Day Moves to Fourth in World Rankings

Thanks to the third victory of his career, Jason Day shot up to fourth in the latest World Golf Ranking released on Monday. On Sunday the 27-year-old Aussie closed with a 2-under 70 on the tough South course at Torrey Pines, finishing in a four-way tie at 9-under 279 through 72 holes with J.B. Holmes, Harris English and defending champion Scott Stallings.

Day and Holmes both birdied the par-5 18th - which Stallings and English parred - sending Day and Holmes to the par-3 16th for the second playoff hole.

Day hit an aggressive pin-seeking shot on the 196-yard hole that stopped 15 feet past the cup. Holmes, meanwhile, was too strong with his drive and his ball ended up in deep rough behind the green. The 32-year-old Kentuckian couldn't get up and down to equal his opponent's two-putt par, giving Day the win.

Day, whose previous titles came in the 2010 Byron Nelson Championship and 2014 WGC-Accenture Match Play, is now in fourth behind, in order, Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson. Following Day in the top 10 are Adam Scott, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar. (Tiger Woods is now ranked 62nd.)

Day was thrilled with what happened Sunday. "All the hard work that I put in in the off-season is paying off," he told reporters after accepting the trophy and $1.134 million winner's check. "So hopefully I can stay healthy and have a great season this year."

Despite his youth and general high fitness level, the Queensland native has been plagued by some tough injuries, including those to his back (which caused him to withdraw from the 2014 BMW Championship), left thumb (which led to problems earlier last year and a grip change), a strained right hand, and a bad left ankle.

He also lost several relatives in Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November 2013.

Yet, through all these tribulations he's stayed strong physically and mentally, and Day believes he's primed for bigger and better things. "I've worked very, very hard to get this win," he said Sunday. "I don't know, it's - the motivation obviously it comes from within. This is the first year that I sat down and I haven't written down any goals. The only goal that I have is giving it 100 percent every day.

"If I did that, that's all I can succeed at doing. This is really, you know, in the past years that I've played I've always said I wanted to win this tournament or wanted to win so many tournaments or have so many top-10s and I just want to - I want to obviously - I'm very motivated to get to No. 1, but I just want to give it 100 percent every day. That's all it is."

Here's what else the likable Day had to say to the media Sunday evening at Torrey Pines.

MODERATOR: We would like to welcome the 2015 Farmers Insurance Open champion Jason Day. This is Jason's third win on the PGA Tour. It came on the second hole of a playoff. Jason if you'll talk about the day and the playoff and winning the tournament.

JASON DAY: Yeah, obviously, this week was a very tough week with regards to how the conditions setup were. We had tremendous weather all week and it felt like a U.S. Open really. Obviously if we didn't play the North Course, it would be low single digits that had won this tournament. So, I just am glad, very happy with how I played today. Especially coming in. To be able to birdie 15 and 16, have a great save on 17 out of a plugged lie out of a bunker, kind of getting the redemption from last year and then learning from my mistake on 18 and taking that into the playoff and hitting a great chip there and then obviously winning on the 16th hole on the second playoff hole and my third win, it's - all the hard work that I put in in the off-season is paying off. So hopefully I can stay healthy and have a great season this year.

MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. When that chip behind the 18th in regulation came off your club and you saw it go over the front of the green did you think your tournament was over at that point?

JASON DAY: Yeah.

Q. Would you elaborate, please.

JASON DAY: You know, it was a terrible lie. There was no way I was going to hit 2-iron in regulation there, because it would have gone into the water. So I just had to suck it up and hit 3-wood over the back. I was just hoping for a decent lie. I was at least seven to 10 paces off the back edge into some thick stuff on a downhill lie, very firm, fast greens. I was trying to actually hit right because I knew that it was going to miss the green anyway and as soon as I came through impact it pulled my club way left and the ball started rolling left of the hole and once I saw it go down there I was just thinking, my immediate thought was okay, where do I need to drop.

Then I started hearing the crowd, it started - I'm assuming it just started trickling and then once they started cheering I knew that it stayed up. So, when you win golf tournaments, you have to have a little bit of luck and that was my luck. And I needed to capitalize on that bit of luck and try and win this tournament.

Q. When you won the Match Play last year and were playing as well as anyone in the world, you got to No. 4. Now you're back at No. 4, but so much has happened between then. What do you take from that and does that, was it discouraging or do you look at it like if you can get back to No. 4 after what you've been through, what's the last three spots?

JASON DAY: Obviously, I've always told you guys that my ultimate goal in my golfing career is to try and get to that No. 1 spot in the world. We have a lots of tremendous golfers out there that are very competitive and want to achieve that as well, so to be able to win the Match Play last year, trending in the right direction, I was in a good spot mentally and physically. I really honestly felt like I was going to get to No. 1 last year. And with the way I was playing and then obviously with the thumb injury, that took me out for about three months. It just was bad timing, really bad timing.

But I've worked very, very hard over this last off season. I shied away from going back down to Oz because I needed to rehab my back and my thumb. And obviously it kills me not to get back there because I really want to get back to Oz because I only get to go there once a year and that's obviously my home. But I live here and I got my wife and my son Dash on the road with me, it's just very satisfying to be able to put the work in and it pay off so quick. Obviously, I've been out here, this is my 8th season on the PGA Tour, but it feels like it's going to be a good year, as long as I can stay healthy again.

Q. You mentioned in your opening remarks that, if I can stay healthy, this is kind of showing you what you can do. At the end of last season did you just kind of have a self realization like if I can stay healthy, really the sky's the limit.

JASON DAY: Yeah, it's just like over the - you always - I would always here Tiger Woods talking about the process and just trying to improve each and every week. Trying to improve each and every year. That's kind of what I've been trying to do every year. I've just slowly improved myself. Obviously, some parts have got a little weaker, some parts got stronger, but as a whole, I think I'm growing as a player on and off the course and to try and find that balance between having a good family life and playing in the best, at the highest level you can is very difficult.

But it's really amazing just to be in this spot right now to be able to sit here and talk to you guys about winning this tournament. I'm really, I'm just thrilled. It's amazing the work that I put in to get here. There's no - I'm just trying to think, because it's just, it's a lot of hard work to put into it, into this game that I do love so much. I'm just really happy right now.

Q. How much did you need this to solidify your self belief? We knew you were good, you knew you were good, but how much did you need another stroke play win to feel like this?

JASON DAY: Yeah, obviously this is my third win on the PGA Tour and to be able to win the way I did was, is very satisfying. But it gives you confidence. But I know that when I start playing next week that it's the same thing over again. I got to do the right things, the little things that count. Making sure that I'm staying on top of everything, whether it's diet or my short game or whatnot. Things that I need to improve on. I always have to strive to get better. I said out there in the media, a little before, that you don't get anywhere in life without working hard and dedicating yourself to that profession and really putting in a lot of quality time.

So, I needed this win. I really wanted this win. I visualized myself winning and holding the trophy before this week. I was in Palm Springs thinking about it, just trying to visualize over and over in my head. I'm obviously I need to go out and play good golf, but that's kind of what I did at the Match Play and that's what I did here this week. So obviously that tells me that I need to start doing that a lot more and really wanting to get to that No. 1 spot.

Q. Did you feel a difference in your own psyche from regulation to the playoff? Because were you a little amped in regulation there but when you went out for that playoff you seemed back in your like full on zone. Did you feel like it was almost like similar to the Match Play again, you were like here we go, I've got this, they can't take it from me.

JASON DAY: Yeah, it's tough, because obviously playoff, it's very similar to Match Play. You got to beat the guy in the hole and that's it. This was an interesting thing because we had four guys in the playoff and I was amped in regulation, but I was just trying to think of what I needed to do to win this tournament. I can't control what the other guys are doing and when J.B. hit it over the back on 16, the second playoff hole, I knew that I was a little amped still in regulation I hit the 5-iron and came up short. I had about a 40-footer and, yeah, I holed that. To be able to hit a 5-iron way up the back of the green and give myself a 15-footer down the hill, with him being in the back and chipping to at least another 15 feet, definitely took a lot of pressure off my shoulders, so I just wanted to make sure I could he seed the putt down there and forced him to make the putt to try and keep this alive.

Q. What's the pride in winning on a golf course this difficult? And also, Paul was talking about the deja vu moments this morning, having breakfast going back to Junior World, you're almost sitting in the same booth essentially?

JASON DAY: We had breakfast earlier this week and we were just sitting down I remember having pancakes and eggs and I couldn't eat pancakes before my 2004 World Junior win.

Q. You were nervous?

JASON DAY: Yeah, I was very nervous. But things have changed and even going on what I did last year, going up to 17 and dumping it into the front bunker and plugging it and hitting it to about 15 feet and having it horseshoe back same at me and doing the exact same thing this year and being able to get up-and-down to save par from a plugged lie, it just felt like it was just redemption to get it back and get back at it and a lot of good memories come from this place and I really enjoy playing tough courses, tough U.S. Open courses and this is one of those courses that I enjoy playing. I like to grind it out, I like to, I like tough courses that make you, force you to be stressed. I was talking to bench a little earlier this week and you know, a lot of people when they feel fear they kind of run away from it. I just said, enough, instead of feeling the fear and kind of running away from it, I got to run towards it and try and face it. And did I that this week and I'm happy with the win.

Q. I think you answered my question, obviously the conditions benefited you, you got a win from it. But when we're this early in the year, playing in a non-major, people are grinding it out, is that good for the Tour, this time of year? For the scores to be that high?

JASON DAY: I mean, we had phenomenal weather, the superintendent and his staff did a phenomenal job with the golf course and this is always a brutal golf course. It's single digits usually wins this tournament. With how everything went, the weather wise and the green speeds and the firmness of the greens, obviously we just were expecting that. And it's okay. It's certainly fine to have a golf course this hard during the start of the year. We have Sony is a difficult golf course as well, there's plenty of golf courses out there that are hard, that are even before this or even coming up. But I really enjoy coming here. I really enjoy grinding it out and working really hard and stressing over stuff. I always said that I hated that stress, but that's where I thrive the best.

Q. You kind of answered my question two questions ago, but this win was different than in the manner in which you won your other two or at least Byron Nelson. Do you feel like you put away some demons or over came some mental hurdles?

JASON DAY: Yeah, I think so, because obviously I didn't finish great at Byron. I hit it in the water there and then to be able to hit the shots that I needed to, especially under pressure and for the tournament, is, it not only does a lot for my head and for my game, but just to know that I can pull those shots out and be clutch at the right time is great. To feel that. Know that when I used to do it as a junior and amateur, winning all those feelings that would come back, I just know that I can do that and I've always said that to myself, I just feel like I'm going to win and it just, over time, it is slowly happening.

Which is good. So I'm just kind of feeling a little bit more comfortable each and every year, especially out here and now feeling like I'm, that I should be here and I should belong. Even though that I've played great golf in the past and I've been very consistent, I'm starting to feel that. I feel like I'm getting, becoming more of a dominant player.

Q. To follow-up, your wife has said that she feels that this year's different. Sort of what you were just saying. And she senses a big year ahead of you. Do you feel that way and why?

JASON DAY: I've never been more motivated to play well than right now, this year. The other years I was very, I was motivated, but I wasn't, I want to really, I really want to kick butt this year. I've come close so many times to having great years and especially going off last year and having the ups and downs of last year, to be able to be healthy begin, be out here playing, getting off to a great start, I just, I said to Ellie, at the end of last year, that I just was really motivated to, not only have a great year this year, but try and achieve that No. 1 spot. That's obviously going to be very tough, but I've got to keep working hard and try and get it.

Q. Charles Howell, whose nearly a decade older than you said that the motivation used to be to beat Tiger. Now it's to try to beat these kids under 25 who are coming on to the scene. Do you agree? What do you say about that?

JASON DAY: I came out back in - I played my first seven tournaments on the PGA Tour as back in 2006 and Tiger was still dominating back then. The game's kind of changing, it's evolving into a very young tall big strong looking guys out here that hit it a mile and have fantastic touch. It's getting tougher. It's really tough to win out here. Like Charles said, that we're, I guess we're trying to beat these guys, but at the end of the day, you're trying to not beat yourself. And that's what I do each and every week. Sometimes it works out great, this week it I didn't beat myself up.

Other weeks it doesn't work out as great, but at the end of the day, you're playing against 150 other guys or 140 other guys out here, but you're really not trying to not beat yourself. But the game is in a good spot. Especially with the younger guys. It's evolving into a fantastic powerful sport where everyone's hitting long drivers and it's exciting. But we got blessed with that 15 year span of Tiger just dominating for so long and he made it look very, very easy. I feel really - I feel bad for the guy, with what he's going through.

We just touching on it really quickly, I know that he was very close to Charlie and we lost Charlie and we lost Billy, two great golf, two great guys in golf. I know that he was feeling that. But with everything that's going on in his life right now, with the chipping stuff and the injuries and Charlie, I just really feel bad for Tiger right now. But hopefully he'll bounce back and he'll get things sorted out.

Q. J.B. was just in here talking about 16 and what a tough hole it is an and I'm wondering you had some success on it today. Did it look different to you was there anything about it that fit your guy that made you confident?

JASON DAY: Yeah, right, for some reason it was like perfect because like the whole green is wide open to the right. It just felt good today. It was a good, it was just a good number for me. I don't know what J.B. hit over the back. I'm not too sure what he hit. But after I saw him go over the back, I remember birdieing it in regulation, but as soon as I hit that shot going into that playoff hole, it was nice and high, big draw. It felt really controlled and just glad to that I finished it on the back. Obviously I was a little amped because it went a little further. But that hole suited my eye, just because I can just shrink a little 5-iron draw in there.

Q. He hit 6-iron. Are you all right with that?

JASON DAY: He hit 6-iron?

Q. Yeah.

JASON DAY: He did?

Q. Yeah.

JASON DAY: He's been throwing hay over his head for awhile now. He's a big strong country boy. But, no, I don't know - now I feel weak. (Laughter.) Well, I'm glad I'm sitting here with the trophy, so.

Q. Two things, when you said earlier after winning Match Play you really thought that was going to be the year you got to No. 1. How much longer is the road now given what Rory's done at the tail end of last year and early this?

JASON DAY: Well, he's - that's what we're striving for. I'm sure there's other players out here that are striving for that as well. But he's played tremendous golf right now. It's amazing. There's certain guys, certain players that come along in this world of golf and make winning look so easy and he's one of those guys that makes winning look very easy. You look at the previous finishes in major championships that he's played and to win the U.S. Open by eight - and I was the guy that finished second that week - the PGA and the British Open, just makes it look so easy and effortless. I can tell you right now, it's not easy.

It's not easy to win. I'm stressing out there. I feel, my heart's pumping. Today I was just trying to calm myself down because my heart was going a hundred miles an hour. It's obviously going to be tough to try and catch him, but that's why we are here. We love to compete, we love to try and see what we have got. At the end of the day, I don't want to go through life thinking that, what if, if I worked a little harder. So, if I can put in a hundred percent every day, really give it a good shot, then at the end of my career, whatever I've won in my career, whatever I've done in my career, I know that it's been successful, because that's as much as I could do.

Q. Secondly, from what you said a minute ago, can you give us an example of a time when you ran from fear? Bernie coming at you with a tape recorder, anything you want.

JASON DAY: No, one is Augusta when I had the lead on 16. And this was I think it was 2013, maybe. I can't remember. When Scotty won. I had the lead. I was leading Augusta and leading the Masters and I wanted to be the first Australian to win it. It just got me. It really did. It got me and I felt like I was tensing up and I didn't know how to handle it. I didn't know what to do to go through the process to calm myself down and really focus on what I needed to do to get the ball in the hole and that's where I bogeyed 16 and 17. It took me out of the tournament. It's tough, but that's where you learn.

Q. How would you have handled that now?

JASON DAY: Probably would have hit a shorter club on 16 and gave myself a shot. I would have hit it out to the right, but you know what, I definitely would have handled it different. Like I said earlier this week, if I had this opportunity to win this tournament, I was going to handle it different. Didn't look like it on 17, but I holed the putt this time. It's just things that you learn. You can't - the only way to learn from your experience is actually getting in the hunt experiencing the loss and trying to improve and get better. That's the only way to really try and improve closing on a Sunday.

Q. Did you feel that you had the edge going into the second, going to the 16th hole for a second time in the playoff?

JASON DAY: After he hit the 6-iron over the green. (Laughter.) It was tough. Once again I was sitting there and all those emotions and feelings from the Match Play win came back. There's a moment that passes through your head thinking like, oh, I just want to finish. I just want it to be done. Then five seconds later I'm like, no, get yourself up, pick yourself up, let's go. We're not going to stop until we win. I didn't know if I had the edge, obviously, once he hit it over the back of the green, my immediate thought was hit the green. Hit it somewhere on the green and give your self a putt. Once I saw his chip goes past I was like, okay, we just got to force him to hit a good putt here and hole it and keep it going. But I'm just fortunate that I ended up with a par and I got the win.

Q. What were you thinking in the clubhouse in between the end of the fourth round and the playoff?

JASON DAY: It's tough, man. I mean, like in back in the day, when we were talking to Doug, I'm talking about this running away from fear. Back in the day I would have gone, okay, I'm kind of happy with second place. And being able to get up and say, no, I'm not happy with second place, I want to win. That's the first step to really moving forward, not only in with myself as a golfer, you have to want to win and I was sitting there going, oh, man, you know, this is tough, because there's four guys tied for the lead at that time. Those thoughts go through your head as well. Do you really want it enough? Are you happy with second place? And I said no. That's why I went out and once I saw J.B. hit his drive down 18 down the middle I said, okay, let's go out and go through the process of warming up and making sure that you hit putts, because it's been a good 20, 30 minutes by the time I finished to when we started playing.

Q. Did you like Tiger's line, second sucks?

JASON DAY: Well, he's got 79 wins. Of course second sucks. But you just got to win. You just got to - like Ricky Bobby, if you ain't first, your last, I guess. (Laughter.) We're all striving to just try and win tournaments. This is just it's been a fun week, I'm looking forward to coming back next year and just playing here again, because it's great memories, good people, and I've had a great time being here.

Q. You got a lot of you as and you as for the lay up in the playoff because you hit that 15 yard wide spot next to the billabong. Is that exactly where you wanted it I knew you hit 4-iron?

JASON DAY: No, I hit 2-iron, man. I'm not as long as J.B., so. I hit a great drive, but it was 235 yards to the pin with it was a little cold, some wind into me. So I was thinking, okay, it's 245 to the pin. I got to crush a 2-iron to get it on the green. So I said, if I'm going to miss, I'm going to miss it right and I was aiming for that 15 yard area over there and hit a great 2-iron. I killed it. In practice, in my practice round, I had that chip, so and I did the exact same thing there. I hit it open face, a little sliding wedge under, one stop, check, and let it roll down the hill.

And that chip, once I hit it, I'm like, oh, that's perfect. And in times like that when you have a playoff, you want putts about this far (Indicating) because, you know, on putts about this far (Indicating) your hands start shaking a little bit and you start missing them. So it took a lot of pressure off my shoulders, I know that it put a lot of pressure on the guys that I was playing against to know that I only had a foot or foot and a half to tap in.

Q. Going back to the motivation. What changed? Was it the type of golf that you played last year, was it feeling like you under achieved was it Rory, what kind of brought that change?

JASON DAY: I think it's a number of things. Just the way things panned out last year. The ups and downs and then with Rory playing - it's not like it's jealousy, I just want to up there. I'm happy to see Rory succeed. I'm happy to see anyone that works hard succeed. Because they deserve it. But I've worked very, very hard to get this win. I don't know, it's - the motivation obviously it comes from within. This is the first year that I sat down and I haven't written down any goals. The only thing that - the only goal that I have is giving it a hundred percent every day. We talked about it earlier, just giving a hundred percent every day, knowing that at the end of my career that I've given a hundred percent.

If I did that, that's all I can succeed at doing. This is really, you know, in the past years that I've played I've always said I wanted to win this tournament or wanted to win so many tournaments or have so many top-10s and I just want to - I want to obviously - I'm very motivated to get to No. 1, but I just want to give it a hundred percent every day. That's all it is.

Q. The Junior Worlds when you won in 2004 obviously it's a big deal in Australia and how big, when you went back with that and now winning this, as a pro, 11 years later?

JASON DAY: Yeah, I felt like the king of the world when I won that. Obviously I was the best junior in the world at that point. I had a good season over here. I only played three tournaments, but I finished first in my first two events and finishing second at the Optimist International in Florida at PGA National. I felt on top of the world because I was having a great season that year.

To be here, to be able to win, as a professional, the real thing that I'm happy the most about is just to be able to be in the position and hit the clutch shots and compete. The last year I just, there were times in my head that am I ever going to play the game of golf again, just from the injuries that I've had, having a bulge disk in my back and the thumb injury, you know things go through your head and I didn't think I was ever going to play the game of golf, just from that. But to be the Farmers Insurance Open champion is pretty special. A lot of memories.

Q. First Aussie to do that and now officially the top Aussie in the world. Does that mean anything to you?

JASON DAY: Yeah, perfect. Well, it gives you a little bit of motivation. Obviously, we got the 2016 Olympics coming up, so I think we're going to be a good team, me and Scotty, hopefully, and I'm looking forward to getting down there and in Rio and giving it a good show.

MODERATOR: Congratulations.

JASON DAY: Thanks, guys.

The transcript for the above interview is courtesy of ASAP Sports.

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