TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 3, 2021

Jordan Spieth

East Lake Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Comments on your round?

JORDAN SPIETH: Played really well. I thought I shot, I thought I turned a 5-under round into 1 yesterday and I thought I turned a 6 into 3 today, which is a really good sign. I've learned to really be excited about that because they normally, I normally get the most out of my rounds, and when I'm playing really well and just not quite scoring, typically the scoring follows.

So I feel really good. I actually feel like I'm still in this golf tournament, maybe seven back with two rounds to go, but the way that I'm playing, the way I feel over the ball and the way I'm driving the ball, I feel if my putter gets hot, then can I make that up.

Q. Weird week with the staggered scores. Do you feel like you're in a position where you have a chance to do some big damage?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I got done with the round and I'm like, man, 3-under, it's a good score out here. It's a tough golf course. But there's going to be other guys that shoot 2-under and played average. I could have shot played average, shot 2-under and I didn't really gain that much. But if you can shoot 5, shoot 6, you make up a lot of ground out here and I feel like one of those is in the bag. I'm just trying to get a little bit better each day. Today was a little bit better than yesterday.

Q. In terms of the Ryder Cup, do you feel like you have clarity on where you stand based on your communication with Captain Stricker?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I've, me and Justin have been joking with Strick for quite a while now about sending him our best ball scores when one of us plays really well and the other doesn't. And I feel like Justin might withdraw from the team if he doesn't pick me, so I feel pretty good about it.

But, I mean, you don't ever want to rely on a pick, but when we have talked, I think he's got, it's going to be tough. There's a number of guys for a number of spots. Obviously Harris has played really well too in that 10 spot. I think I'm in the 9. But then you got a lot, you got some options to close out the team, I think, and which is good. Competition is good and what a difficult top-6 to make. You almost had to win a major or a PLAYERS in the last year and a half in order to be in that, and so pick or not, I hope I'm there.

Q. Speaking of the 6 auto-qualifiers, do you think that's enough? There's obviously some value of having a captain with more say. But would you like to see it go back to more like it was?

JORDAN SPIETH: I don't really see a situation where there's a 7 or 8 guy that didn't earn their way to be on that team. But at the same time what's the difference if they're going to be picked every time anyways. It's not like there's an asterisk every Ryder Cup you play in if you were a pick or not.

So I think it makes it for potentially even better competition ahead of time, trying to work your way into the top-6, but I don't see a scenario war 7 or 8 guy, if healthy, are not picked. So I think it's an effective 8 and 4 pick kind of thing or even some years it will be 10 and 2 or something like that.

So I think better less with more potential for picks, but we'll see. Between a lot of stuff the guys are trying to do to change our success at the Ryder Cup, I think it just comes down to we got to play better. So guys have been playing really well. We're coming in with form on the U.S. side and it should be a blast. It would be nice to be able to play in front of fans on home soil.

Q. When are you guys due?

JORDAN SPIETH: November 21st.

Q. And how excited are you to become a dad?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, very, yeah. It's old news for me but, yeah, eventually Annie was going to show around and people were going to know. But we weren't like hiding or anything like that, it was just more private life. But, yeah, very excited. She feels great, that's the number one priority and everything's going smoothly.