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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 12, 2010

Jason Day

KOHLER, WISCONSIN

KELLY ELBIN: Competing in his first PGA Championship and his second major championship overall. He's in with a 3-under par 69 in the opening round. Congratulations, nice play, comments on your round today, five birdies and two bogeys.
JASON DAY: It was playing long out there today. The course was playing extremely long. The course is a little soft out there. Obviously due to the rain.
I drove the ball really nicely and hit a lot of good quality putts. I saved myself a couple of times out there with a few long-par putts, but overall I'm very happy with the 69.

Q. Tell us about, I don't know what time you would have woken up but I'm guessing about 4:30 or something and how do you, this being only your second major too, I mean I would imagine a little bit of nerves too?
JASON DAY: Yeah.

Q. How did you get through all of that and then compose yourself and play good golf?
JASON DAY: I woke up at 4:00 and it was very early start. We got out here, we knew there was going to be a delay, obviously, because the fog was so thick and it was just a matter of time before it burned off. Obviously when the sun rises it obviously gets a little thicker and then it burns away.
We were sitting on the range for about two and a half hours and I was just hitting balls next to Stuart Appleby and we were just talking, having a few jokes, and it was a lot of fun, just hitting balls next to him.
The biggest thing is too, we were the first group off 10 and so after the fog burned off we had half an hour. So it was kind of hard to judge how long you start your routine and I started going and we -- I think I judged it pretty good to about an hour and, no, you really don't want to change anything too much. You want to just try and get back into the same routine and try and feel as comfortable as possible and the PGA's a major and you just don't want to change. You don't want to feel like it's bigger than anything else. It's a major, but you got to play it as a normal tournament and you got to try and feel as comfortable as possible like you're playing any other event.

Q. How is your game been leading into this tournament? Did you expect to get off to such a good strong start and your expectations for the week considering it is your second major?
JASON DAY: I felt like my game's been pretty strong. It's been moving in the right direction. I needed to work on a few things in my game, but the biggest problem with me has been always been my health. I felt awful the last two days of the World Golf Championships last week at Akron and I was a little lightheaded and a little shaky out there today. I ate like six or seven Clif Bars and I drank about 10 bottles of water out there today. And just it would come on every couple of holes.
So I'm very happy with the way everything turned out. I played very well and I'm just going to try and go out over the next few days and try and play as disciplined golf as I possibly can. I think if I can try and give myself as many opportunities as I can on the greens out there for birdie, I should not be too far away from the lead come Sunday.

Q. What do you think it is about this place that's enabled so many people to get in the mix today?
JASON DAY: You just look at the leaderboard there's a lot of different flavor up there. I think it brings in a lot of different games too. Obviously it's playing long, so you'll see a bunch of long hitters up there on the leaderboard, but you still got to have a really good short game around there. So if the shorter guys are getting it around the green, getting up-and-down, the lead's not moving too far.
Obviously I think the last time I saw it was like 4-under. You just have to be disciplined and you have to be very patient out there. I think the caliber of player out on the tournament, on the course today is just the strongest field out there, so you'll see a bunch of different players up there.

Q. Is the golf course easier on the back nine than the front or is there any difference between the two nines?
JASON DAY: I think the back nine's a little easier. There's a few holes that are probably more holes going down -- well, I shouldn't really say that. There's holes going down wind and there's a few holes coming into the wind that are shorter and you have obviously you have 15, which is playing so long today out there.
16's a par-5 and 17 and 18 are very tough holes. But I think the back nine played a lot easier than the front nine today.

Q. You hit 11 of 14 fairways. One of your better ball striking rounds of the year perhaps?
JASON DAY: Especially with my driving clubs. I've been trying to work hard on getting a lot more accuracy out of my driving clubs and I felt very comfortable with my 4-wood out there, I hit a lot of 4 woods out there and I only hit a couple of drivers out there. But I'm very happy with how that was coming along.

Q. Take us through the sort of the evolution of your health and what's been happening with that and I know you've been, you get this quite a bit and I don't know if you get, you said lightheaded, you get a bit dizzy. What's the basis behind it and how long has it been affecting you?
JASON DAY: I've had a chronic sinus infection for eight months now. It started at the Sony Open and it's been going on since then and I've been on medication for about three months now. I just changed my medication because I started building up immunity to the old stuff, so my left maxillary sinus was full; a hundred percent blocked at the start of the year and it went down to 60. I had two, three CAT scans now, three CT scans now, and it's actually halfway, under halfway right now full of gunk.
And I think what the plan is to try and survive through the next few tournaments and get it done surgically after the FedEx Cup. And what they're going to do is go in there with a scope and they're going to take about this much (Indicating) bone out of my nose, and go in there and suck all the stuff out and then it's going to try and Hale, the nose is going to try and heal as much as possible and it's probably about a two to four week resting period. So hopefully I can be ready by HSBC, Australian Masters.
KELLY ELBIN: If you would please five birdies today, just go through the clubs hit on those five holes and the length of the putts, please.
JASON DAY: Third hole, I hit a 4-iron to, a little 4-iron underneath the wind to about 30 feet and rolled in a really nice putt there.
The fifth hole, the par-5, I hit 4-wood down the middle and had 3-iron in. I had 231 yards to the front and hit a 3-iron just to the right of the green and chipped up to a foot and holed that.
8, I hit 4-wood down the middle, 6-iron from 205 yards to 30 feet, just past the hole to the left and rolled in a really nice putt there and that.
14, I don't remember what 14 is.
KELLY ELBIN: Short par-4.
JASON DAY: Short par-4? I hit a 3-iron down the middle and then, no, sorry, I hit 3-wood up the center and a 4-wood up the center and had about 120 yards in and hit it to about 15 feet and rolled that in.
16, I hit driver down the middle, had about 260, 270 yards to the front, hit 4-wood just about 10 to 15 yards just off the green, chipped up to about four foot and holed that putt.

Q. Where does the sinus infection show up in your golf game? Is it balance, energy, where exactly does it exhibit itself as far as a negative in your game?
JASON DAY: It affects my balance a little bit. I get a little bit dizzy out there sometimes. Just mainly when I bend over and then come back up. But I get really light headed out there and I feel really sick. And that's probably the main thing is you can't really play competitive golf against the best players in the world when you're feeling very sick. And it takes a lot of focus and concentration to try and take that out of your mind.
It's frustrating, but you just got to -- I think I just have to deal with it. These tournaments that we're playing now are just too important for us.

Q. Does fatigue become an issue at the end of rounds or the end of four-round tournaments? Do you get tired?
JASON DAY: I really, I can't do much practice at all. I get very tired. Most of my energy's gone pretty much by the end of the day. All I pretty much can do is just rest up. I can't really go and hit balls or anything like that because I start shaking in my hands, so I can't really, that just takes everything out of play, so I can't do any putting or any chipping because I just feel awful. So I probably am not going to do anything today. I feel a little under the weather right now, so I'm just going to try and get some lunch and then go home.

Q. The wind conditions, is that what made the back nine easier and if so will that change as the week goes on going back and forth?
JASON DAY: I think the normal wind is, I want to say it's southeasterly if I'm correct. I don't know if that's correct. If it keeps blowing that direction, and there's some people near the lead come Sunday that 16, 17 and 18 are going to be very pivotal with who is going to win the tournament, because it's a very tough closing stretch of holes there. So the rest of the holes they're very tough, but you can manage through those and if you can get through 16, 17 and 18 and in even par on the weekend, you're doing something right.
KELLY ELBIN: Jason Day of Australia with a 3-under par 69 at the PGA Championship. Thanks for your time.
JASON DAY: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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