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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 12, 2018

Jordan Spieth

Honolulu, Hawaii

Q. Second round 68 for Jordan Spieth. You'll be playing on the weekend. Jordan, as you look back on this round, what are the positives you take away and concerns, if any?
JORDAN SPIETH: I mean, just overall, just still trying to get it real comfortable on the greens. That's the concern. The positives, my greens in regulation. I think I missed two or three greens each of the last two days. I think I hit 15 greens each day, which on this golf course is a challenge. It's very hard to do. So I'm giving myself enough opportunities on the greens considering I feel like anything 25 feet and in has a chance to go in. So almost every hole there's a birdie look.

I made a lot of them yesterday with kind of an unlucky hole, but today I didn't get anything to go. I'll fire at it on the weekend, though. I had to play a little conservative towards the end of the round today just to make sure we're getting to the weekend, and now we can fire away.

Q. You lead me to my next question. Is that the aggressive mentality you feel like you're going to have to have as you move towards Saturday?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think setting a goal for the next two days is important. I'm at 3 under now. If I can maybe get to 16 under, which is what the leader Brian has done the first two days, going 13 under in two rounds. It's no easy task, but that would be a pretty a lofty goal to set, and I think that's kind of our early goal.

Q. We talked last week. You mentioned the putting* that you and Cameron McCormick are working on, the setup faster. You said earlier this week that you talked with him, and it's close to being natural. How close do you think it is?
JORDAN SPIETH: Still definitely a few rounds on course in tournament play. I'll have good ones -- I had one good one last week. I had a pretty good one yesterday. It just needs to be like three good ones and one pretty good one in order to win golf tournaments on the PGA TOUR. So it's a pretty significant change -- not change, but adjustment from where I had gotten to throughout the middle of last season that left me really relying on ball striking.

I'd like to pick it back up and strike the ball at the right time, and I was getting a little decel into it and a little far away from it. I mean, that's tricky to do on course in tournament play to make those kind of alignment adjustments. So working hard at it. I'm putting in reps on the practice green, and this week made a lot of progress so far.

Q. Along those same lines, how hard is it to adjust from last week to this week on the greens? I'm not trying to make excuses, but --
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it is. That has nothing to do with -- the harder part is I guess maybe an inability on the practice green with the full field, being a small green, to get enough long speed work. So I came out early, pretty early today when there was going to be nobody on the green. I think there was one other person. And hit putts across the green back and forth at different lengths, moving back two, three feet each time, to try and dial in a little bit of speed control because it was pretty off to start the round yesterday.

And the speed control isn't the long putts as much as it is getting kind of a mindset of, okay, these are how the greens are playing. And so when you get these like seven to ten footers that break quite a bit, I mean, that's where the speed really -- if you can have solid speed control, that's probably where it's most important. You're just trying to get it in a three feet circle from distance. It's still trying to adjust a bit, but I left a lot short still this afternoon. I've got to be more aggressive on them tomorrow.

Q. Seems like the practice paid off on 5. Can you walk us through that putt.
JORDAN SPIETH: That one, I just tried to -- I didn't think I had enough club. I considered hitting a lob wedge because I had something like 30 yards to the hole into the breeze. So I could have actually hit a wedge there. I practiced that putt a couple times. I hit two or three of those putts in the practice round actually from the front of that green to that pin, just knowing that, if you miss the fairway, you're playing towards the front edge.

So I knew the line, that it was pretty straight, and it was pretty lucky, I think. Xander said it was four or five feet by, Michael said six, and Berger said off the green. So I'll have to see for myself a little later.

Q. You talked about your putting. How much confidence do you take from your ball striking, though, to give yourself that many opportunities?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it's good. Yesterday I felt in complete control. I felt like I was bringing the ball down on pins today. Today I had a lot of in between numbers. I was taking three-quarter swings a number of times, especially on the front nine. That's a lot more difficult to dial in getting shots to that more makable range. But I had some looks early that, if I knocked one or two of those in, it could have been a different day.

That's the idea tomorrow. Try to get off to a decent stuff and see a couple putts go in early. My ball striking's been solid for a year straight now, where I want it to be. Don't expect it to go anywhere, which is a good feeling for sure.

Q. Early reaction on 17, the green, the redo? Thoughts on it?
JORDAN SPIETH: I've played it well so far. 1 under for two days. You know, I don't think -- I thought the old one was really, really a great par 3. I think this one requires a bit of luck. That's never really fun. It's a better hole into the wind today, but that's not the dominant wind. Ideally the old green, but with the new one, you can still play it to a spot where you have an advantage over the field if you're smart off the tee. So I've got no problem looking at it that way.

Q. 30 footer yesterday?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, like 25, something like that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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