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THE 147TH OPEN

July 19, 2018

Jordan Spieth

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

Q. Lost a little momentum there on 15?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it was an easy decision. I just hit the wrong club.

Q. What did you hit off the tee?
JORDAN SPIETH: I hit a 4 iron off the tee. Thought it was locked up, and it ended up in the fescue. I hit a lot of shots today I didn't think were as good, and I walked up and kind of got good breaks, especially starting the round. But the problem was on the second shot I should have hit enough club to reach the front of the green, and even if it goes 20 yards over the green, it's an easy up-and-down. And that's what I would consider as significant advantage for me is recognising where the misses are, and I just had a brain fart, and I missed it into the location where the only pot bunker where I could actually get in trouble, and it plugged deep into it.

It was a really, really poor decision on the second shot, and that cost me.

Q. What was that club?
JORDAN SPIETH: It was a 6 iron. 202 off the front, I don't know 210 hole, into off the right. If I hit it at the green, it's so firm, it would have actually been a perfect club to roll out and have a good look at birdie, but it brought in that trouble if it bails out and kind of fades and drops on that wind, it won't carry that bunker. Versus I could have hit a 5 iron easily and just said, you know what, I'm out of position, hit it to 50 feet and two-putt. It just took me three more shots to get to that point where I was 50 feet to two-putt.

Q. What's your overriding emotion after that round? Was it very much a feeling of a missed opportunity today?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it felt like a missed opportunity. I felt like I was really going well. I had a nice par save after driving it in the bunker 6. Other than that, it was very stress-free. I was putting the ball where I needed to, having maybe no more than fewer feet for par on every hole. It was just a clean round of golf.

I've done a bit of that this year, just the decision making that's cost me. But the misses towards the end were the exact misses that I've been having and I'm working away from. My swing just didn't quite hold up to the end of my round. Those long irons really hurt me today. Drew the ball okay until the 18th hole with the driver. Hit my driver really well, and hit my short irons and putted pretty well. But those long irons just didn't quite hold up on getting the depth and the patience needed on the swing. And anytime I was playing fade with a 6 iron and up on the back nine, it really hurt me. So I know what I need to work on.

Q. How often were you using driver?
JORDAN SPIETH: I'm not sure how many drivers I hit today, maybe six or seven.

Q. Good idea.
JORDAN SPIETH: Where I hit driver, it was all great idea. 18 was just a really bad miss, but every other driver I hit ended up in a really good spot when I hit driver.

Q. The thing of four holes here are the famous four ruining cards.
JORDAN SPIETH: Three, I would say. 15's not bad at all.

Q. Do you put that down today, though, to just your own missed judgments or the course itself?
JORDAN SPIETH: No, not the course itself. I got some good breaks early. I was 3-under and kind of felt like I had stolen a couple there. So I just have to play better golf. It's that simple. Can't rely on kind of some of the breaks I got early in the round today. Number 1, I was this far from a pot bunker, and then I got kind of a good kickoff on 2 that led to birdie.

Anyway, it requires some very, very difficult, committed shots off tees out here, and on these holes where that out of bounds plays in, all the grandstands block the wind. So you have to trust that it's up there, even though you don't feel it. You essentially have to be hitting a shot out of bounds to come back into the right spot, and that's unusual and very difficult to do. You just got to kind of man up and do it.

But I felt like, you know, the last few holes -- it was execution. One decision on the execution of the swing that didn't quite hold up for me, but that's okay. It's what I'm working on, and I did a pretty good job for most of the day. Just wish I'd kind of gotten one or two more breaks to come in at 2- or 3-under, but it is what it is.

Q. The fact that this course offers so many different options, does that make decision making easier or harder because you have so many different ways to go?
JORDAN SPIETH: Definitely harder. You hit a shot, and it doesn't go as planned, and you're always second guessing yourself, you could have hit somewhere else. I could have hit driver or I could have hit 5 iron. We're playing 5 irons to go -- even with almost no wind, we're playing 5 irons to go 250, 260 yards. Downwind, close to 300. It carries 205, 210 downwind, and it just doesn't stop.

Q. How about an 8 iron?
JORDAN SPIETH: Well, I don't hit them off the tee, so it's hard to tell. And on the green, it just --

Q. You hit very short, right (inaudible)?
JORDAN SPIETH: I don't think I landed many shots short of the green today. That's certainly not the plan because it's harder off the green than it is on the green.

Q. Are you not using green reader much here? Is that something intentional?
JORDAN SPIETH: Am I not or am?

Q. It didn't look like you were looking at the green very much.
JORDAN SPIETH: I used it almost every hole, yeah. Because it's so flat and they're so boring, the greens. No, I mean, for lack of a better term, this course is the first two shots, you know. And a lot of par 4 play. But the greens are so boring, and there's so little to them and so big, that sometimes you're kind of missing where these double breakers are. And they're sneaking pins on the locations where there is a little bit to it.

So I used it just about every -- actually, I think I did on every hole, yeah. And I do. I think it will be -- I don't think we're allowed to use them starting next year, is that right? Which I think will be much better for me. I think that's a skill that I have in green reading that's advantageous versus the field, and so it will be nice. But when it's there, certain putts, I certainly was using it and listening to it.

Q. So you don't want to use it now because you feel like it's a disadvantage?
JORDAN SPIETH: I still feel like I can get a better read off of mine and the book. I want to use it to get the best read I can. The PGA TOUR does the same thing. They stick pins on flats or where the green goes the other way on some holes to make it really tricky to see, and I feel like I can see that really well. So when you're not -- when it's not available, I think that's an advantage to me.

Q. Do you know how to use a protractor?
JORDAN SPIETH: No. I used to, but I haven't used one in a while.

Q. Are guys addicted to those books?
JORDAN SPIETH: I'm not sure. I see guys using them quite a bit. You have to, obviously, you have to have stepped it exactly where they say they stepped it, and you have to put it in the book exactly where they say to put it in the book. So it can hurt you as well certain places, especially out here with how big the greens are. Was it seven paces, or was it 7 1/2? Honestly, where they put the pins, that could be the difference of it tilting this way or this way, four feet.

I use it mainly as a kind of -- if I have like a 15, 20-footer, what's it show here? Does it show real flat? Flat break, or does it show that it's more significant somewhere else around it?

Q. Jordan, a lot of good scoring today in terms of your own defence of the Claret Jug. Do you feel it's a recoverable situation after your opening round?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. I think I'm certainly in a recoverable situation. I mean, I imagine this is as easy as the course could play. So I don't see the winning score being any better than it was in 2007 with tomorrow's forecasted tough conditions and Sunday's forecasted heavy winds. I think wherever it is Saturday night, it comes back on Sunday too.

So it's not a bad place to be. You know, a solid round tomorrow to stay in the top 25, top 20 will be kind of the goal tomorrow to feel like I can do something on the weekend.

Q. Do you think 5 could win it?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, for sure. 5-over could win it (laughter). 15-under could win it.

Q. Talk about tough decisions, what about 7 out of the bunker? It turned out well, but was that a risk?
JORDAN SPIETH: You know, when I saw it, I thought it was playing fine. When I got in the bunker, I thought, man, this is a lot harder than I thought. But it was a 9 iron on a clean lie. I just had to make good contact. So if I make good contact, it was an enough to clear the lip. Therefore, I said, I don't have to do anything extra. So I'm trusting myself to put a good swing on it essentially.

I asked Michael, I wish I could see that in slow-mo, how much I carried the lip by. He said I had a good six inches, but that's his word from where he was, so I'll trust him.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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