worn out watching?
JASON DAY: Not really. You watch Augusta every year, you watch the Masters every year, and as time goes on, the course has slowly changed a little bit. Ever since '97 all the way up to now, the course has lengthened a little bit. But it's funny how we're hitting similar clubs into what they used to back in the day.
You know, looking at‑‑ there's so much footage out here now, especially watching the Golf Channel or even watching the Internet, you can go back and see pretty much every single shot of what people have done or the highlights of what people have done and where they've hit it to really know on pretty much every hole, really, and it's actually good to see now.

Q. Last week or the week before at Match Play, you came to try to get ahead of Spieth, and you've gone against McIlroy, you got that, you wanted that competition. You're a very competitive bugger now (laughter). If you get to Sunday, and it's on, who do you want there with you? Do you want the big names to keep you going or do you want the rookie who hasn't won a major?
JASON DAY: No, big names are good. Big names are good.

Q. That helps you, right?
JASON DAY: It helps me either way. But I want the best playing against the best, and fighting out for it. If I ended up not‑‑ if I end up not wearing the green jacket at the end of Sunday but I have a fantastic competitive match on Sunday against the best players in the world, that's what I'm there for. I enjoy and thrive off that competitiveness. I would enjoy a Spieth‑McIlroy‑Fowler‑Scott‑Watson‑Mickelson Sunday. That would be a lot of fun (laughter).

Q. Your thoughts on golf being an Olympic sport and you becoming an Olympic athlete this summer.
JASON DAY: It's strange, I tried to explain this yesterday. As a kid growing up, this is a tournament I watched all the time and I wanted to win the Masters. I grew up watching the Olympics, but golf was never a sport that was‑‑ other than back in, what, 1904 or whatever it was. But we never grew up watching golf in the Olympics, so it wasn't really on my radar ever as a junior, amateur or professional.
But now it is. So the perspective of being an Olympic athlete has changed a lot, and having the opportunity to represent your country, my country of Australia, is huge and I'm looking forward to it and it would be a complete honor to go down there and represent Australia and try to win a gold medal for my country.

Q. You talked earlier about how good everybody can be on a given week here. Do you prefer that as a player, or even as a fan, do you prefer that, or did you like it when Tiger was just that much better?
JASON DAY: Say again? (Laughter).

Q. As a fan of golf, do you think it was better when Tiger was that much better than everybody else, or do you like it now where everyone on any given week can win, but not excel?
JASON DAY: As a fan‑‑ as a player, no, I don't like getting beat by Tiger all the time. I mean, it sucked. (Laughter).
But as a fan, it was fantastic golf to watch. I mean, he did things that no one else could do. Hit shots around the greens, shots from way off the green, approaches. It was just amazing what he could do as an athlete in our sport. Changed the game of golf for the better.
And now, you see the results of it because there's myself, Jordan, Rory, Rickie, Hideki Matsuyama from Japan, Thomas Pieters from Belgium. There's Justin Thomas. There's numbers and numbers of guys that are young, because of what Tiger did back in the day, that got us into the game of golf today.
And I was explaining that to who was a very‑‑ who is an iconic player in this game of golf was Arnold Palmer. I was explaining the way that he started the next generation and that generation started the next generation, and then finally Tiger Woods started our generation.
I enjoy, and I think our generation is so competitive, and we enjoy and thrive off that competitiveness; that we enjoy everyone having that pretty close competitive nature. There's not one guy out here that is dominating right now.
I mean, a couple years ago, it was kind of Rory, and Rory was No. 1 in the world for, I think, for 95 weeks, which is a long time. But for the most part now, we are all kind of feeding off each other and we're all trying to get better and stronger each and every year.
But right now, I think it's fun for the game to see how close it is, and everyone has their own little favorites. Some people are Rory. Some people are me. Some people are Jordan Spieth. Some people are Rickie Fowler. It's just great to see who is on whose team and really pulling for them.
So I think as a fan, it's great to not just be one person and that one person playing against the whole Tour. It's great to see a bunch of fans just really cheering for their own guy and who is going to win that week.

Q. What I was getting at, Tiger was a level above and you guys seem to be at that level. He shot 20‑under at Whistling Straits, not easy to do.
JASON DAY: No, it's not.

Q. So my point being, not just that you're competitive but you're competitive at an elevated level.
JASON DAY: And once again, I guess the technology has changed a lot these days. Not going to say it's easier, but the technology in today's game, today's day, is a lot easier with regards to clubs and TrakMan and having all this information gathered.
I mean, the guys these days are doing a lot of things that you guys don't know about that are kind of not pushing the envelope but really kind of doing stuff that other guys are not doing and trying to stay that one step ahead to really be on top and trying to stay on top.
For me, as I'm getting close to my 30s and I'm getting an old grizzled vet now, I have got to try and stay ahead of the game. There's guys out herethat are ‑‑ I'm playing with Ryan Ruffel, he's a 17‑year‑old kid. The guy hits it long and straight and has great touch. I've got to play against him; in few years he's going to be out on the PGA TOUR and he's going to be playing well and he's going to be competing and he's going to want it more than me.
So I've got to stay on top of my game, keep focusing on the right things, staying in the process and working hard and I've got to want it more than him, even though I may be older. That's how we have to stay ahead of the game to try and combat against these young kids.

Q. You recently said that you nearly quit the game a week before your first Masters. What was going on in your life then?
JASON DAY: Golf is a very, very frustrating game. It really is. I can sympathize with everyone in this room that's played golf (laughter). It's a very difficult game at times, and especially as a professional, I go from a junior and amateur that is, you know, we're playing for toasters. You're really playing for nothing other than pride and toasters (laughter).
As a Junior Amateur, you're playing for so much fun. You're always having fun and you're playing to win, because there's no money involved. Once you turn professional, everything is based on results. You get knit‑picked in the media. Stats are always up saying he doesn't drive it straight enough or hit enough greens or whatever it is.
Then you have to perform, because if you don't perform, then you're off the Tour. And then as time goes on, then you start stressing about, okay, is there enough money up to get my card for next year, and then you start losing a little bit of confidence. Then you start getting frustrated out there and then you don't practice because you're frustrated with how you're playing and it's a downward spiral from there.
That day when I was sitting in the bus, I was sitting across the road in a bus. Had my agent, my wife and a sports psychologist, and we're just sitting there, and I'm like, I just do not like the game right now. I'm just having a very, very hard time picking up the golf club to even just enjoy myself out there.
So we come to the conclusion of just going and saying, this might be my last Masters ever playing, I may as well enjoy it. So I went out there and finished second (laughter). And then I loved the game again. It can be very‑‑ golf is a very emotionally‑‑ it's emotional highs and lows in the game of golf, and times when you're going through very, very rough times and you're hating the game, usually it's because you're not working hard enough; and it was. But when you're thinking about getting rid of caddies and coaches and agents and sometimes wives (laughter)‑‑ that wasn't me, trust me. You have to pull your whole time in together. You have to pull them tighter and you have to feed off them a lot more. You have to understand that they are there and you're hiring them to give you a straight answer. And you pull them in and you listen to them, because they are there for your best interests, not to hurt you, not to give you a hard time. They are there to make you succeed.
Going through that tough time, understanding now, my whole team is very, very close, and I understand I don't pay my guys to give me yes answers. I pay them to tell me what's going on really in my life. And at that time, it was a tough time, but I'm glad I got through it and sitting here today No. 1 in the world.

Q. Was there anything beyond the obvious of finishing second at Augusta that made you feel better about playing?
JASON DAY: No, it was just good because I just had a really rough trot at the start of this year, and then finally finished second and that kind of got my year started again which was great.
THE MODERATOR: That's a great answer to that last question. Thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297