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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 18, 2016

Jason Day

Oakmont, Pennsylvania

Q. How big of an advantage is it to have gotten done?
JASON DAY: Playing with two guys, Bill Haas and Chris Wood, who had a sleep-in every single day and they didn't have to come back this morning and play the rest of the holes, which was really nice.

So that really does help a lot, especially in the temperature that we're playing in, more so lately, later in the week. Today, I had to wake up at 4:45, 5:00, whereas those guys didn't.

Tomorrow, I'm not sure what time the restart is for these guys, but -- 7:00? So they're going to be waking up around 5:00 as well, play the rest of their holes. It's going to be warm tomorrow and then have to come back and play 18 holes in the afternoon.

So that may -- obviously, it wouldn't, or it shouldn't, but it may have it physically and mentally a little bit tougher on those guys that have to come back and finish in the A.M.

Q. How were you able to rebound after the rough first round and not a great day yesterday?
JASON DAY: Shooting 69 in the second round and then 66 today. Shoot anything under par here, you're definitely moving up a lot. The first round kind of killed me here. But hopefully, I give myself an opportunity tomorrow. I just wanted to play hard and fast for it and I think the harder the better, like a normal U.S. Open Sunday should be. I think it would be fun for everyone. Even though it is hard and stressful, I just enjoy those times.

Q. You were saying yesterday that you were obviously struggling the first round. Now you've sort of found something.
JASON DAY: Yeah.

Q. Were you sort of carrying that forward in terms of today?
JASON DAY: I was trying to push forward today. My mindset on the first day was a little -- just I felt cloudy, felt like I wasn't sure of the clubs I was hitting. I had a lot of clubs that were in between the first round.

The second round felt a lot better. Obviously, today, I kind of started firing not on all cylinders, but started firing at my target and felt really good about my swing. I definitely gave myself the opportunity out there today. I felt like I've driven the ball pretty well this week, and then today, finally, got off to a hot start and then made a couple of bogeys on the back side. Made a nice eagle on 4.

Q. (No microphone) even for the tournament, you're now very close to it. Just readjusting?
JASON DAY: Yeah. I mean even par was the final score for me that I was trying to reach. I think Shane's playing some pretty good golf now. But I can't be aggressive out there and start firing at pin itself and making silly mental errors.

If I can get to even par, great. If I can get to 1 under, great. I've got to just kind of check the boxes and try and take them as they come. Hopefully, at the end of the day, I'm under par somewhere and that definitely gives me a shot, hopefully.

Q. Does it help that all those guys in front of you have not won a Major?
JASON DAY: Depends how they look at it. If they want to go out there and they think they're ready to win a Major, then it's obviously going to be tougher because they're going to be focused and ready.

I don't think it matters in times like this when it's just mentally and physically gruelling. Not only when you're out there, when you get back, you're always thinking about it at nighttime.

It's good to have a Major under my belt, but I'm just trying to win the tournament. That's all I want to do is try to win the tournament. I think I've given myself an opportunity getting there. We'll see how those guys go in the morning and hopefully, I'll be there.

Q. Jason, on No. 4, when you hit your second shot, you looked a little surprised that the shot got as close as it did?
JASON DAY: I thought I lost it just a tad right. I didn't know if I hit it good enough to get over the bunker. I was actually quite surprised that it went behind the pin. The guys, Bill Haas and Lance and even Jay Delsing, they had their hands up like good shot. I got down there and I thought it would be dead straight down the hill and ended up being 90 degrees at the end, or 45. It was a tough putt, but one of those ones where you pick up and you run with it because you're not really expecting to make an eagle there, especially where I was.

Q. What did you hit?
JASON DAY: I hit a 4 iron from 260.

Q. How much of a difference does it make having no wind?
JASON DAY: I don't know if they get too much wind around here. Obviously, it's a links course and I know that --

Q. You had wind Thursday?
JASON DAY: We did. It's been northerly, but I think it's going to switch back to southwest early maybe tomorrow or something like that. It's projected not to be really windy. It's more, you know, if it gets to 5 or 10 miles an hour, that's nothing that you should be too concerned about.

Maybe a few changes with clubs off certain tees. But other than that, I think the game plan still sticks to the same. It's quite nice to play on a golf course that, even though it is links, that there's not much wind, which is good.

Q. About the middle of the second nine, I thought I saw you catch a peek at the score board. Did you allow yourself to do any like wondering where am I on the leaderboard?
JASON DAY: I tend to watch the score board a lot. I pretty much watch the score board the whole day. Yeah, I mean, I think just seeing those guys, it makes me want to chase that score a little bit more.

Obviously, to a certain degree, where you have to be patient. But also, I was holing some good putts out there and had momentum on my side. I feel like if I can just put my name on the score board, hopefully they'll start to slow down a little bit.

Obviously, they didn't, but I've got to try to do some catching up tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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