PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 18, 2022

Jordan Spieth

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

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JULIUS MASON: Jordan Spieth is joining us at the 104th PGA Championship.

You came in earlier this year to play Southern Hills, but being from northern Texas, have you had a chance to come in and see maybe more of Southern Hills that maybe some other contestants have not.

JORDAN SPIETH: I played the U.S. Amateur here in 2009. I had just turned 16, so I don't remember much about it, and the course has changed since then. I was in a playoff, so actually most of the holes I remember were the playoff holes, which were 13 through 17. 17 for four, I think I got knocked out. I was the last one to get eliminated in that playoff to not make match play.

And then I came up with Justin last Monday, so that was really the first scouting report of it. But it was nice, I didn't feel like I had to play any holes on Monday, and then I could just do nine yesterday and nine today.

Last week was, in a good way, very taxing. It was really hot, really slow rounds. Played threesomes on the weekend. Then obviously contending takes a lot out of you. It was really more rest and recovery coming in, and it was nice to have come up early and learned the golf course.

It's hard to make a trip to Boston for a day and back, but from Dallas to come up here, it's pretty easy.

Q. You just mentioned contending takes a lot out of you, but looking at the last few years, when you're playing well heading into a major, it tends to translate for you. Can you walk me through how you feel coming to a major on the heels of some good play?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I don't think that's out of the ordinary for anybody. If you feel like you're in good form, you're just more confident in your game and such.

Last week, that was the goal. I had a three-week break after Hilton Head. I've been feeling like my game had been in really good shape this year but hadn't really got a ton of results out of it.

Only one week, really, at Pebble Beach where I had a chance to win, and it was a little bit frustrating because I felt like I was doing everything right and just couldn't quite score the way I wanted to.

After three weeks off, it was kind of a balance of hit the reset button, but also -- get rest, but then also kind of try and get right back to where we left off. And it was really nice to start off that way last week. Hometown crowd, it's always a fun and really big event for me.

Like I mentioned, it does feel good coming into here, but there were some parts of the game that I learned from last week that needed a little bit more sharpening than what I had worked on, and that's what I'm trying to do over these few days before tomorrow morning.

Q. What's your Mavericks prediction for this next series?

JORDAN SPIETH: I'm really excited they're playing Golden State because if I don't watch the Mavs, I'm watching Golden State Steph Curry fan. I don't see how you cannot be a Steph Curry fan. So it's going to be a cool matchup. I may not even start watching it tonight because it's hard for me to watch it and not watch the whole thing. I get too invested in it.

It's a little frustrating that it's the West Coast games before an early-morning tee time for tomorrow, but yeah, if we can steal one in Golden State, I think we've got a chance.

Q. We've kind of heard different guys talk about their philosophy on when they miss a green here, it's a little bit unusual with Bermuda and the tight -- what kind of shots will you be using around the green? How do you deal with the grass here?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think I'm fortunate in that I grew up on this really grainy Bermuda and grainy Bermuda run-offs where I grew up playing. The interesting thing out here is a lot of times on grainy Bermuda, a lot of times, you're hitting onto Bermuda greens, and so you can actually drive it into the grain onto the greens and not have to bank shots up.

Bank shots are really hard on this Bermudagrass because it can just snag it so quickly, and it's hard to committing to hitting it so firmly into the hills. But I think you might have to do that quite a bit this week. So that's a shot I've been working on. They mow it downgrain through the green. So if you stay short of pin-high, you actually are hitting off of a downgrain lie, and that changes things dramatically.

So I think keeping it short of the hole is important for if you are missing greens. Sometimes that's going to, you know, you're not going to be able to necessarily totally control that, and if you get kind of into the grain out here, you're normally hitting downslope, as well, and that's where it really gets tricky on this golf course.

Like you mentioned, a lot of run-off Bermuda areas, not a ton of rough around the greens. We'll have to deal with that rough into the greens a lot, and it's not super tall, and sometimes that makes it even more difficult because you're judging if it's going to kind of plop down or if it's going to be an actual flier.

When the wind picks up, par is going to be a great score because you're going to have a lot of the shots around the green that I was just talking about.

Q. If you'll forgive a blunt question, do you think this is your best chance to date of completing the Career Grand Slam?

JORDAN SPIETH: I would say Saturday night of Bethpage, considering I only had one round to go and I had a chance there.

You know, when it's Wednesday it's hard to say it's the best chance because you've got to play three nice rounds to have a chance on Sunday.

So yeah, I like where things are at. I wish they were just a little tighter. I hope to get it that way. I'm still having to kind of rehearse my swing. I didn't have to do that. That's just where I'm at right now. Trying to be as outwardly focused as I can and not mechanically focused, but I'm kind of in a balance right now.

I like the golf course itself. I like the grass types, like I mentioned, I grew up on this, playing in the wind. Reminds me a lot of Colonial, just a little bit on steroids, a little more undulation and driver in your hands more.

But it's kind of -- I think Maxwell had some input in both courses, so it kind of makes sense that it would remind me a little of that.

And the green complexes themselves, I like these kind of soft, sloping, and a couple of those holes have significant slopes but not crazy ridges and weird pins, instead it's right in front of you on the greens.

I really enjoy playing this golf course and I like where I'm coming in with where my game is at. It's just about settling into the tournament.

Q. How did you feel when you saw your grouping for tomorrow might gather a few fans, one or two, following you around?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, they're both just great to play with. They're quick. They're positive. They're the two with maybe the most majors, Brooks tying Rory, in the whole field. So obviously guys who know what they're doing around tracks like this and tournaments like this.

I think you've got to embrace it and have fun and recognize these are the kind of pairings you get to -- I'll get to tell my kid about some day, I got to play with Tiger in a major. And I've done it before. Last year, you weren't sure if that was ever going to happen again.

I know it's obviously great for golf, but selfishly it's pretty exciting to be able to play these events growing up with the guy that you idolized.

Q. Just to follow up on that, I know you're accustomed to playing with huge galleries following you, but this is huge, right, with you, Tiger and Rory. How do you block out distractions?

JORDAN SPIETH: Sometimes when the crowds get big enough, it's kind of just a color blur in a way. I think last week was nice. If I had a month off and dove right into it, it's just a little bit maybe harder to just settle in. But we had some huge crowds last week on the weekend, and I think that helps kind of feeling the nerves and the pressure of contending in a Tour event.

These are the same guys we play against every week, and when you're used to being in front of big crowds by contending on the weekend, that's normally when the biggest crowds are there, it starts to feel just a little more and more comfortable. That was my goal last week for a good reason, and I'm glad I accomplished almost all of that goal.

Q. Jordan, the Masters cut was kind of a surprise. You had never missed one there. Obviously you seemed kind of taken aback by it yourself. Was it annoying? Was it a motivator?

JORDAN SPIETH: It was annoying. Because Friday's round, I shot 76, and I can't tell you that I missed a golf shot. It was bizarre. You know, tough -- we had tough conditions. I had mud balls at bad times, wind gusts at bad times. Random -- I felt like it was random, and therefore, it was really frustrating. Because all you had to do that week was kind of make the cut, and then you could have made a run on Saturday when it was cold.

I just really didn't feel like I did much wrong, and I've had weeks like that before. You just hope that they're not the Masters.

The old me a few years ago may have tried to go back to the drawing board and said, how do I fix this, what do I need to change.

But instead I went out on Sunday, decided I didn't want to watch the final round, and went and played golf with Jay and Michael over in Hilton Head. And I just wanted to keep pushing what I was pushing because I just think my level of patience with my game is far superior than where it was a few years ago.

I'm glad that since then it's really shaped out and that patience has paid off.

Q. That wouldn't necessarily -- you wouldn't probably look at it as a good thing. In a way has it helped in any way at all?

JORDAN SPIETH: No, I don't think it helped at all. I think it tested that patience, and that was really it. No, I would never -- I'm never going to say, oh, if I miss this cut, this is going to be a great thing for me. It's not there for sure.

Once it happens, you can be down on yourself or you can turn it around the other way, and I chose to do the latter. Once it happens, I think that's when you have to somehow figure out a way to turn it into a positive, but that Friday night I was very upset.

Q. I think that sometimes the stuff that we care about and talk about is different than what you guys care about and talk about, and one thing we talk a lot about is the Career Slam, whether it's Rory at Augusta, Phil at the U.S. Open, and obviously you here. How much is that something you think about or talk about with other people?

JORDAN SPIETH: I don't think I talk about it much with other people. But it's certainly at this point, given having won the other three, it's an elephant in the room for me. It's a goal of mine.

If you just told me I was going to win one tournament the rest of my life, I'd say I want to win this one, given where things are at. If you told me that before my career started I was going to win one tournament ever, I'd say the Masters because that was my favorite tournament growing up.

But things change, and that has obviously significant meaning. Long term it would be really cool to say that you captured the four biggest golf tournaments in the world that are played in different parts of the world and different styles, too. So you feel like you kind of accomplished golf when you win a Career Grand Slam, I guess.

Come close a couple times. This hasn't necessarily been my most successful major. But I feel good heading into this week, so try and -- as I've said quite a you few times, try and settle into this pairing the first two days and try and have fun with it.

If I can play well these next couple days, given the crowds that will be out there, and I think the weekend might actually feel a little like a breather in a way, so that's how I'm looking at it.

Q. This isn't just any other major tournament for you now. There's so much on the line historically. How do you approach it mentally knowing that this does now mean so much more to you than the others?

JORDAN SPIETH: I wouldn't say that I felt -- again, the only real chance I had was Bethpage. But I remember that Saturday and Sunday, and I don't remember it feeling any different than any other majors I've contended in, and they all feel about the same after the first one.

I think looking at it long-term thinking, man, if I'm healthy, I'd look to have 20 chances at it, and maybe 1 out of 20. Those are better odds than I think -- I normally get better odds than that.

I think just more look at the long term, how many chances you're going to get, and maybe the ball will go -- the bounces will go your way one of those weeks. I'm not trying to force it this week I guess is the best way to say it. Just try and do what I've been doing, stick to my routine, my game, block out any outside noise, and shoot as low a score as I can.

Q. What do you think it would mean to you if you can get there and join that very exclusive club?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. What do you think it would mean? It would be pretty cool, wouldn't it. I think it would be pretty cool.

Q. What is the genesis of the rehearsal in your swing, and what do you think you need to do to move away from it?

JORDAN SPIETH: I've been kind of doing something similar for a year and a half, just not necessarily over the ball, and it's more just a tempo thing for me right now over the ball so I don't get a little quick with my arms. Just want to stay connected as I go back.

I try it without it, and Cameron tells me -- and it feels, not just he tells me, but it also feels just slightly better when I do it before I hit a shot on the range. If I'm making better swings doing it, I get to my ball quickly, I play faster than I used to, I'm not slowing anybody down, and I make better, more committed swings with it.

At this point, that's where I'm at, and that's what I'll keep doing. It's just trying to -- like I've mentioned before, I'm pushing -- going back to go forward, going back to my DNA on how I've swung the club growing up. Yeah.

Q. What are your thoughts on kind of the corner of 2 green, 3 tee, some of the areas where there could be a bottleneck?

JORDAN SPIETH: 2 green and 3 -- I think more so it's 13 tee over 12 green, and then 4 tee box and 6 tee box and then -- yeah, there's a few of them.

Major championships first two rounds play pretty slow. So I think pace of play, I'm assuming the PGA of America will set up the golf course where you have pins more on the front of the green when the tees are back to hit over part of the green just for pace of play purposes.

Last weekend was remarkably slow. So I don't think we'll go any slower than we did last weekend, and so I think it'll actually feel just fine.

I think those boxes were created for us to hit it in the areas that the course was designed to hit it in, and we got two different wind directions. So to have multiple options for tees where we hit it to those areas and play the golf course the way it's supposed to be played, they need to be there.

I think there's a way to do it, and they'll figure it out.

Q. Year over year, your driving statistics have improved pretty demonstrably: Your distance is way up; ball speed is up; swing speed is up. Was that a point of emphasis during the off-season, or how do you explain how you're now in the Top 40 in distance on Tour?

JORDAN SPIETH: No, I haven't been trying to work on hitting it farther at all, I was trying to work on hitting it straighter, and in the process of getting more comfortable, I've just felt like I can go ahead and fire through the ball without having to maybe back out of it and try and save it.

There's a lot to be said about commitment through the ball and not having to worry so much. One, my contact is better. When your contact is better, your Smash-Fac's better, so even if you're swinging at the same speed, your ball speed is up another couple miles an hour.

I'm a bit surprised at some of the numbers I've seen. It's cool, and it's been nothing but helping me, and I'm not trying to swing as hard as I can, I'm just trying to get it in the right position transitionally where I feel like I can burn and turn, and if that's the case, the hard er I go at it, the straighter it seems to go.

Q. Kind of off the beaten path a little bit. I want to ask you about autographs. What's it mean to you to sign an autograph for a kid, make his day? Obviously there's times you don't have time to go do it, but were you a kid that craved autographs from pros?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think the third question answers the first. That was me. I remember going with my dad to the Byron Nelson, and that's all I wanted to do was get my ticket signed by as many guys as I could. I'd wait out, just to have that personal interaction. That's what's pretty unique in our sports, right, is that up-close, personal interaction, even tournament days or these practice round days. It's really cool.

I think when it's the kids, it's awesome because like last week, I gave a ball to a kid walking off maybe on Saturday, and he just lit up and turned around and was screaming. For me I was just kind of walking by like here's a ball, and then when I kind of thought about it, I was like, man, that made this kid's day. That's really cool. It would have been the same for me back then.

Some weeks, this week, majors in particular, you have really large crowds on the practice round days. So it's hard sometimes to get everybody, and I don't. But I think people appreciate if you're passing them, and you just at least say hey, look, I need to get my work done and I'm going to be here afterwards and I'll sign some there. They seem to appreciate that more than just kind of walking by.

Try to do that the best I can. Certainly for every two you get, you miss one, and that's just kind of how it works. But if you try to get everybody every day, it can really wear on you out here.

Work is first, but try and make sure -- we're out here because there's fans of golf, so we're entertainers to an extent, too, so I think for the most part, pretty much everybody is really good about finding those that are supporting them and giving them a little bit of time.

Q. Jordan, hearing you talk, there's such meticulous planning that goes into this. Obviously it's your job, but the effect of people watching you, it seems like your game, inherent to it, there's a lot of drama and a lot of joy for people watching. I was just curious, when you're playing at this point in your career, is it all work or are there moments within a round where you can experience joy, as well?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think there's moments where I can experience joy. I'm trying to do more and more of that. It was a grind for so long that you kind of forget a little bit about the kid in you and the joy and stuff.

It's hard to fake it until you make it in this game. Like when you get off, you can't really -- like if things are really off, you can come in with a positive attitude but it's not necessarily going to yield any better scores until you fix things that are wrong.

I think more recently, I've been trying to really have some fun more, and Michael does a good job. When he knows I'm a little -- if I wake up tomorrow a little on the wrong side of the bed, as we all do, he'll try and talk to me about something other than golf. He'll step in, and having kind of a friend on the bag that can keep it light can sometimes turn things in that direction.

It's really fun to contend. It may not look like on my face that I'm sitting there in such joy, but that's what I love to do. I love the grind. I love the frustrations. I love the drivable par-4. I need to step up and hit this cut right onto this green, like last week on Sunday on 14. And I hit that shot, and I'm just pumped up over ther. I may not be smiling and pointing at the camera and being like, did you see that. No. But inside I'm sitting there going, that was really fun, that was really cool.

Yeah, I'd love to make -- when golf is boring, it's really fun for me professionally. There's been plenty of dramatics in my career thus far, and there's been some boring wins, too, and they're all, I think, just as enjoyable.

Q. With Phil, is it strange not having the defending champion here this week, and just the whole Saudi golf story, what's your take on the tenor that story has taken?

JORDAN SPIETH: You just went and threw two bombs at me. Since everyone was lobbing me questions you just went and threw two bombs.

Yeah, I think it's unfortunate Phil is not here. His accomplishment last year was insane, one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the game. So I just think it's really unfortunate that as the defending champion he's not here. Hopefully things can just get back to normal and everybody can kind of get back to the way things were.

The Saudi league or the LIV league, everybody can do what they want to do. No players are standing in any players' way. If they want to go, go. I love where I'm at. I've been saying that for a long time.

Weeks like last week are what I enjoy the most, and I'm excited to come here this week and just keep my head down, and none of those distractions weigh on me whatsoever.

Q. Let me ask you a happier question about Tiger, your playing partner. What did you make of him just making the cut and making it through four days of the Masters and what he's trying to do this week?

JORDAN SPIETH: I didn't feel very good about myself knowing he was on one leg and he made the cut and I didn't. (Laughter.)

But he also beat everybody in a U.S. Open on one leg, so when I thought about that, it made me feel a little better.

To go that long, like I go into Hawai'i after like four weeks after, and that's the most relaxing week of the year, and you just have the nerves and rust to shave off. It's pretty incredible what he did there, given everything that happened. I thought when it happened -- I didn't really know much.

Justin had seen him a lot, gone over there, and it wasn't his place to tell everybody how he was doing, but just the little bit that I knew, I was like, man, I hope he can walk rounds with his son some day. Sure enough, he teed it up in the Father-Son later that year and then made the cut in the Masters, and here he is on a course he's won a major before.

You can't ever doubt the man anymore. He just continues to amaze people.

Q. Last time you gained shots on the green for the first time since the Genesis. How do you balance the putting practice while going through the swing change and how do you make sure you don't neglect it?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, there was certainly a bit of -- it's not like I didn't practice putting, but when you get a little off, sometimes you don't necessarily recognize it if you're so focused somewhere else, and I think just the little bit of neglect hurt.

I put in good work, but it was going to be a little trial-and-error last week, and I'm glad that I gained on the field with a little bit of that. Then when it got to the weekend, there were some putts where I just put some strokes I wasn't purely confident on like I have been before and hope to be again.

But from those I learned a little bit. I missed a couple that I should have made and then I went and made a couple really nice sliders on the last five holes, and I really look at those, and I take those into this week because those were -- I felt more pressure on those than any other putts throughout the week.

It was definitely a better performance, and I have a good idea of what I need to be doing. It's just now it's about pushing that agenda like I have with the full swing, tee to-green.

It's hard to put a ton of focus into every single part all the time. I feel like I'm in a place now where I can take my foot off the gas a little bit. Not much but a little bit on the full swing, and shift it over, and that's what we've been doing the last few weeks.

Q. As a practical matter, what's the most difficult challenge in playing with fellow megastars tomorrow?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think it's more just like you know there's going to be some noise. Just there's extra noise. It has nothing to do with the two guys I'm playing with. It's everything that surrounds it. You've got to wait longer for the crosswalks. When Tiger finishes out on a hole there's going to be people leaving. There's just noise.

You just know it's going to happen, and honestly if there's enough of it, it doesn't bother you. It's when it's super quiet and the one thing is yelled when you can flinch. But that normally isn't an issue.

Not much. Just it feels like a weekend round on Thursday, Friday I guess is kind of the best way to put it.

It's a hard golf course, too, so managing expectations on focusing on your game on the course and not what's going on around you.

Q. What's the biggest factor you've learned about majors now at your age to when you first started competing in them?

JORDAN SPIETH: To be honest, after the first -- my rookie year, second year on Tour, I had great success in the majors. I've never really tried to change things.

As I just mentioned at the end of that last question, I think the most important thing is how to really set the right expectation for that round on the course, and we go from 25-under not winning last week to no one shooting 25-under this week.

So that changes how you're looking at shots coming into greens, changes how you're approaching tee balls with pin locations. You can't just fire driver everywhere and get away with it.

It's a lot of course setup, more kind of tactical planning, something that I think I've done well, and I won't change how I do it, you just have to make sure that you jump into that mindset.