AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 13, 2021

Jordan Spieth

Pebble Beach Golf Links

Quick Quotes

Q. (No Microphone.)

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I went from like two back to two in the lead within a 30 minute time period. That was certainly a change. It just shows you how quickly things can change around this golf course, especially when the wind blows. So, yeah, obviously you would want to be in the position that I'm in. I'm also kind of kicking myself because I feel like I could have been three or four shots lower. Maybe tomorrow a little different game plan. But overall you want to be leading after 54, because you can control your own destiny the next day. So just trying to progress each day.

Q. How much more fun is this with two back-to-back 54-hole leads and what it's been like?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it feels good. I like the anxiousness and the nerves that come with this. I mean that's why I love the game. In golf the ball's in your hands so you get to win or lose it and you get to be the one that has the last shot. Like I said, I control my own destiny tomorrow, but on a golf course like this where the front nine gets down wind and you get a lot of birdie holes, you expect someone to go 4-, 5-, 6-under on the front nine. So especially with how receptive the greens were after Thursday night's rain. So just try and go out, set a goal for the day tomorrow, try and set, whatever that number's going to be, we'll talk about it tonight, look at the conditions, find a realistic but a solid goal that we think we want to stick to and that will get the job done.

Q. The second hole out of the week was that just a perfect shot where you knew it would be as good as it looked?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, in the air I said, I think under my breath I said, Oh, be good. I just knew it couldn't be long, I knew it couldn't be short and it was hooking to eight feet right of the hole on a green that already goes that way. So as it was barely rolling everyone's hands started to go up so I just thought it was going to be really, really close, given how slow it was rolling and it was clearly on the right line by the crowd's, the few, the volunteers' reaction behind. When it dropped that's obviously a huge bonus.

So it's very unusual to hole shots out, I think Michael told me after number 10 on Thursday he said, You haven't holed any shots out in a while, I thought you were due this week. And then sure enough we got a couple of them.

So I would love to have another if it's still in there, but it was definitely a bonus.

Q. Next week or last week rather you mentioned desert, no wind, throwing them up in the air. Tomorrow's going to be windy. How different of a test will tomorrow be versus last week?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I really struggled with some of these shots on the back nine, taking spin off and trying to take extra club. Shots that I just haven't really had to hit in a while and shots that require a different set of timing versus a driving range feel.

So I'll learn from kind of the shots I had to hit today that I didn't need as much the first two days -- needed them a bit yesterday -- and really, there's a couple mistakes I made, under clubbing, spinning stuff off greens, and just taking more and chipping them and just trusting that, that a club that would be 30 yards over the green last week is actually next to the hole here. It's just, it's two totally different scenarios and I made some mistakes today that I'll look to tomorrow to amend.

Q. You described the shot on 16. Can you kind of convey the emotion, the exhilaration when you see it go in?

JORDAN SPIETH: It's weird because it's so different from when there's crowds. Like even less emotion than say a 30-footer last week even though there was less of a crowd than we normally have, it's just different. It's cool, it's obviously cool, but it's so quiet after it that I go, Daniel's over there and he's like, Great shot. And then you're just like, Yeah, I mean, you don't really mean it, but thanks, man, you know. That's what I said to him. He's like, No, man, it was a great shot.

I just, I mean -- it's just kind of a weird situation that instead of you and your caddie and the crowd it's kind of you're just with your playing partners and you just kind of, they say, Nice shot, man, and you just go get it out of the hole.

Q. You're obviously zeroed in and trying to put up a good score and win the tournament. But do you sense at all how others view you as such an entertaining watch? I mean because you were struggling and you could see you were fighting yourself and then you make this crazy pitch shot?

JORDAN SPIETH: I told Michael walking up, after I holed it to the green I said, Man, for whatever reasons it's never fricking easy, it's always -- and I look to make it as boring as possible, that's the goal. When you're coming out of a slump and you're trying to get things going and trying to trust things under pressure that you haven't felt in a while, it's very unlikely for it to be boring. So I don't expect a whole lot different tomorrow, I expect to have to grind it out and hopefully I just want a chance when I get on the 18th green.

Q. You mentioned the interaction with Daniel. You guys are obviously good friends, you were chatting a lot today, you have some history obviously the bunker shot and then what's it like to go against someone like that in this setting and what will tomorrow be like?

JORDAN SPIETH: It's cool, we're the same age and we have known each other and been playing against each other since we were 15. And there's a dozen of us in the same class out here on the PGA TOUR. So any chance to line up across from it -- even Patrick Cantlay's a year older but we have been playing against each other Sundays we were 15.

So it's really cool when you kind of know somebody and you know what they have gone through to get out here and how hard they have worked and the success they have had and you just kind of have that respect for the work ethic that it takes and the talent and skill level that it takes with your peers to be able to be on a Sunday, a dream-come-true scenario to have a chance to win a PGA TOUR event.

So when he made the putt on the last hole I think that secured him in the last group, I'm not positive. It's fun, I want to play with him again and battle it out and we had a good time today out there.

Q. One thing that you learned from last week that you can maybe take to tomorrow?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think a little bit -- and today I learned a lot from too -- just how much of a roller coaster things can be. And this was something that I needed to learn to win. At the end of 2014 I went through this where you just have to look at each round as almost a marathon, these final rounds when you're in contention.

Sometimes those first couple rounds you get in a nice groove pretty easily and you're just trying to shoot up the board, but you need to set a goal in the final round understanding that Daniel could go 5-under on the first six holes out here and you can't let that faze you because things can change so quickly especially on a golf course like this and the conditions that we have.

So I think it's just kind of being massively patient. I just wasn't patient enough last week, tried to force a little bit early and ended up not taking advantage of some easy holes that towards the end would have been really nice to have those couple shots.

So, yeah, I think quite a bit that I can take off of last week, but also from today and how quickly things change.