Q. 66 with a birdie on the last, how did you feel playing Stadium?
JASON DAY: It was good. I said a little bit earlier that I thought that with the practice round coming into today I felt I would have had to play a little bit more conservative coming into these pin locations. But after a few holes you could see that they were a little bit more receptive, even though they are firmer than other two courses. It's nice to be able to get on the Stadium and play well. I enjoyed my time with JT over the last three days, so looking forward to tomorrow, just trying to get myself into contention come last nine holes, that would be nice. Kind of Sepp's running away with it over at La Quinta right now, so got to stay within arm's length of him.
Q. What kind of number are we seeing out there for tomorrow?
JASON DAY: On the Stadium?
Q. Um-hum.
JASON DAY: I'm not sure. I mean, obviously when Sunday comes around typically there's tougher pin locations, there's going to be a mix of both, some gettable pin locations and tougher pin locations. But everyone's going to tighten up over the final stretch, usually on Sundays scores tighten up and they're not as good as what you would see at the start of the week, just because everyone's more relaxed at the start of the week. I don't know, if I put on another one like I did today, then I'm hoping that's enough, but obviously I just got to just try and control what I can control and go from there. I was very pleased with how the last three days were, so if I can just stay within myself and just keep playing, try and get on the back side and see how it goes.
Q. Solid start at the Sentry a couple weeks ago and the fall was trending this direction, what have you been working on in your game and where are you seeing it the strongest right now?
JASON DAY: There's been a dramatic improvement in the technical aspect on the swing. Just feels like the club's a little bit for square coming through the shot, and that's a little bit more controllable, which is nice. The swing's improved, which is good. One thing that held me back last year was approach play into the greens. Putting's been solid pretty much every year, driving's been pretty solid too, same as short game. So that was kind of like the missing piece for me. So it's been a good start, don't really think about it too much, just get into it tomorrow and go from there.
Q. Stadium Course this year is playing close to two strokes higher on average than we saw last year by virtue of the changes. Your round today did you feel like the course had a little more teeth?
JASON DAY: It did. Any time -- I find it funny, it feels I've been out here for a while now, and I feel like as time's gone on that the conditions of the golf courses, especially the greens, have gotten softer and a little bit slower over time, but I'm not sure if that's, that could be just me thinking like, Oh, back in my day we played it firmer, you know what I mean. But I feel like when I first came out the greens were a lot firmer back in the day, and that was like really the defense of most golf courses. Especially with a golf course like this where it's not overly long, but you start to add some good firm greens into the mix, some of these lines start to get a little bit tight coming into these greens, and you get a little, you know, you're trying to worry about where to land things. Like 17, for instance, you land that too far beyond the pin, that's hopping over into the water. Yeah, I think we have a good, another good day with the way that the greens are tomorrow, I think it should set up for a good finish.
Q. We saw with your playing competitor today Justin had a great bogey save on 17 and then --
JASON DAY: He did that a couple of times. He hit one out of bounds and made a bogey on the second hole at Nicklaus, and then he did that again. So it's practically a birdie on his next shot, which is amazing to see. But he's playing some great golf. Obviously he had a great start at Sentry, but, yeah, it's good.
Q. I know I've asked you this every year since you played out here, your time at the Vintage Club, something that you continue that you've had for a long time. Are you like an official desert guy at this point?
JASON DAY: I am, I kind of am, I really am. I've been coming out here a long time. It's hard not to love this place. Like, you try and find things where you're like, I don't really want to come out here, but I actually really look forward to coming out to the desert every single winter. Right before the West Coast Swing starts, this is my spot to come, just because the golf courses are fantastic, the weather's obviously perfect, and then it's just easy to get to the other golf tournaments from here. It's nice and quiet here, I like that. I'm here to focus on golf and I get to do that out here.
Q. Lastly, you guys had a great gallery today, what I saw out there, finishing 16, 17, 18, that's probably the biggest crowd I've ever seen on Alcatraz. I don't know if you felt that in your fourth year here.
JASON DAY: Yeah, I'm trying to keep my head down, especially when it comes to 17, because I'm like, Oh, I don't want to look at anything else other than my tee box and the green. It's very easy to see that water, so I just try and keep my head down. But it seemed like the crowds were here. Obviously there's going to be a nice concert tonight, I think everyone's excited to watch not only golf, but also the concert as well. So AmEx does a great job here with this tournament, it's always a pleasure to come and play.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports