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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 12, 2018

Jordan Spieth

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Q. I know this year's been a little frustrating for you at times but you could kind of see this round of momentum building. Did you feel that same way?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, especially with the putter. I think I was perfect inside of 12, 15, 10 to 15 feet today and anywhere inside, which was probably the first time this year that it's been the case. I started to feel really comfortable in my setup and there's been a round or two here or there -- I remember Riviera I had a couple rounds where I felt really good over it and at Augusta I felt good a couple days and last day Houston, but this was really solid today with the putter inside 15 feet and that just makes you more comfortable -- it leads into the rest of the game. I actually drove the ball unbelievably well the first two days and I hit my driver really poorly today and shot 7-under. So it just shows you where it actually matters and that's on the greens.

Q. How do you continue that momentum? Is it confidence or mechanics?
JORDAN SPIETH: Right now it's get the mechanical, get the comfort level, that kind of bleeds into the confidence. There's a lot of extra work you can do on the side, pumping yourself up, watching old videos of making clutch putts, all that kind of stuff that you can do on the side to make yourself aware that -- sometimes this game can kind of tear you down and make you think some of the best parts of your game are some of the worst parts of your game when really it's so close. With the top players there's such a fine line that it's always something simple and if I can continue to see the putter down at address like I did today, it's going to get better and better.

Q. What are some holes we should be aware of and some holes that are being able to take advantage of here?
JORDAN SPIETH: I thought it was relatively accessible today. There's a few tough pins towards the back of greens. No. 1, off the start, a pretty tricky pin, but for the most part I think the course was more gettable with the pin locations today than any other day. But the 13th hole is about as brutal a pin as I've seen in a long time on a golf course. I birdied the hole, but I missed my shot and it stuck and rolled down the slope. But it's on a good three degree slope, which -- and with the prevailing wind, that's going to be almost impossible for anybody to get it within 10 feet that didn't play in the morning.

Q. Could you be the first guy to ever win from an 8:20 Saturday tee time?
JORDAN SPIETH: I'm not sure if anybody has before.

Q. Could you do it?
JORDAN SPIETH: Sure, yeah. Absolutely.

Q. Other people who didn't see your whole round today because it wasn't on the telecast are going to say to themselves, how does he go from where he was the first two rounds to today; and for the rest of us who hear you say your difference wasn't the driver, it was the putting and we go, it had to be something else.
JORDAN SPIETH: Well, I mean my approach game was really solid too. I hit the ball, I hit a few in really close and when I made mistakes I made mistakes on the greens, but, yeah, I mean it was, it's funny because I really, I was, I didn't have my fade today, I had beautiful control draw and fade and everything was left for me the entire day until really 18. I mean, 16 I over corrected and missed it right, but I was left pretty much the entire day and just made it work. But, yeah, it was, I'm telling you, if you don't miss a putt inside of 15 feet, golf is pretty easy. But when you are making half of them, like I was the first round, then it's a harder game. So I felt like I had the freedom in the stroke, I didn't feel like I had to force anything. You ask, why don't you do that all the time, it's just not the case, you know you have to get to where you're comfortable at setup. I didn't have to worry about that for 10, 12 years, but the last year or so it had gotten off with my eyes and it's just -- I'm on the right path now and I really just wanted a weekend tee time here, every tournament round I play I feel like on the right path it's going to get better and better and better. So I'm going to go out with the utmost confidence tomorrow to try and get off to a good start and make some noise. At this point it's fun, I have nothing to lose, I was 14 back starting today and anything inside a top-10 is an incredible feat over the weekend from that far back. And I've got a chance to potentially make more noise than that. So --

Q. What would it take to get you to go long sleeves?
JORDAN SPIETH: Long sleeves today?

Q. Any day.
JORDAN SPIETH: You talking about a price?

Q. He's talking about Phil's shirt.
JORDAN SPIETH: I actually own a couple of those button downs, they're really nice.

Q. To play golf in?
JORDAN SPIETH: No, not for golf, but.

Q. What are they for?
JORDAN SPIETH: Just wearing around. Dinner or yeah, whatever. Actually they're really nice shirts.

Q. What would it take you to start doing this?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, my coach actually teaches that. He's an AimPoint teacher for a lot of players. But we tried it four years ago maybe, just the idea of it, and he was like, you don't need to do this and so we just don't. Especially on Bermuda grass greens, I grew up on grainy greens and that works well on pure bent grass, scientifically, but on Bermuda, when there's grain played in you're going to miss some putts doing that.

Q. What works on grain?
JORDAN SPIETH: Reading grain. Reading grain and figuring out what the putt's going to do with the combination of slope and grain. And that, honestly, growing up on it is about as good as, as good practice as you can get.

Q. Did you feel like you were starting today kind of playing with house money in a way?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, absolutely.

Q. Same way you kind of felt going into the final round at Augusta?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I would say so, yeah. Pretty similar. Mentally, I mean I felt like I had, I felt like I was hitting the ball better than I was showing the first two days, as far as approach game. I felt like my swing was on, I was hitting good shots and I was two yards off here or there and so it was just a matter of time if I stuck with it until you get two yards on the right. And I had a couple holes today where I was still two yards off and it ended up maybe costing me a stroke or two, but I also had a couple that I missed a little and ended up close, like 13, where I was not trying to hit it where it landed and it did and it turned into a birdie. So I just stuck with the course, I didn't try and do too much, I recognized that my game is actually in a really good place right now, once I kind of get this putting setup there, I'm ready to win golf tournaments. I'm as good tee to green as I've been ever, this year, it's just a matter of knocking in six to 20 footers and starting to get closer to that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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