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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 10, 2018

Jordan Spieth

Pebble Beach, California

Q. Most people struggle on the inward nine, that's where you picked up most of your birdies here today at Pebble Beach?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I was talking to Michael walking off, I missed a pretty short one on 9 and told him we got a tall task ahead as we turn into this wind, but let's try and grab three birdies from here on in. And I did. I got the three birdies with just the one kind of tough to kind of judge some of these crosswinds out here, it's bouncing back and forth. But, yeah, 2-under was a decent round today and certainly looking for something lower tomorrow.

Q. Tell me about the wedge into 18. I thought you may have skinnied it a little bit. It just cleared that bunker?
JORDAN SPIETH: I didn't skinny it. It was the same thing I did on 7. I'm not matching up my lower body and upper bowed alignment. So these shots that I'm trying to bring in with like cut shots are kind of dropping off short of where I want them to, just dropping out of the sky. So it's just kind of a technical thing. But I knew that if I had -- I had plenty of room short as long as I was aggressive into the ball, the ball would be skidding up there. D.J. said it didn't even hit on the green so it was obviously a good break. But the idea was to leave it below the hole and kind of skid it up to the green.

Q. You're still defending champion. Your thoughts on the final round?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I haven't looked at the conditions. I think today was kind of the harder of the bunch. Hopefully the wind picks up a little bit where a low round goes a long way.

Q. Revised forecast calls for more wind on Sunday, so you've got a chance.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I'll take it. Thanks a lot.

Q. Have you been introduced as the "Champion golfer of the year"?
JORDAN SPIETH: I have. A few different places.

Q. And what does that make you feel like?
JORDAN SPIETH: It's unique because it's hard to -- like what is "champion golfer of the year," other than you just, you know, that you're just being introduced as The Open Championship winner. Augusta would maybe claim that their champion is the champion of the year. The USGA would claim it. So that's just in golf, it's just that unique title.

Q. As you know The Open Championship is older, so.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, right, no, it's cool. Every time it happens it brings me back to that special moment on the 18th green there at Birkdale.

Q. Are you looking forward, as defending champion, obviously you want to play well, but will it mean something to go back to Carnoustie?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think so. It will be a Major, for a Major Championship prep, but having -- any tournament you go to if you've won there, you just feel like it's maybe a little bit easier the next time to do it again.

Q. (No Microphone.)
JORDAN SPIETH: This was heightened for -- heightened attention for a little while and then it just kind of drops back off. Kind of understood what to expect at this point.

Q. Do you still think of that finish?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, a lot.

Q. That was fantastic.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think about it quite a bit. It was, it was a lot of fun. It was intense and it was a mental grind to the end, but I freed up and played the best six holes of my life, five and a half holes of my life.

Q. How about this particular tournament here with the greens? Sometimes we talk about the greens out here in California can be a little difficult. How much has that affected how much you had to adjust from any other greens coming into this season?
JORDAN SPIETH: They're always, you just have to have more patience with them. And when you look up and you see a putt missing, it's really the ones that are inside 10 feet that you'll just see guys miss more of them here than they do anywhere else. And that's just, there's some, there's more that's out of your control with footprints and just the spongy grass, the poa annua grass. So there's no avoiding it. It's just you have to have a higher level of patience on it and just accept that you're going to miss more putts than you're used to.

Q. You were hoping for a big round today. How would you assess your play?
JORDAN SPIETH: I got off to a nice start with a par save on 1 and then the birdie on 2. I was looking pretty good for a little while there and then just the swing really didn't fall into place for me today. I thought I actually putted the ball pretty well today, minus one putt, but my swing wasn't quite there like it was the last couple days. I started to kind of figure it out the last, really into the wind on the back nine, I thought I played some nice golf, given how difficult it was playing. D.J. was 3-over on the back before 18 and that was kind of a decent gauge to see the leaders playing this. It must be playing pretty tough if he's not playing it well. So I think a good round's brewing, it's close, it's really close. That's what it feels like.

Q. You were pretty fired up about your partner there, especially early on, he had the hot hand?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, he had three birdies in the first four holes. It was awesome. And then a net birdie on 6. It was really cool. It was good to see him kind of get off and make his own natural birdies, because he's so talented and can do that. We're going to be borderline having a chance to play tomorrow. I think we're on the cut line, so hopefully it holds up and we get another round together.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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