Q. Nice to catch up with the Australian boys?
JASON DAY: Yes.
Q. Only three of you.
Scotty said he was jammed up. It's understandable because you got the Champion's dinner tonight. I'm not sure his whereabouts coming into the event. I've been here since Friday. I think it's kind of like a yearly thing when we play Augusta, but this year was just us three, so we had a good time out there today.
Q. Min got his breakthrough win last week. Straight afterwards he acknowledged you as a big brother that he looked up to and wanted to acknowledge. How proud of him were you?
JASON DAY: Oh, yeah.
Q. What role did you play?
JASON DAY: Just through suggestions. Obviously been out here a while and I can definitely tell when guys have that certain X factor about themselves and they have potential of standing out. Min is definitely one of those guys.
He hits it a mile. Has really good short game. He does all the sexy stuff good. All the stuff that people love to see, he does that really, really well.
Just working on like your three quarter halfs and your quarter shots flight control, spin control. He does give himself a lot of opportunities through the distances he hits it.
He needs to be able to control those trajectories. Once he learns to control that he's just going to take off.
It was funny. I was sitting there on Tuesday of Houston. I'm like, dude, you played great at THE PLAYERS. You had the lead through 36 holes. Obviously played good there beforehand. You just got to keep putting yourself in position and it'll happen regardless. Obviously won that week.
I think with Min, it's all up to him if he wants to get to No. 1 and to that next level. Obviously there is work ethic and that desire to become No. 1 in the world.
That's just -- and it's a lifestyle change he has to understand. I know that he has the tools and the mental side to do it because he loves the moment, and that's something that you cannot teach golfers in general, to love being in that moment and under the most stress.
If he can really enjoy that and just improve overtime, he'll be probably be our next No. 1. I'm going to take myself out of conversation because that's my goal as well. But he's got the best chance to become No. 1 from Australia.
Q. He talked about the grind a lot last week. You talked about work ethic. Do you think the penny dropped? Do you think that's the next step?
JASON DAY: Do I think what?
Q. The penny's dropped.
JASON DAY: Did you say panties?
Q. The penny. Okay.
JASON DAY: Fair enough. No, you're good. I don't drop many panties out there, mate.
No, I honesty -- it started at the Olympics last year. We got to spend a lot of time together.
Obviously a big team component. Karrie Webb was a huge part of that. In my mind I'm like, okay, if I can chat to Karrie about this stuff and he -- because Karrie is all-time great from Australia. Probably I think Top 2 players out of Australia. Obviously Norman and Karrie.
Just hearing what she did, how she went about things, her mentality, and it kind of going off and rubbing on to Min.
Even though it wasn't directed towards him, I wanted let it him hear, hey, this is what she did, this is what I did. A lot of these other guys did. Knowing that it is a lifestyle change. You have to want to be No. 1. When you want to be No. 1 everything has to be in order.
Certain sacrifices need to happen. But when you do that and you're trying to achieve greatness there is only a certain amount of people that can sit on that perch. It's nice to look back and say, I accomplished that.
Just feeding it to him a little bit. I've known Min since he was 16, 17 years old. Super talented kid. He's got -- just got the world at his feet right now.
Q. What do you look forward to most about Masters week when you arrive?
JASON DAY: What's not -- there is just is so much to look forward to. Obviously just the buzz. Funny kind of seeing how many trees are down around the golf course. Just the buzz of the place. Going to have great weather this week.
You know, today is relaxed but you're starting to think, okay being last day of prep tomorrow.
Then things start to perk up. You start to think about teeing off on Thursday and going from there. So it's -- just the whole experience because like I was saying before this is my 14th time playing here.
Not sure how many more I've got of these. Hoping I have a lot more. But definitely on the 14th hole of my, you know, of my Masters right now. So I just try to soak in as much as possible with my family because it's something that we enjoy every year that we come as a family.
Q. Do you approach it as like time is running out or is that a dangerous way of...
JASON DAY: Definitely not time is running out because obviously all good things end. At some point I'm going to be retired and watching these guys play and it's going to be great.
It's more of I'm very blessed and thankful to be here. Having that gratitude of being able to compete in front of the best players in the world or compete against them and playing against -- in front of patrons here and in front of the world is also key for us.
It's something that we -- it gives us purpose every year. I heard something Brooks was saying. He was preparing for Augusta in December. That goes to show how much work these guys put into it to try and play well just one week a year, which is this week.
Q. You really should have won here. Looking back on golf a bit. Do you ever think about...
JASON DAY: Oh, yeah, I think about it all the time. Of course you do. But it's just...
Q. Any particular...
JASON DAY: Yeah, 16. Three holes left. One-shot lead coming down the stretch.
Q. What year?
JASON DAY: 2013. The year Scotty won. Yeah, and he was behind me so I was standing on the tee box on 16 with the one-shot lead I believe.
Q. Think it was two shots.
JASON DAY: Was it two? Thanks. Just rub it in. Yeah, so there you go. Then bogeyed 16, bogeyed 17. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything because that really taught me a lot about like how to be able to handle the pressure and the stress.
Soon thereafter, obviously 2015, took a year and a bit, but that was my real breakout year. I took a lot of that experience, how I handled that experience on 16, 17, 18 going forward.
And who knows? If I would've won here, I mean, I would definitely take it. Who knows if that would've propelled me to 2015 or 2016 and get to go No. 1. Would I have switched off? This is one major I always wanted to win. I know how I am sometimes. You achieve something great and all of a sudden you kind of switch off and you just never know where the game was.
This was a kick in the bum in the right direction.
Q. How would you rate your game at the moment?
JASON DAY: It's solid, but there is just some improvement that needs to happen. I think driving could straighten out a little bit. Irons could be tighter. Short game looks solid. Putting could be better.
But with that being said, there was probably three tournaments, two to three tournaments this year that I could have definitely put myself in contention. Bay Hill I did, but didn't get over the line.
So it's been a great year, but a disappointing year in the same sentence. Just got to keep pushing along. Obviously this is the start of our real big major season coming up.
Q. At the age of 37, what mix do you have of you want this really badly but you're mature these days?
JASON DAY: Yeah, you could want a lot of things and sometimes you just got let it happen. Obviously trying and wanting and all that stuff can get in the way; can obviously cloud your thought process out there; can cloud your judgment and ability to play as well.
So I understand that like the tournament is going to finish on Sunday. There is no use of thinking about what I can do right now other than just preparing the best I can.
Q. (Regarding fashion.) You made a few statements last year.
JASON DAY: Yeah.
Q. Got anything planned for this week?
JASON DAY: We kind of did, but we kind of cut everything in half. With what we're supposed to wear they said that's a little bit much, but that's okay.
Q. (Indiscernible.)
JASON DAY: We had to send it in. I think I'm on the short list of guys that have to send their scripting in now. I get it. It was a little bit much on Thursday, so just a shirt and not the pants.
It's good. I understand. We're here for the tournament. This is why we come every April. We're here to play the tournament and I understand. We'll do what we can with what we have fashion-wise and enjoy playing the tournament.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports