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WGC DELL MATCH PLAY

March 26, 2016

Jordan Spieth

Austin, Texas

Q. He kind of got off to a good start. How did you feel trying to battle back?
JORDAN SPIETH: I didn't make it very hard on Louis today, which is unfortunate. I was off from when I hit my first ten shots on the range. The ball was slicing off, which is very odd. I've had incredible control of the ball this week and of my wedges. I'm not exactly sure what happened, I still don't really know. And it could have been something as simple as ball position or alignment. I tried to figure it out for the entire range session, but I just couldn't grab a shot that I knew I could go to the course with.

And on the first hole I sliced it off the tee there and kind of went from there. It was just a very off day. I just need more consistency on my off days if I want to be able to compete come Augusta.

The good stuff is there when I have control. As long as I can hold it together four, five, six rounds in a row then we're in good shape. I feel like it was a big improvement this week off of the last month. If I think about it that way we're going to be in good shape in a couple weeks' time and I think we'll get in contention next week, and hopefully hold a little more consistency there come the weekend.

Q. Do you think this is an easy fix?
JORDAN SPIETH: I think it is, yeah, because my ball control was great from Sunday until today. So it's something that's so minor, whether it's posture, alignment. When I say that, it could be anything.

I really just felt very uncomfortable over the golf ball today. On the par-3s, you just can't go in the water. I tried to avoid the water as best I could, and still hit into it with slices, with a 9-iron and an 8-iron. Shots that are maybe one out of a hundred, and they just happened to come up today. Just tough timing.

You're going to have off days in the course of playing seven matches in match play. Your off day still needs to be 1-under, and you still need to have someone that shoots even. Louis, he didn't even have his best stuff today and he was still 1- or 2-under.

Yeah, it's just kind of a bummer. I had such great crowds here, and was really looking forward to trying to make this interesting. It kind of stinks to be going home early. But it's match play. You can play great for a few matches and not even see the 17th hole. And then all of a sudden one off round.

Q. You talk about wanting to get in contention next week. Is there any silver lining in getting a day off?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, a day off certainly won't hurt, at all. Obviously if I were able to compete it would have helped more than a day off. But I won't be out grinding tomorrow, I'll be certainly resting. All my matches this week felt like a round in contention, that's what's good about match play and preparation for majors because you feel like it's win or go home against one other opponent. So you're trying to play off what they're doing. But you feel the nerves on almost every swing, I have this entire week. So that's certainly good for me. But getting in contention next week would be key, as well.

Q. This is the first time you've ever lost in the city of Austin?
JORDAN SPIETH: I don't know, I've played a lot here in junior golf, and certainly didn't win each time then. No, it's not the first time I've lost here. But I did not deserve to win today.

Q. Do you feel like it got away from you on maybe 9 or 11?
JORDAN SPIETH: You know, it's tough. The fairway bunkers here have so much sand in them that the ball half buries. There's just almost no way to play it out. It's no problem unless there's water in front of the green, like on 9. So I was actually fortunate to even have a chance there. I had to try and play the shot that was going to get me up near the green. I tried to blade it and I did, I bladed it successfully into the lip.

Yeah, I mean I was there easily on 10. And 11 was just a simple 8-iron that the last few days I've been bringing down on my target lines. And it's just way off to the right.

Again, it's nothing that I'm really going to think too much about. I guarantee you when I get to the range on Monday it's going to be right back to where it was. I just need to try to figure out what it was so if it happens again I can fix it a little easier than I did today.

Q. But you don't feel like anything this week hampers your chances in two weeks?
JORDAN SPIETH: No, from Tuesday to now I feel much more confident than I did about Augusta. I played very, very solid the last few days and most importantly I made a lot of birdies, and that's something I haven't been doing as of late is capitalizing when I do hit those good wedges or iron shots in. And I made six or seven birdies against Justin yesterday and that kind of round can really do a lot for me mentally.

Q. Going through the week, what did it mean to have the tournament here?
JORDAN SPIETH: Very awesome. It's great. I'm very excited about coming back to this event. I think hopefully a top-10 gets me back -- I'm kidding -- but, yeah, I mean I was -- like I've mentioned before, I was ecstatic well ahead of time for this event. And I think it certainly lived up to its hype.

Anytime you go to a new place it's a learning process for everyone and I think it's been improved each day with traffic, crowd control, whatever. I think it's only going to improve from here on out. And it already was great.

Q. When you were walking up with Louis, were you pointing out houses with him?
JORDAN SPIETH: There's some absolute -- I don't even know what it is -- compound that's back there and there's some three story houses up on the hill and it looks like if you put five of them together it equals that other house, whatever it is, looking at 13 from behind the bridge.

Yeah, hey, Louis, he had flipped one on me on 13. So at that point I still believe I can do it. And showed that with a birdie there and potential ones on the other holes.

Louis is a great guy and is always rooting for you. Like I had mentioned before, very tough to play in match play and he proved that today.

Q. Jason can go to No. 1 if he wins?
JORDAN SPIETH: I figured he probably already was going to No. 1, finishing ahead of me.

Q. I'm curious if that matters at all to you at this point?
JORDAN SPIETH: To be honest, it could be a good thing for me going into the Masters.

Q. Why is that?
JORDAN SPIETH: More on other people, less on me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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