THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

June 4, 2021

Jordan Spieth

Muirfield Village

Quick Quotes

Q. (No microphone.)

JORDAN SPIETH: Morning. I needed something to stop the bleeding this morning. So it was nice and just got off to a better start. Just hit the first couple fairways, which is really nice and then that was really it. I mean, there wasn't a whole lot of difference, I just drove the ball a little better in the second round. And you just can't play out of the rough out here, it's that simple. And I've shot some 7-under round out here and I've shot some over 80 out here and the difference is playing out of the fairway.

Q. How would you characterize the rough?

JORDAN SPIETH: Which one?

Q. Any of it.

JORDAN SPIETH: The round or...

Q. The rough.

JORDAN SPIETH: The rough. I'm sorry, I thought you said the round. It's up there. I had a couple lies -- I was telling Michael, I don't know if I've had a lie 10 yards off the fairway like this in, that I can remember, kind of situation. I mean, on a -- I think he's done a really good job on the spaces where it's a harder hole, longer hole, it's potentially you can advance it close to the green. And then if you miss it in the wrong places on the easier holes, you're in some trouble.

So I think they have done a really good job in the management of it, it's just, it's significant rough.

Q. You had 35 minutes between rounds?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah.

Q. What did you do?

JORDAN SPIETH: I went and ate and then I went to the range and hit like maybe 15 balls, tried to essentially quickly kind of memorize what I kind of did on 18 there to finish the first round. And then try and -- I mean, I know what I need to do. I got off last weekend and it's just a hard, quick fix. So I kind of took a step backwards and I'm trying to kind of re-advance forwards and it's tough around this place. So the weekend, it's nice to be able to have two more competitive rounds to try and do what I did this afternoon and then a week off will be necessary to try and regroup and get things back on track.

Q. How many times did you hear "Brooksy" out there?

JORDAN SPIETH: A lot. Yeah, quite a bit.

Q. Did it get to annoying you at the time?

JORDAN SPIETH: No, I mean, I hear a lot of stuff. I've had people tell me I suck to my face for a long time, so I don't -- you know, I mean, nothing, you just kind of zone everything out. But you certainly, I mean, any bad hole, someone was yelling it and then any good hole people were yelling, "Go Bryson" almost louder. It was like a pseudo rivalry and he's not even here.

Q. Do you think for him it was any worse than any other kind of stuff that you guys deal with or do you think it went a little farther?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think it just all -- I don't really -- he mentioned it to me at one point and I said, All anyone wants is a reaction and you give it to them, then you're going to, it's going to get worse.

So it didn't seem to bother him. I feel like -- no, I feel like, as far as parings go, I would say if you're paired with Patrick you hear some of the worst stuff -- Reed, not Cantlay -- from the crowd. And, but, I mean, that whole thing was interesting last week, for sure.

Q. Is there a name someone could call you that would annoy you?

JORDAN SPIETH: I don't know. I mean, I get "Justin" a lot because people get us two kind of confused a little bit. No, I wouldn't -- at this point I would just, I would say my armor's a little thicker than it used to be, so I feel like I could probably just laugh something off.

Q. You had a lot of people pulling for you, too?

JORDAN SPIETH: Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, there's outliers that you're talking about. You know, and, honestly, a lot of them probably it's in good fun and it's in some way helping both of them. And I think there's a ton of respect between the two of them and, but, yeah, we had massive support. People trekked 33 holes with our group today. That's pretty awesome, considering the conditions of the golf course and how tough a walk it is. I mean, I know how I feel. Walking through the rough the whole day is pretty tough, I'm going to have to ask Annie kind of how her legs are.

Q. The fact you only had 15 minutes between rounds actually maybe helpful that you were able to take that idea, that thought that you had on 18?

JORDAN SPIETH: I kind of -- I mean I would have rather had about six days in between rounds to like feel like I got to where I wanted it. But, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think just, I kind of got a little sorry for myself out there, like almost rookieish for part of that back nine when I was on bogey runs and just doing dumb stuff and just tired stuff. And then I think, just on 18, just, I kind of got over that shot and said, I'm going to take this right at the hole and we're going to try and make a birdie to at least feel like the cut line's possible and go from there. And so I think just at some point there I just regrouped and it was a, it was big just to have that putt go in the middle. Just kind of hit a fairway, a green and a putt the way you're supposed to play a hole and then try and do that as many times in this round. I mean, when you do it like that, you're like, I mean, why did I make it so challenging? I had four, five different punch outs where I had to get up-and-down with a wedge, try to get up-and-down with a wedge for par. So you don't even like play the holes and it's just so frustrating when you get a little bit off out here. So luckily two more rounds to try and shoot 5-under each round I guess would be a good goal.