What they said: Jason Day

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THE MODERATOR: I would like to welcome Jason Day. He moved to 12 under to take the third round lead at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Jason, you started off with a bogey and straightened things out and recorded four birdies after that and it ended up being a nice round.

JASON DAY: Yeah, it was really tough out there today, I just got to say that first. It was blowing 15 to 20, 25, out there and it was really tough because there was a lot of side wind holes out there.

I just wanted to try and stay patient with myself out there. I knew that I wasn't hitting it as great as I would like to. I wanted to just try and hit as many greens as I could and, you know, just give myself easy putts. But with the wind today it was tough, a tough thing to do. I had four birdies, which was great, and I only had one bogey, and the bogey on the first was soft, actually I hit it on just short and it was an easy chip and run, and I hit it short and missed the putt, but overall happy with how I played, because 14 and 18 were unbelievable pars.

Q. You had 22 putts today, which is pretty impressive, and probably saved your best for your last on No. 18. If you can talk about 18, on saving par there?

JASON DAY: Yeah, 18 has been a real struggle for me this week. I hit it in the water on the first day, and I hit it in the water today. You know, I wasn't as confident with my driver today because I was hitting it everywhere, and I try to stand up there and hit just a nice draw down the middle toward that bunker and just turned it over too much and it bounced in the water.

And I wanted to make sure that I got the line right where it crossed the margin so I could take it so far back as I could onto flat ground, and had 179, and it was blowing about 10 to 15, and I hit a punch 5 iron up there and the putt was downhill left to right, and I knew if I could put a good stroke it, it should have a really good chance of going in.

Q. Jason, talk about earlier on being patient because of the struggles with the wind. Is there anything in particular that you do to convince yourself to be patient with that type of challenge?

JASON DAY: It was tough to hit it close to the pins today. I knew if I short sided myself I would have a really rough day. When I say, "patient," I mean to try to hit 20 feet left of the pin, even with a wedge. That's just to me it's staying patient out there. You never know. You hole more putts than you chip in, and that's the way I tried to play today, and it didn't work out that great.

My goal yesterday, I was saying that I wanted to hit a lot of fairways and greens and putts, seems like every time I say that I go out and hit it everywhere the next day, and I'm not going to say that today. I'm not even going to tell you what I'm going to do, so hopefully I can come back with a win.

Q. Is 18 not feeling comfortable?

JASON DAY: I think it's a comfort issue. I wasn't feeling as comfortable today with the driver. I was hitting cuts and 17 I hit a draw, and then if you hit in the cut and the draw, it's Army golf, you know? I think tomorrow I'm going to take my medicine and hit a longer club in there. I said after the second day, "I'm going to hit 3 wood and lay up short of that water and take it out of play" and I stood up there today and I thought, no, I've got to hit driver. I don't want to leave myself 4 iron in, and in the end I hit it in the water.

Q. How is your comfort level as far as you've been in the lead every day here so far. What's it like trying to close out your first TOUR win?

JASON DAY: I think it's certainly it's playing on my mind a little bit, as it would. You're just trying to get the monkey off your back, you know? First real big time chance for me to go out there and try and win this tournament tomorrow. And if I can notch up a win here that would be great and just wonderful to get that monkey off my back, but we'll see.

Q. Can you talk about more about the wind. When is the last time you played in something like today?

JASON DAY: It's gusty over the last the first two days, Thursday and Friday was, you know, gusty, but only 10 to 15 miles an hour, wasn't blowing really hard, not like today. And I knew if I could put 2 or 3 under on the board, I would probably creep up, maybe be leading, and I did that, and fortunately I got a 2 shot lead, I think, right, yeah, going into tomorrow.

And it's tough to the layout of the course, there are a lot of side winds, and I was standing on 15 and I'm standing there with driver and the wind is really coming off the left, and you're sitting there aiming down the left side and if you hit a hook, you're out of bounds, so you aim just a little further right and try and hit a draw, and once it gets up over those trees, it's going to go like that and take it to the right. So it's a tough driving course.

Q. Were you in the trees on the right?

JASON DAY: Yeah.

Q. Were you trying to play it over the trees?

JASON DAY: I tried to play it over the trees on the left, and it sat on a great line over the left and went way right. I really hit a good drive there but the wind took it.

Q. (No microphone.)

JASON DAY: I've had some success. I've had some really bad ones, too, and I think it's just learning, you know, from those experiences. Taking certain clubs, when you know to take certain clubs and take your medicine at times and don't go with certain pins. You know there's a lot of pins out there today that you could have short sighted yourself and there is no chance of you getting up and down.

Q. Are you a big believer in carryover from one day to the next? Meaning how you end the day's round can carry into tomorrow? And if so, what did that par save do for you?

JASON DAY: I think it's a new day tomorrow. I just want to go out there and play my golf, but that par save on 18 was a real confidence builder, I think, especially the one on 14. But just to go it doesn't put the salt in the wound, doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth after the round, so I was very happy with that par save.

Q. You've had some injuries recent years. How long have you felt you were ready to win out here? Do you feel more equipped now than ever?

JASON DAY: You know, I know that I know that I'm not going to get my back is not going to get hurt, because of the stuff I'm doing, the corrective exercises I'm doing. I know my wrist is not going to get hurt because of the corrective stuff I'm doing with my trainers, as well. If that happens, it means I'm doing something absolutely different in my swing. I've had some health issues as everyone knows, and I feel like I'm ready. I think I've just got to be patient, and that's what I've been trying to do over the last year or so.

I've been writing down stuff I keep a journal after every round on how I feel, mentally, physically, tactically, technically, how I swung the golf club today, how I felt mentally today, was my body moving well, did I play the course right. If I didn't, I'll change that, and that helps a lot just to know I write down my stuff at night to say this is what I did wrong, this is what I'm going to do to improve it tomorrow, and that's helped a lot.

Q. Give us an example of something you have read back and it's helped you?

JASON DAY: It would be like I would say, for instance, I would be hooking a 3 wood and I would write down, "I hooked my 3 wood a couple of times today, and that was due to a quick backswing, a quick transition." I'm going to try and work on smoothing that out on the range and just trying to relax on the transition.

But it would be certain things like, okay, the 18th, like, "I'm not listening to myself." I've said, "Keep it short and take it out of play," every day, and I'm still not listening to myself, and that's just me being young and pretty stupid. You've got to be disciplined out there and I think the biggest thing I've written is, "Show more discipline."

Q. What's the biggest thing you will be writing today?

JASON DAY: I think I'll try and what I'm going to write tonight is to stay patient, drink a lot of water and just keep it going forward, you know? Hit every shot aggressively to where I want to hit it, and that doesn't mean I'm going to hit every shot to the pin; it means I'm going to shoot aggressively to my spot on the green or the fairway and just try and play my game.

Q. Should you be successful tomorrow, what does it mean to be associated with this Byron Nelson Championship?

JASON DAY: Yeah, it would be unbelievable. Mr. Nelson has done so much for the game. You go out into the holes and there are stats on the boards out there and it's unbelievable. If he was around today, and he was playing in our era, he would be better way better than Tiger Woods, I feel, but Tiger is a great player.

It would just be great because he's done so much for the game of golf. I would like to it would be an honor to add my name to that "Champions Wall" out there.

Q. You mentioned earlier trying to get the monkey of off your back. There could be, if you allow it, this getting ahead of yourself thing that every athlete in the world talks about. How do you avoid that? What is your mental game plan for tomorrow?

JASON DAY: You know I got a little ahead of myself today. Every golfer goes out there this is me, but I'll go out there and I'll think yeah, I've got two par 5s, I can birdie those, that's 2 under, if I can birdie a couple of others, and if I can par the rest, I'll be good but, you know, what I'll do tomorrow is do exactly what I'm doing today and the previous days, go out there, play my game.

I'm playing against other players, but the biggest thing is I'm playing against myself. I just want to I don't want to let the course beat me. If the course beats me and makes me fire at sucker pins, I'm going to be slapping myself in the head after tomorrow's round, but I don't want to let that course beat me tomorrow.

Q. You talked earlier in the year about the putting being a problem. This week you have holed lots of putts. How much different does it feel standing over putts this week?

JASON DAY: I've always felt like I've been a really good putter, I've always felt like I've putted great, but this year, I just it just felt I couldn't quite see the ball going in the hole, and I would try to tell myself, "You're a good putter, you're a good putter," every night and hopefully that sunk in after a while.

I'm starting to see the ball; I see the line a lot and I'm lining up great, and I'm just the speed has been key for me, because if I can get that speed right, then it's easier for me to see the line.

Q. Is this the first week you've seen it that clearly or did that

JASON DAY: It's been you know, I've been putting pretty well since the start of the first top 25, I started putting well then. It was a little iffy, but it was getting better, for sure.

Q. There has been a lot of attention paid this week to the amateur. You're really not that much older than he is. What do you think about that? Do you feel like you've flown under the radar a bit, because there has been so much attention on him, and now it's time to get serious?

JASON DAY: Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing for him to make a cut at 16 years old, especially a PGA TOUR event. What is there like seven guys that have done that, something like that? So that's amazing. I congratulate him for shootin' those great scores, especially today in the wind. I think he shot 3 under today, right?

I felt like I've kinda flown under the radar a little bit, and I think that's helped me a little bit, too. But tomorrow it's going to be I'm going to be in the spotlight tomorrow and hopefully I can play my game and just be in control of my emotions and in control of where my ball goes. That would be nice.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks a lot, Jason. Good luck tomorrow.

Transcript courtesy of ASAP Sports.