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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2017

June 18, 2017

Jordan Spieth

Erin, Wisconsin

Q. Sorry you didn't get four days of this?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, no doubt. I thought it was a fantastic round of golf, given what we were dealing with to start the day. I mean, this is light and variable compared to the beginning of the day, but that's what you get for playing a poor first few rounds.

I struck the ball the same way I have been. I think I hit 17 greens today which was just awesome in these conditions. And then my expectations were lowered on the greens given the conditions. I think that was the difference. I was able to get to a few under by just accepting the fact that the putt might miss instead of having to have it be perfect. And that's what we've been working on, but maybe a day like today is all it needed to just kind of calm down.

I still missed a couple shorter ones, but everybody probably will today. And we moved on and finished strong.

Q. Do you expect that to be the low round of the day by the end?
JORDAN SPIETH: I don't think so anymore. If it were going to stay the same way, I thought it would be certainly maybe tied. But I think there might be somebody that can go out and shoot 4-under today, 4 or 5.

The pins, they still didn't take it easy. There are a couple pins and you thought with these conditions maybe, just maybe they'll take it easy with the locations, and they didn't. There are a couple out there that are dicey. But we stayed below the hole for the most part. When I didn't, I three-putted. But we stayed below the hole, and that's what allowed us to have a relatively stress-free round for Sunday at a U.S. Open.

Q. (Inaudible)?
JORDAN SPIETH: I think it's an awesome golf course. I think that's been the consensus from everybody. There are so many great ones to choose from. I'm sure at some point it will come back here. I don't know. That's hard for me to say, deserving or not, because I have nothing to do with it. But in my opinion, I would like to see another one here down the road, sure.

Q. What are the trickiest pin placements?
JORDAN SPIETH: No. 4 is located on a slope where the wind is actually working the same direction as the slope, which means -- I hit a bunker shot that got up to two feet, stopped and kept going back to about four. When I marked it, it was close to going back to about eight, and that gets a little unfair when the wind is gusting. That was a really tough one.

Where else was it? The one on 12, even though it's a funnel pin, if guys hit the fairway, you'll actually see quite a few birdies there or shots that get close to the hole. But if you get above the hole, it's another one where it's a 2, 2.5 degree slope with the wind in the same direction, so it makes it that much harder. So there were a few of them.

All in all, I still think -- starting the day out, I would have said the winning score was somewhere around 8.5-under par, that's where you put the over/under, and after finishing now I would say it's somewhere around 10 or 11.

Q. What is this week like coming back after playing one of the last amateur tournaments before turning pro? What was this week like coming back here after playing in the Amateur?
JORDAN SPIETH: It was good. I didn't remember a whole lot from the Amateur. But I love coming to Wisconsin.

My other memory was the PGA at Whistling Straits, and that was a fantastic week. We played well here in the Am. It was cool to come back to a course that we've been at, but I didn't remember a whole lot other than the finishing stretch.

But I got here really early and put in a lot of hours early in the week. Maybe should have put more hours -- less hours early in the week and maybe more at the end of the week. But it was a little bit of a learning experience.

But we had a lot of fun. We really did. Today we had a lot of fun. The end of yesterday, not so much.

Q. What is kind of the talk amongst players about how challenging this course is? Do you feel like it was challenging enough of a U.S. Open?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. I mean, I think anytime you've seen the golf courses, U.S. Open golf venues work back towards even par, there are complaints. Now all of a sudden they make it tough and fair, and people are 12-under, and people are complaining they're 12-under, so like let's pick one side or the other here.

I think it's exciting. I think we have an exciting leaderboard. We have a lot of young players trying to win their first major. The top seven, I think, are all trying to do that. They're all under the age of 30, I think. I mean, that's great. You can't ask for much more. You've seen some awesome golf. You've seen balls feed towards the hole, and you've seen shots that aren't so good end up really far away. Very few and far between do you see anything that resembles unfair where a great shot doesn't get rewarded.

The 9th Green is a little iffy, but you can pick out normally a dozen things at U.S. Opens that make the score come back to even, and you don't here. I think it's been a great venue for it, and I think it's been a tremendous challenge.

Guys have -- like I said earlier, I think the consensus from anyone that I've talked to is they really like the golf course.

Q. Obviously the week didn't turn out the way you had hoped, but what's it going to be like watching two of your friends chase their first major this afternoon?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it will be exciting. It wouldn't be any surprise if either one of them come out guns blazing and win. I don't think anybody should be surprised with the way they've been able to do that in other events. They're playing against the same people they always play against. It's just a matter that this is one of the four majors in a year, and this is a U.S. Open. And it's just kind of getting that out of your head and just playing against who you're playing against like it's a regular tournament.

It's going to be really fun. I'll probably go back, pack up and then I'll come back and have a beer and watch the closing stretch. That's the plan.

Q. Do you know your schedule going forward? Any chance to come back to John Deere this year?
JORDAN SPIETH: I'm playing next week, and then I'm not really sure what my plans are into the Open Championship. But definitely a chance, yeah. That's been successful for us in the past. But I really don't know right now other than next week. I didn't even know about next week until a week ago. So taking it kind of step by step this time of the year, trying to see where our fatigue level is and how we can make sure we close strong.

Q. What surprised you the most this week, either in yourself or the tournament?
JORDAN SPIETH: I think I was very, very impressed at the job the USGA did this week. I think they did a fantastic job.

Chambers was tough with the greens, and then last year had a tough Sunday. And I thought that the USGA did a phenomenal job this week of allowing the golf course to be what it is and play the way it's supposed to play. Not trying to do anything to hold any kind of standard. Instead, create an environment where if you play well, you can score, and if you don't, then it can go the other way.

But no unfairness whatsoever. I thought the USGA did a fantastic job coming back this year, and I know that they really wanted to. And it's been something that they've talked about the last couple years.

It's tough going to two new venues in three years that they've never used before. That's a difficult thing to do, and I thought -- I hate to say it's the most surprising, but I thought it was really well done.

Q. The tournament's not over yet, right?
JORDAN SPIETH: That's true, that's true. But the way I played the course in the toughest conditions, I think, of the day, and it was still tough and fair and should yield a pretty exciting finish.

Q. Considering that, where's your confidence level right now heading into the next two majors that you'll be playing?
JORDAN SPIETH: Probably a B right now. Yeah, I mean, it gets to an A, A-plus with the putter. I feel really good about just about everything else. I've just got to get on the greens and have that cup start to look a bit bigger.

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