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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 15, 2019

Jordan Spieth

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

JORDAN SPIETH: I putted extremely well, proud of the fight today. Putting's back. It's very close to being top of the world again. So I know exactly how to get there, which is good news. And then as far as the full swing goes, it's just going to require more repetitions. It was really good on the range, didn't really miss a shot, but the same mistakes I was making earlier in the year, I was making on the golf course and I probably had one out of every two shots was good with the long clubs. So unfortunately you get out here and you need nine out of 10 to be good, you can't be having -- I made 11 or 12 birdies this week and missed the cut after two rounds. That, I owe that almost all to tee to green, ball striking. But it's a visual thing, it's just a matter of how I'm looking at the club. The face looks closed to me and I'm just trying to get to where I'm able to set up clean and then I'll be able to hit more consistent shots.

Q. Was it a gap wedge on 4?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it was a gap wedge on 4. I thought it was into the wind and it was supposed to be and so I thought it was maybe not enough club, so I stepped on it a little bit and it got in the air and we caught a little down off the right gust and it just went forever.

Q. I was wondering if you were admonishing yourself for being too aggressive.
JORDAN SPIETH: When I struck it I thought it was landing about 10 feet right of the hole with left spin and all of a sudden I mean the ball just never stopped moving in the air and then I was shocked to see it fly so far. I can't hit it that far without wind and it's supposed to be straight into. So, but around here if you don't have -- I had plenty of room right and I didn't have to be as aggressive and it wasn't like I was trying to get it close to the hole, it's just my timing and tempo isn't quite there and so one shot may hang too far right, one might be too far left. And I did a pretty good job for how I felt over the ball today, I mean seven birdies around this place is good no matter what the conditions are. So, yeah, I mean the par-5s killed me, I played them even par for the two days and the field average is going to be probably a birdie every other hole for the guys that are contending.

Q. Did the drive just drift on you on 5?
JORDAN SPIETH: I don't know it was just a really, it just got really stuck I was playing fade and didn't want to -- I've been toeing a lot and didn't want to toe it over to the left so I just got way out in front of it and just hit like a power slice.

Q. Do you embrace the challenge of trying to figure out the pieces and put them back together again?
JORDAN SPIETH: Normally, yes, but I'm getting tired of it now, yeah. But for the most part most of the questions going into last year and even the beginning of this year were around putting. And I was, I've been very patient with the way I've wanted to work on it and I knew that at some point soon it was going to start to come around and I've had some really solid rounds -- I don't know if I missed a putt under 10 feet in two days and on that golf course historically driving and putting are what hurts me on these kind of zeroed out slopes that a lot of the pins are on. And I putted extremely well. I don't know, I've probably, I probably was I probably gained a few strokes for the two days on the field and typically when I do that I'm up near the top of the leaderboard, so I was more worried about the putting than I am about the long game.

Q. Are you surprised at any point this year in the score you shot?
JORDAN SPIETH: I've been surprised at the eight, nine shot differences between two days that are 9-under, 10-under, 4-under, it's just the bogeys or over par holes are -- I know why I'm doing them, but it's surprising to me at how many mistakes I'm making during the rounds.

Q. Are you more worried if you were making fewer mistakes and fewer birdies?
JORDAN SPIETH: I was there too. I like it this way better because I'll be able to -- it's just consistency in the long game from each round. I mean yesterday being a 1-under round instead of 4-over and then today being a really special one. If I give myself more chances I was rolling them in from everywhere.

Q. (No Microphone.)
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, there I really like the look of it off the tees. I tend to drive the ball better there than I do other places, it makes you hit certain shots, really work it, the fairways work the ball both directions and even moving a lot at some points in time. And so, I mean, sure, I would like to be contending every single week, but as we go into the first major which is obviously where I want to be, I'm very, very happy with where the short game's been and just fine tuning the long game is just repetitions and I should be able to do enough over the next week to be ready for Austin let alone Augusta.

Q. (No Microphone.)
JORDAN SPIETH: I'd have one hell of a celebration. No.

Q. (No Microphone.)
JORDAN SPIETH: Well, sure, I mean but in any career you're going to have ups and downs and it may last -- I've had them last two weeks, I've also had it to where the time around when I was missing Q-School I had a year or two where I couldn't get the ball in the hole from outside of three feet and I turned that in, in a couple years, to making everything. So it's just, it's how it works, it's just a matter of when it's, when you get off, learning from it, finding out why, so that you don't get as off next time in those situations and then when it's going good, what did you do to get there and so it's fine, I'm, everything's okay, I mean this place, if I were -- when I played well in 2014 I didn't make a bogey for the first three days, so I actually played, I made more birdies than I did back then, but this week I just, I just hit had a two-way miss with the driver and you can't play TPC Sawgrass with a two-way miss with the driver.

Q. When you're like this, when you're searching for answers, what kind of effect does that have on your relationship with your team, Cameron, Michael? Is it, do you tend to look inward or are you kind of lashing out? Like how do you handle that?
JORDAN SPIETH: I'm mostly all inward, mostly all inward. The toughest part is if everything looks good, to me it doesn't feel good, and that's kind of where we have been. On the driving range everything is top notch and it's like what tendency am I running into on the golf course that if I had kind of a trigger to not do that I would strike it just like the driving range. And it's just trying to find that last piece and just, it's very close, like if I, I told Michael walking off 5 today I said, man, if I can just see that golf swing and typically I know exactly where everything is in my swing, but that's just where I've been, I don't know if I took it back correctly, I don't know if it's a transition, and so I think a lot of kind of playing lessons over the next week, get out on the golf course with Cameron and we'll be able to kind of figure that out and have that. For me it's all about where's that, where's the pressure through the back swing to have the right tempo to where I get kind of a pause or a stuck feel at the top, that allows me to just go down and hit my ball flight from there. And that's been a work in -- since really THE PLAYERS last year is where I got off with that with the full swing and so it's, from Sony until now I've made tremendous progress and so I see in the next few weeks even quicker progress. Whether it comes with results, I mean, we're going to Match Play, I could shoots a 21-under the first two days and not play on Saturday. So I'm just looking for progress leading into Augusta and then do what we do there. It's more like I did what I was working on for a number of years so well that I overdid it. I just haven't figured out a way to get back out of it, if that makes sense. I actually just got too flexible, to mobile, too around me and I just got more stuck and so I'm just trying to almost tighten things up a little bit.

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