AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 14, 2021

Jordan Spieth

Pebble Beach Golf Links

Quick Quotes

Q. (No Microphone.)

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I got off to the exact kind of start I wanted to as far as where I was on the green on 1 and 2 and I hit two just great putts that could very easily have dropped and didn't. Just kind of -- then I hit a decent drive on 3, kind of hit it in the corner of the bunker and shot up into where I didn't have much of a stance, and I just, it was, I got some really good breaks the first few days and it just felt like it kind of started to even out over the first five holes for me. It was tough from there. Once you knew you had lost the lead, then you're playing a different game out here.

Yeah, just, really it was just a really poor first six holes. And out here, that's where you can score. I talked yesterday about getting off to a good start, and standing on 7 tee it was nice to birdie that hole, but all in all, I really knew that I needed to have a couple birdies to withstand anything that could come on the back nine. I needed to be a couple under through 6 and I was 1-over and really that was the difference.

Q. How would you look at these last two weeks? It's been so long since you've been in this position twice in a row and obviously didn't finish the way you wanted. But in terms of propelling you forward, how do you look at these last two weeks?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, if I look back at Friday night of San Diego and you tell me I was going to share the 54 and have the 54-hole lead two weeks in a row and really just fight, finish strong to both weeks, I would have said you're crazy, to be honest. I was not in a great head space following that missed cut there and just did some really phenomenal work from Sunday through Wednesday of last week that was probably the best period of a few days of work that I've put in in a long time. It just got me believing in what I was doing and progressing forward. That's really what I continue to say is just progressing forward and if I put myself in the position of leading after 54 holes enough times, especially with how I know I'm going to fight even if it's not going my way, I'll end up on top one of these days.

Q. We asked Daniel a lot of Jordan Spieth questions yesterday. What about him, you made a point of pausing to stop and congratulate him, you know him very well, what about him and his game has allowed him to win like he did?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it's been really -- he's worked with Cameron now for the last couple years and it's been really cool to kind of root for him on the side. He's somebody who I see in town a lot and we grew up, we have been playing each other since we were 14, 15 years old. What a round today, what a finish. I mean, for him to go off with yesterday, that ball kind of kicked out of bounds, to making a 7 to making a 3 to win the golf tournament today. That's what I told him. I said that's incredible. I mean, no one really knows how hard that is to stand on that tee and make a 3 after you've hit it out of bounds the day before and you're tied for the lead. That's, it was awesome. It was, now that, it stung. I kind of wish, at the time I wish that he had made par so I had a chance, but looking back, to get over those kind of demons on 18 and slide one off the water as I'm sure he did and make a 3, it's really impressive stuff.

Q. You hit a great drive on 10. Made that birdie and got to within one. Going into 13 you weren't able to drive it and give yourself a chance there. Was that a technical issue or just a matter of trust?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it's still the, it's working out of the same stuff that I'm trying to work out of. Just because I'm leading the golf tournament doesn't mean that all things are great. I didn't feel as good over the ball today as I did in the back nine yesterday, to be honest. And that's going to happen. I just didn't quite have a great groove early in the round to where I could trust some of the shots that I wanted to hit, like a draw into 5. I just didn't have quite have the level of trust I wanted knowing that I wasn't positioning the club the right way, so I overcooked it and I made bogey, or 6 where I just don't hit it left when I'm trying to hit it left. It's stuff that, I mean, I'm legitimately going around with maybe my B game and I know that stepping on the first tee. And being in the lead by two, that's, it can be, you can look at it both ways. It's pretty awesome that I feel that I'm still significantly far off of where I want to be and am able to be leading the tournament through 54. But at the same time, it's very difficult to go out knowing that you don't have your best stuff and to go out there with my own expectation that I'm going to win today. So that's kind of the battle going into the day and I just hope that I continue to progress like this to where I can stand on that first tee as confident as I historically have been and where everything's at to where I can go out and play boring golf and just hit a bunch of greens and make it a really easy 18 holes to win a golf tournament.

Q. Right now is the battle more mental or physical?

JORDAN SPIETH: No, it's not mental. I'm as confident as I've been in a long time. Not only the current outlook but also looking forward. So it's still mechanics. It's still dragging on. It's still going too long and therefore getting late into the ball and I made some really, really good swings this week under pressure and I made some not so good swings under pressure and there were more good ones than there were last week. So as I go into next week at arguably my favorite golf course in the world, at Riviera, I look to have more swings that I know are getting into position, hitting the spots I know that I can kind of turn and burn from than I had this week.