CHARLES SCHWAB CHALLENGE

May 25, 2022

Jordan Spieth

Colonial CC

Press Conference

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome Jordan Spieth to the interview room here at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Making your 10th start in an event you won in 2016, finished runner-up last year. Finished out of the top 15 I think just one time. Just some thoughts on being back at a place that's pretty special to you.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think the results show that I love this place. It seems to for whatever reason fit my game really well, and I really enjoy playing it. It requires some precision in the wind off the tee, obviously hitting fairways being of huge importance here, given how difficult it is out of the rough.

But then I've putted well here. I love the slopes of the greens and seem to find success regardless of form coming in some years, and some years I'm in form coming in and then play well here.

It's a really fun stop being home but not quite the Byron Nelson, so a little bit less going on, but also still have the same kind of support. It's always a great week, so I'm very much looking forward to this week, trying to -- I've been playing really well, and last week was kind of just a little minor step back, so I'm looking to try and tighten some things up and get back into contention.

DOUG MILNE: You mentioned playing well. Just three starts ago you got your win at the RBC Heritage and then Dallas, two weeks ago runner-up. Are there things about your game you're feeling especially good about right now?

JORDAN SPIETH: I actually stroked it -- I felt like I putted the best I've putted this year last week, and it just doesn't show on the stats. But it was the most free-flowing strokes I've had, and I feel like I've made a lot of really good -- myself and Cameron have made a lot of good progress on the greens.

I think it's a matter of time before the lid comes off and I start to pour some in. A little disappointing that didn't happen last week. I misread a lot of putts.

Out here I don't really have the excuse of misreading putts because I should go where most of them go having played this course 60 to 75 times. I'm excited about that.

I still struck it pretty well last week, but it didn't quite feel as good as it had the previous two tournaments, so I know why, just got to kind of get on top of it and make sure that that was just kind of a one-week kind of step back on that front, and keep progressing forward, and hopefully just have a really consistent next few months.

I had a few chances to win events, but that was kind of about it this year, even though I've played really good golf, so I'm trying to maybe play a little more consistently in the top 10 on the weekend, and you never know when it goes your way sometimes.

Q. I wanted to ask about putting this past weekend. Justin was saying there were a lot of pebbles and rocks on the greens due to the bunkers and it made it a lot harder to read putts than usual. Did you find it a problem for yourself out there?

JORDAN SPIETH: Those doesn't really affect the reads as much as you might just miss one of them and then it hits something.

For me, between the pebbles and there was a lot of pitch marks, so you felt like you were doing a lot of stuff prior to hitting the putts, but for me I never really adapted to the speed.

They were quite a bit slower given the conditions we had, and so for me, like I like to read putts -- I like glassier reads. I like ones where you get to the fall line and it kind of drips in. Faster surfaces are typically better for me.

There was a lot of double breakers given how tight the pins were towards the bunkers, as you just mentioned. It was more so the holes would be tilted opposite the slopes, so a lot of times you had either up and then down or you had a double breaker when you were on the crown of the slope, and instead of just being able to hit a 10-footer left center and rip it, I have a hard time reading putts that way. I'm more feel based in that I've struggled this year a lot on the slower surfaces that we've played on like a San Antonio or there.

I think that that had more to do with it, was more myself dialing into the speed than anything having to do with the greens.

Q. I think you've been in the final group or right near the lead the last three years. Obviously the door hasn't opened, but is there more pressure when you're in contention in a hometown event or anything you look back on these last couple years, just the fine line of winning and finishing runner-up or third?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I played a really poor Sunday last year, which was really frustrating, because I was playing certainly well enough to win. I had won. It wasn't like I had the extra pressure -- I had won in San Antonio, so it wasn't the whole winless drought scenario. I just had a really bad round.

I got pretty off in my ball-striking and just didn't recover on that Sunday.

Looking back, I pull into the parking lot today, and I'm able to go into my own spot from winning here in 2016, but I look around, I'm like, yeah, I watched Chris Kirk made that putt while I was getting ready for a playoff in 2015; I watched Kevin Kisner make that putt while I was getting ready for a playoff; and then obviously last year with Jason where I felt like I played plenty good enough to win, and essentially he played really good, but I didn't make it that difficult for him as far as two guys separating themselves.

So I come here and I'm like -- I played really well, but it is a bit frustrating to finish up near the top that often and only have one win. I like to pride myself on the ability to close when in the lead, and it's something that over the last couple years I've -- last year and this year having been in position a few times this year where I really felt like I should have closed it out and only done it once, it's something that I'm -- maybe when you go winless for a while, you've got to kind of learn that little extra patience or whatever it is that I had to learn back in 2013, 2014 that hopefully I can kind of tip back into and close more out when towards the top on Sunday.

Q. Kind of out of left field, Gary Patterson, I know you're an avid Longhorn fan. How exciting is it that he's with Texas now? I know you've helped his charity during COVID and whatnot, but --

JORDAN SPIETH: I've always enjoyed being around Coach, and most of the time it was his bragging rights on their success against Texas. Obviously we have Del Conte, as well, now, and it feels like we just kind of poached the best assets TCU has had, and hopefully that leads to success in Austin.

But yeah, he's a great football coach and can do nothing but help the Horns. It would be really exciting if we achieved to our capabilities one of these years.

Maybe it'll be an exciting year for us. Seems like we're making all the right kind of hires and have the right people in the room.

Q. Hard to believe it's your 10th Colonial. I remember talking to you in 2013, I guess it was your first tournament. Just wondered, they ran something showing you and JT almost neck-and-neck in your careers. Just your feelings, your thoughts about your career thus far? Pleased? Surprised? Disappointed? Just kind of an overview if you would.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I guess that's all perspective. I think if I was sitting here in 2013 having not won on the PGA TOUR, just getting my status, and you told me in 10 years you'd be sitting with this on your resume, I'd obviously be pleased.

Then if it was 2017 or 2018 and you told me this is on your resume now, this is where you are in five years, I'd probably be a little disappointed.

I think it just depends on what lens you look at it from, what timetable you have.

Overall I just feel really good about where I'm at right now. I'm very focused on what the next 10 years can look like if I accomplish what I'm setting out to accomplish and I'm still in the process of it right now, and fortunately finding some consistency and success over the last year and a half while still not feeling like I have kind of the control and freedom through my game that I had for a few years there, but I feel that the next run could be more exciting than any that I've ever had.

I believe in that. I start to see that, and more importantly I start to feel that through shots. And I believe that a little bit of extra perspective, a little bit probably more fearlessness, less to lose, that kind of thing going forward can only help me if I can get things right to where I want to, and I think to me it feels like a matter of time while still being patient versus an "if".

If I could duplicate the last 10 years the next 10 years, I think that would be something I'd be really proud of.

Q. I just want you to know this: In 2015 at the British Open there on that Monday finish, I happened to be at a sports bar in Dallas. It was like a Cowboys game. So I know you're going back there this year, and just want to wish you the best on that.

JORDAN SPIETH: Thank you. That's not necessarily a good thing. That may have been -- Cowboys' games have been mildly disappointing.

I know what you mean.

DOUG MILNE: Jordan, we appreciate your time and wish you the best this week.