AT&T BYRON NELSON

May 14, 2022

Jordan Spieth

TPC Craig Ranch

Quick Quotes

Q. Looked like you built some nice momentum in the middle of the round to get yourself to 20-under par with all those birdies.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, first four holes, if you can, you try and play them 1-under. But then you really get some good chances, they moved tee boxes up on 6 and 14, the two shorter par-4s so you certainly want to just kind of leave it in the right spots there.

And I ended up having I think four eagle putts and a couple kind of eagle chips today, so it was nice to capitalize on all six of those holes and then play the rest of the golf course a couple under.

Q. How satisfied are you to be in contention at this event that means so much to you as we honor Lord Byron?

JORDAN SPIETH: I want to say the first time my dad ever brought me out here I must have been five or six years old and I just remember trying to get an autograph from the pros. I remember Davis Love being so nice to me early on and it was, I mean from then on that kind of solidified my dream to be a professional golfer.

So having a chance to win this event, this will be kind of the best chance I've maybe ever had going into Sunday. So it's really exciting, a lot of friends and family out, done a good job not putting too much pressure on myself, I just wanted to get into contention and obviously see what needs to be sharpened for next week. But there's no better prep for a major than winning the week before, I think, so go out there tomorrow and try and do what I did the last couple days.

Q. You said yesterday you were surprised at what you called the not-so-difficult setup this week. How would you describe the conditions out there today?

JORDAN SPIETH: I was shocked that they just said, You know what, we're just going to lean into these low scores and see who can kind of shoot the lowest. And it's exciting for the fans. For us you would like to see the course show a little bit of teeth.

But that ninth tee box is back further today which makes it a lot harder hole and then they moved a couple of the shorter par-4s up to make it pretty exciting. So you still had to hit shots where you're looking on those holes, because they were tougher pins, but overall I think tomorrow will probably be set up the most difficult. I haven't really looked at the wind and normally the wind's what matters here in Texas.

Q. Looking ahead to tomorrow, what do you expect you'll need to do to give yourself a chance?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think today the goal was to try and get like three a side or if I could get six by 18, just because of the way it was set up. I think tomorrow might taper that a little just depending on where they stick pins and what the conditions are looking like. But you can't take your foot off the gas out here or you get lapped. So it's just going to be figure out what the leaders are doing, hopefully I can be in that group, and then from there you kind of control your own destiny if you can get on top of the leaderboard with nine to go.

Q. Obviously you won your last start, you're a stroke back going into Sunday here, and the PGA is on deck. How would you sum up this stretch that you have right now?

JORDAN SPIETH: A lot of hard work. I guess, stepping back, I'm just really pleased, I've been very patient this year, I felt like my game's been in a better place than last year and I didn't really have anything to show for it other than a second at Pebble. And then finally got kind of some really good breaks there that may have made up for some lipouts and such this year, figure of speech, there at Hilton Head. So I feel some momentum for sure, but I do feel like I still got some parts of my game that actually need to sharpen a little bit.