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SHELL HOUSTON OPENApril 4, 2015Jordan SpiethHUMBLE, TEXAS DOUG MILNE: Jordan Spieth, thanks for coming in for a few minutes, 5-under, 67. I could pretty much sit here all day and go through all the accolades of your young career so far. I will not do that. Great position heading into the final round of the Shell Houston Open. With that, just a few comments. JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. It's nice to be in the hunt again. I feel like this is -- I feel more and more comfortable each time. Today I really didn't feel many nerves. Last two starts have been really close starts with closing Tampa out, and last week I played a good golf tournament. Jimmy played better. This week I'm the one that now I think is in front. I'm not sure how I finished out, but I think I'm the one in front by a shot, so I can control my own destiny tomorrow. I'm perfectly fine with that fact and excited about trying to do so. The course is going to play very similar to the way it did today. The wind's a pretty similar direction tomorrow and we know where the pins are going to be. So there's going to be some getable holes and others that are risk/reward that will demand a decision-making process on the tee depending on where we are. DOUG MILNE: Okay. We know your day is not done. You still want to go putt. So we'll jump in and ask a few questions. Q. Jordan, does this seem surreal, just two, three years ago you were here winning AJGA events and now here you are on the Tour and I know you already won on the Tour, had a lot of success. Do you think about that kind of thing? JORDAN SPIETH: Not really. Feels like awhile ago. Q. Because you're young. JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, a quarter or more of my life ago. That's how I think of it, I guess. But yeah, the process at each level has kind of gone by quickly. But, no, I don't really ever pinch myself or look back like that. This was the ultimate goal. Just came sooner maybe than most paths and maybe sooner than I imagined. But I got the right breaks at the right time and had the right team, and it's a team effort each time. So, we've all done great work. I picked experienced people to be around me and stuck with the same people that got me to where I was before as well. So, a good combination to get us to this level. Q. Jordan, how challenging is the finishing hole here, the 18th hole, to you compared to some of the other finishing holes? JORDAN SPIETH: It's not fun. It's not fun. That 18th tee shot is one of the harder ones of the year for sure. I think No. 5 is one of the hard -- top three maybe of the year depending on the wind. Those holes you have to dig in, really pick a specific target and focus on that target and just have no fear. I hit a good drive today the last two. The last two days I hit it right. Today with the wind in from the right allowed me to, you know, start a lower ball off the bunker and get some draw on it. It was a little easier to hit the fairway today than the last two days, I felt like. Some guys like it straight downwind, but I bailed out a little. Q. How did you feel about your game? You missed the cut, five, six, six, seven tournaments ago, and since then you've been playing lights out. How did you feel about your game then and -- JORDAN SPIETH: I felt good. I started in Phoenix and had a good finish. I 3-putted the last hole or I would have finished 4th there. I finished 7th. Then the next week I just had an off day on the north course at Torrey Pines and too tough to come back from on the south. But my game was still there because the next week I went and finished 7th again. Little rust from a six-and-a-half-week off-season. So once I felt like that started to -- started to get over that, which was about L.A. time, I was somewhat in the hunt there, and then since then it's been consistent, I think, just a continuation of the end of last year. I feel about the same with my stroke and swing. Looking for a little improvement each time. But all in all, Doral, I don't think you'll ever see me win Doral the way it is without any changes. So I feel like I actually played extremely well there and had a lot of confidence going into Tampa which we closed out. So, all in all, I don't feel like my game is any different from when it was at that missed cut at San Diego. I feel like I was on my game. I had an off day and just needed to get some rust off. Q. Is this run the best golf you've played ever? JORDAN SPIETH: I think the last final two events of last year were the best golf I ever played, yeah. Q. Speaking of 3-putts, you had quite a stretch of non-3-putts that was broken today? JORDAN SPIETH: I wasn't sure. Q. I heard it was 280. Talk me through your mindset in putting. It seems like you're fairly aggressive, and yet somehow you managed to avoid those 3-putts. JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. Do a lot of really good speed control drills that my coach gives me each week. We do the same drill each time. Yeah, I like to putt aggressive. It's just who I am. If I'm scared of those ones coming back, then I'm not in a position to win the tournament anyway. So, ideally I'm making those two-to-three-footers and that allows me -- it frees me up to be a little more aggressive on the first putts. Today my speed control was very poor. I had 12-footers that were downhill on 3 and 4 that I left short right in the heart and then a couple of those longer putts I left short. I just wasn't getting it to the hole. Felt like they were maybe a little slower with the moisture from yesterday afternoon and evening or whatever it was. I don't know exactly what it was. They seemed a little slower to me, and it was just a tough adjustment. That's the reason I 3-putted. I left myself with a couple putts from 3, 4, 5 feet and you're just not going to make all of them. Q. How big was that birdie put off the green for you on 16? JORDAN SPIETH: It was big. Once you turn to 15, you know, you don't have the downwind holes anymore. You got to play into left to right on the last three holes. That's tough on those holes. 15, I should have given myself a better chance. It's still an easier hole. But that putt was nice. I wanted to par the last three holes, and to steal one there and then play 17, 18 extremely well was fantastic. It's very luck-based from that range. Just hit it. It was a very straight putt. I just wanted to hit it with the right speed. Q. Jordan, when you're on a run like this, is it almost a less-is-more strategy in terms of how much thinking you're doing, how much preparation in between rounds? Do you try to ride the momentum or -- JORDAN SPIETH: Honestly, ideally I don't look that this is a run. I look at this as this is the way I should be playing. If I look at it as a run, it means the normal me is something lesser than I am right now. I can't think of myself that way. So, no, I think we've prepared the first few months of the year to get ready for next week and then from there it becomes getting ready for the next Major. I want to peak at that time. I seem to be peaking now as well, and I'd like to continue that next week so maybe it's a little less-is-more as I go into teeing off next Thursday, maybe it's a limited practice next week, not wear myself out. Tomorrow is going to take a lot out of me. I'm in contention, final group on Sunday just like last week. After you do that twice in a row, I've witnessed doing it two, three times in a row, and it takes a lot out of you mentally. So maybe a little rest next week will be the best way to prepare, but I'm still going to need to get enough repetitions around the greens and on the greens next week. Q. Is all of this success good for your Masters hopes, or are you not even thinking about the Masters right now? JORDAN SPIETH: Ideally when I looked back to preparing the best way I could for the Masters, I wanted to get into contention as much as I could prior, to have as much experience and to limit those nerves and feel more comfortable each time. And today was as comfortable as I've ever been with the lead on a weekend, which feels really good. Tomorrow I'll certainly have nerves. Hopefully give myself a chance to win. If that works out, then that will take even more confidence into next week. Anytime you can close a tournament out, it's going to be good for you the next time you tee it up. DOUG MILNE: Jordan, thanks so much for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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