“To be honest, I don’t think I’m the favorite this week”, said Jason Day, now No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, who has in fact been named the favorite by oddsmakers.
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SYDNEY – Former Major victor Greg Norman says he will be shocked if fellow Australians Jason Day or Adam Scott do not pull on the champion’s green jacket at the US Masters this week – both have the “mojo” to win.
Nicklaus is the oldest Masters champion, winning in 1986 for his 18th and final major.
But, many were just lucky to see McIlroy while they say they waited for Bubba Watson to arrive.
“I don’t think he’s done”. As you know, there’s a lot of people out there that can play well this week and win.
Northern Ireland’s McIlroy has found his form at just the right moment and American Spieth’s record-tying wire-to-wire win from past year still resonates in the Georgia pines.
“I feel comfortable with where I’m at, walking around the grounds, number one in the world, it’s a good feeling”, Day said. He is ranked No. 5 in the world and picked up his sixth top-10 finish of the season at the Shell Open last week.
“I’ve got a great game for here”.
“It’s emotional highs and lows in the game of golf, and times when you’re going through very, very rough times and you’re hating the game, usually it’s because you’re not working hard enough”, Day said. “The room’s a little bit more full this year than it’s been in the past, which is nice”, joked Day as the listening media laughed.
“That’s probably an easier answer than “I’m going to get back out there next week” and really doing it. He’s probably exhausted of saying that”, Nicklaus said.
McIlroy finished a creditable fourth previous year in his first attempt to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in winning all four major titles.
“Now you see the results of it because there’s myself, Jordan, Rory, Rickie (Fowler), Hideki Matsuyama from Japan, Thomas Pieters from Belgium”.
“I just want to be remembered by my peers, the guys that know what it takes to be a championship golfer”. “I think Tiger is going to win more tournaments”.
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“I have many different ways to pass my time”, world No 3 McIlroy joked on Tuesday (NZT Wednesday), as he pondered teeing off in the final threesome in the opening round on Thursday (NZT Friday). “I sure would”, joked Rose, who succeeded Simpson as US Open champion with a one-over-par total at Merion in 2013. “It was only a few years ago he won five times in a year, so it’s not like he’s that far off”. I think part of that was having so much expectation and thinking of the Grand Slam and thinking of the Masters and thinking of all this where I needed to just take a step back and relax and go out and try and play my own game.
