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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 12, 2017

Jordan Spieth

Pebble Beach, California

Q. Your ninth win on the PGA TOUR. All wins are special but what about here at Pebble Beach, an iconic venue. Surely extra special.
JORDAN SPIETH: Definitely. This is a bucket place list place to win. Here, Augusta National, St. Andrews, I mean there's only a few in the world, it feels really special, it was amazing walking up the 18th green knowing that we were going to win. It's just such a unique position, I tried to soak it in.

Q. Obviously, you went out with a six shot lead. If you kept a clean card, it was going to be almost impossible to catch you. You did that. Just how proud of the way you played today and kept it so steady?
JORDAN SPIETH: Definitely. I remember, I don't remember watching it, but I remember watching highlights of Tiger trying to hold his bogey-free round when he had such a big lead. That was kind of his goal. That was mine today was, hey, let's try and keep a clean card, let's shoot 3-under. That's exactly what we were trying to do. We were trying to stay focused on the number, try to hit as many greens as possible, and really stuck to the game plan and played a lot of boring golf today, which is exactly what was needed.

Q. Let's look at the highlights. Obviously here at the second. Great second shot. How good was this shot?
JORDAN SPIETH: Just a full 3-wood. There's a lot of trouble around that green, too, right, left, and I just saw it going right up the center of the green. Knew it was the right distance. Yeah, that was awesome, getting started there. I missed a short birdie putt on 1 after a great shot in, so it was nice to kind of free me up, get into red numbers without necessarily having to make a putt.

And I left a lot short today. I didn't quite adjust to the speed of the greens until late into the round. It was pretty frustrating, because a lot of them were on line and I was striking the ball so well. Finally got one on 17 to go.

Q. Describe that one on 17 for us?
JORDAN SPIETH: I had a good 7-iron number in, kept it below the hole. I had enough from this range that I knew it was about the right speed, maybe stopped just a little short, once it went in, it was certainly pretty exciting. Didn't add much to what my plan would be coming in. I figured just hit that one with the right speed or leave it below the hole. We had a three shot lead going into the last, so making it four just led to a highlight. But other than that, we knew it was going to be a little lay up, lay up on 18 and nice to close it out.

Q. I got a stat assembled, it's a hundred tournaments exactly played as a professional on the PGA TOUR. Nine wins, 10 runners up, 44 top-10s, impressive numbers. And 28 million. When you look at that, how proud?
JORDAN SPIETH: Very proud. Very proud. I guess a goal would be in the next hundred to make it look a little better than that. But always trying to get better. It's been a tremendous four years now on the PGA TOUR, we have had ups and downs and everything in between. Really looking forward to what this season has to bring. I've had four great starts to the new year, going down to Riviera next week, and I'm certainly not going to try and let up, going to get into the grind tomorrow.

Q. Briefly, Phil Mickelson always says to go into the Masters without feeling in contention is a bad thing. You obviously felt it and felt what it's like to win. How valuable?
JORDAN SPIETH: Very valuable. Even though I finished third, third, ninth the last few, didn't have a chance to win them, they were coming from behind. This time, yesterday to be tied for the lead through two rounds and go out and shoot the round we did yesterday while feeling kind of the Saturday moving day pressure of extending a lead was really special. I can draw a lot off of that. Certainly, as we go into Riviera, and then move closer to the Masters and the Texas events, I'm going to be looking to get into contention again. The more times you can do it, the easier, the more natural it feels.

Q. I thought you killed them with consistency. Was your attack plan to pick conservative target and make aggressive swings?
JORDAN SPIETH: Certainly. It was greens in regulation. I putted the ball so beautifully yesterday that I figured that would, obviously, continue to happen and we just needed opportunities. So, didn't need to force anything today. It was a round where 3-under was going to get the job done at the beginning of the day and that was our goal. Obviously, very pleased to keep a clean card and to snag a couple in the process.

Q. Tell me about two approaches you hit. That laser beam into 2 and then the approach into 8. Two big shots.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, definitely. 2, I had a good 3-wood number, but that's a really tough shot early in the day to try and stay real committed and hit it up that tiny green. So when I saw it going right on line, I kind of gathered that swing in the memory bank for the future. And very pleased to be able to have an eagle putt and tap in, real easy birdie, get into red numbers and kind of get things going.

The shot into 8 was definitely the shot of the day for me. The ball was buried over there in the rough. I had about 210 hole into the wind and wasn't sure if that hybrid was even going to clear the hazard. That was where it really could have gone bad today. And I just stayed down on it. I had a couple shots similar to that the last couple days with a hybrid, with similar lies, so fortunately, I kind of knew how it would come out. But the fact that it was on the green, on the putting surface, was maybe one in five. So, getting a par there and really escaping trouble was huge.

Q. Then the putt at 17.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, at this point I looked at the board and I knew Kelly hadn't birdied 17, so just hit it with the right speed. If it goes in, great. If not, then it's just short, then it's just short. We had a three shot lead going into the last and it was just an added bonus. I finally got one up there with perfect speed and it happened to fall in that left side.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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