MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2021

Jordan Spieth

Quick Quotes

Q. Assess the day.

JORDAN SPIETH: I just needed a really good start to have a chance today. I just didn't have a great start. Then it was just kind of the story of the week. I hit some good putts, burned a lot of lips, certainly struck the ball well enough to win the golf tournament, and they just didn't go in. Certainly had them go in here plenty of times.

I'm tired. I felt some mental fatigue for sure and made a couple bonehead mistakes over the weekend, just from, I think, maybe the long stretch. But all in all, certainly another good finish here.

Q. Jordan, if you could look big picture just over the last two or three months from where your game has progressed, what are your take-aways of where you are right now?

JORDAN SPIETH: I wish that I had the control of my swing that I hope is coming or I think is coming soon because it would have made things a little easier this week, and I did strike the ball really well. I hit a lot of fairways. I put myself in position to hit a lot of greens, and distance control is a strength of mine with iron play, and I did a good job of that.

So all in all, I've made a lot of good progress, but I feel like that road ahead is still significant for me. So I've got at least a couple weeks off right now where I'll rest for a while and then regroup and see if I can get -- off weeks are where you can make maybe 5 percent differences. Tournament to tournament, it's hard to go more than a couple percent and trust what you're doing.

I'll have a good stretch coming up here in May and June, and I'm excited for what's to come.

Q. Is there a way to put any sort of number on how much improvement you need? You're talking percentages week to week. Is there a way to quantify where you need to go?

JORDAN SPIETH: I'm not sure exactly. Structurally, it's still not matching up where I want it to, and I feel like I'm doing a significant movement to try and get there. I still have a little bit of the old tendencies, but I get it in a better striking position, with the wrists in a better place, the club face and the shaft plane in a much better place, which is why I'm able to come out and contend.

Yeah, it's still a ways to -- it's still a little ways to go. One of these days, it could just -- like before, I've been saying it's not necessarily one day going to click, but it's getting to where it could just kind of start to click and really feel that momentum, and that will get me want to go go out and nail it inasmuch as possible.

So I'm hoping as the next kind of two to eight weeks go by, I can continue to move that forward.

Q. Is there work to be done with the flatstick as well, or just one of those weeks?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, there is. My stroke, I struggled a little bit with it. I've been trying to do some patterns with it that feel like more than just a little draw or a little cut path. I've had to mess with shaft angle and stuff just on bad tendencies I got into. So that's continued work as well. But I made a lot of really good putts late today, other than 18, and I thought that that was a good confidence boost off of, obviously, last week making a lot on Sunday as well.

So as much as those first eight holes, I just couldn't get it to go in, and yesterday the last ten holes, I dropped the putts I wanted to make.

Q. Did you recognize Mikey on 1st tee this morning?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I was surprised he shaved. He says he feels a lot younger when he shaves.

Q. Jordan, what are your thoughts on the way Hideki was able to keep it going?

JORDAN SPIETH: I saw he bogeyed on the 1st. I think the birdie on the 2nd probably settled him in. At this point, it looks pretty dicey coming down the stretch here. No? What happened?

Q. Schauffele put it in the water on 16.

JORDAN SPIETH: Did Hideki make his par putt?

Q. No, he bogeyed. Zalatoris is finished at 9.

JORDAN SPIETH: And Hideki's at 11?

Q. Yeah, 11.

JORDAN SPIETH: Gotcha. He's got a lot of pressure on himself today. I remember the feeling on a four-shot lead, and he's got Japan on his back and maybe Asia on his back. I can't imagine kind of how that was trying to sleep on that, even with somebody who's had so much success.

I think the way he's been able to withstand it, if he's able to finish this one off, I think it's really good for the game of golf globally. He's a great young player who inevitably was going to win major championships, in my opinion. I know it's his first win in quite a while, so I can also relate to that. I can only imagine, if he closes this out, how that's going to feel.

Q. Is there a shot you'd want back on the front nine?

JORDAN SPIETH: On the front nine?

Q. Yeah, is there a shot today that you'd want back?

JORDAN SPIETH: I don't know about a shot. I mean, I played shots the way I actually wanted to. I just -- 6, I got gusted when we weren't feeling any wind. 1, I got a flier. So like random stuff. Honestly, probably my third on No. 8 would be the only one I can think of.

Q. When you think of Will finishing in the top five in his first Masters. What goes through your mind, and growing up with him, did he remind you a lot of yourself?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think it's awesome. Shoot, he's going to finish -- did he just make that on 18, by the way, for par?

Q. Yeah.

JORDAN SPIETH: That makes me feel a little better about missing mine. I played a lot of golf with him over the last say year, year and a half. There was a long stretch in there when I didn't play with him for a long time when he was in school and just out.

Having seen him progress and his confidence level just continue to progress over the last year and a half, I'm not surprised. It is very difficult this weekend to come out in the position he was in in the final group on Saturday and to -- it's just a different feeling. Then in this wind, to control his high ball flight and to make putts on these greens when you don't see other greens like this, especially in windy conditions, I thought it's extremely impressive.

It's awesome. It's going to move him, obviously, significantly up on that Ryder Cup points list on a Ryder Cup year, second in a major is a huge move. But not surprised to be honest.

Does he remind me of myself? I mean, we have similarities and differences. We train together. We use the same trainer, and then we've practiced and played a lot over the last year. So, again, this is not a surprise. I got asked about him back in Napa Valley, and it's just coming full scale now.

Will, great playing, dude.

Q. You played a lot of golf with Hideki over the last few years. It seems like you guys got paired together a lot. Do you have a favorite Hideki story?

JORDAN SPIETH: Actually, I don't think I've been paired with Hideki in over three years.

Q. That's what I meant.

JORDAN SPIETH: I haven't been paired with Hideki in a long time. I get Dustin a lot. I get a few guys a lot. I've played with Hideki a dozen times in the eight years we've been on TOUR together. So I don't have any great stories other than, when he's on, it's an absolute stripe show.