SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 12, 2023

Jordan Spieth

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Can you expound on RV life and how that's going to change things for you out here?

JORDAN SPIETH: Just glamping, you know. Slumming it. Should be a lot of fun. The reason was kind of to have home on the road. Got the same mattress I have at home, and we'll leave a lot of Sammy's stuff on the bus, therefore won't to have pack a whole lot and can ride on it a lot in between events given the way the west coast swing -- and especially the Florida swing.

Should make traveling and getting settled and packing up quite a bit easier.

Yeah, look forward to it. I've already stayed in it once.

Q. Congaree was the first time?

JORDAN SPIETH: That's right.

Q. What was that like?

JORDAN SPIETH: I was by myself there so I had tons of room and we didn't load it up yet. We had just got it in. Yeah, it'll be fun. There's a number -- at one point I think there was a dozen guys, four of them went to LIV and sold theirs because they don't really have the whole swings. It's hard to go Saudi to Chicago in a two-week stretch in an RV.

I think that had a lot to do with it. But I don't know. I mean, I was next to Jay Day. Obviously Bubba was a guy who had them for a long, time Jason Day got a new one in. Annie is trying to recruit a lot of our friends out here to do it, so we'll see in the next few years if that works or not.

Q. What's are the dimensions?

JORDAN SPIETH: I don't know the dimensions. Yeah, and if I did, I don't think I would do tell you. That would be like just giving you a tour of my home I guess.

Q. Have you driven it yet?

JORDAN SPIETH: I haven't driven it. I plan on driving it on an open road stretch at some point when it's not pulling out of Phoenix and not into LA, but maybe switch and do like an hour just because it would be fun.

Q. No flights to have to meet.

JORDAN SPIETH: I'm a dad now. Someone wants me to honk, I'll honk.

Q. Who's driving it?

JORDAN SPIETH: We have a driver, yeah, a guy who has done it for some other guys.

Q. Was there someone that gave you inspiration to join that group?

JORDAN SPIETH: We tried one and Harding Park PGA, so we tested it out there. Annie wanted one for a while. I didn't really want one prior to Sammy, like knowing he would sleep through the night and schedule and all that, because close quarters compared to renting a house.

So she's wanted one for a while, and it was just a matter of if the perfect one came at the right time, and it did this last fall.

Q. What had to be perfect about it?

JORDAN SPIETH: Just like one that -- I mean, it's not a minor purchase, so one that we really liked the style that was not going to require a lot of maintenance, that we had the right driver situation, the right space.

The way they're all built is different, so just needed to be the right rig.

Q. As far as your golf, what's your level? Can you describe what expectations are like when you come to a tournament, you ever surprised by the way you play?

JORDAN SPIETH: So I would say like I started really well in 2018, '19, maybe a couple events in '20 where a day like today where I shot 5- or 6-under to start -- I think I remember doing it at Travelers one time and the PGA in '19. I just remember thinking, I know where my game is at and I can maybe fake it as best I can, but it's not -- I don't really have great control.

I used my hands really well for a couple days. Conveniently the first two in a row. So it's not like you -- it's not like I didn't believe. It's just I have a good idea of where things are at and if I have that shot or don't have that shot.

This is different. The last couple years have been a little different where off to a good start and I'm like, okay, I think I can improve a little to gain just a little bit more control, but I was in really good control.

And for me, it's about freedom. It's not separating arms from the body and having to save shots. It's feeling like I'm in front of them and being able to hold them off and nice fluid strokes on the greens.

That's really all it comes down to. Seems simple, but when you're still fighting the urge to want to hit it hard or get over some bad habits, days like today I'm not surprised, but what I will say is I'm confident relative to other time periods I've been off to similar starts, which is a really good place to be.

I believe I can shoot 5- or 6-under each day out here. Not to say that that means it'll happen, but there are other times I would be sitting there going, how do I hold this shit together, to be honest. Seriously.

Q. Can you describe today's round a little bit?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, got off driving it really well. I split some fairways early with driver on 10 and 12 and had a couple good wedges in there. I made a couple putts early, so that was nice. I don't particularly enjoy this practice green so I just have been using my device instead of hitting regular putts on it.

I seem to have putts go two different ways every single time I go off it historically on this green, so I told myself I would play this event as long as I only hit putts on the tutor on this green.

So the stuff I've been trying to work on in my stroke I decided to go full trust from the getgo today, and to see those go in was a nice confidence boost and led to a good putting day. Just try to carry on from there. I had a number of wedges. You know, it stinks par No. 9. I hit a really nice drive and it caught the lip of the bunker and hung -- just like No. 8, went through a bunker and I was standing on it. I kind of had a couple drives that were really close on the last two holes to being another stroke or so.

So I feel like I left a couple out, but I also really had fun today. Like I had fun playing the shots in the wind. It's fun when you know you hit a good one because out here the ball is just going to roll 70 yards and it's like, wow. If you miss the fairway you're way back, but when you hit it it's like, I got a nice sand wedge into this green now.

It can be a real fun golf course once you start peeling it down these fairways.

Q. You said you're freewheeling with the putter early. Are you sometimes just cautious because you don't know what the speed is going to be like?

JORDAN SPIETH: No. I think it's more just like I've had some hand path issues, so what I would hope in great time periods feeling like I'm doing 50% of a feel, I've got to do 250% of a feel, and sometimes that's hard to fully trust once you're actually playing.

I've just been inching my way to where it gets a little easier and a little easier. Half my putts today were like, wow, I knew exactly where that was going. Some of them went in and some of them didn't, and the others I didn't and I made some of them. It's just -- but I know once I get to a certain feel through the ball that I can beat the field. I can be No. 1 in strokes gained for the week because I know what that feels like.

So I'm just trying to get that way. It's getting there, and that's exciting.

Q. What memory do you have of like leading the field and the proximity to the hole the day Justin shot 59?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I do remember that. I think I shot 65 and was a stroke and a half maybe better tee-to-green than Justin, who shot 59.

I just remember being here on the 9th green and us just kind of, is he going to make this eagle putt? I personally thought I had -- I had hit one from just behind him and left it -- just dove off. I don't know if it was right behind him. I just thought, this is a hard putt to get there for a 59. It's almost like to win, sometimes it's hard to hit it hard enough. That's a mistake people make.

Right when he hit it was flushed and went in, so it was cool but also a little frustrating because I was like, man, I said inside you on a lot of holes and you were teeing off first next hole all day.

Q. What was one of the better shots or putts that you hit today?

JORDAN SPIETH: Today?

Q. Yeah.

JORDAN SPIETH: I think I hit a drive on No. 12, just the third one of the day, that was this really -- I call it in-front-of-fade meaning just my sequence was fantastic. It was on plane. It was just exactly what I've been working towards, and I just hit this five-yard fade that held the wind up the middle of the fairway and had 80 yards into that flat green.

When I hit that shot I walked off saying, this could be a really good day if I keep pressing how that just felt.

Q. When did you get away -- and I'm not saying it's gone forever, but I don't see as much of the rehearsal.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I did some last week. Ideally I don't have to do it.

Q. When were you able to move away from it though, do you think?

JORDAN SPIETH: Last Saturday. (Smiling.) Yeah, I think I did it for most of the first couple rounds last week. It's kind of a bit of a different feel this week and I don't needed to it as much.

I'm doing practice swings, but not over the ball.

Q. Has that been a goal for a while?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think that as a whole, as you can imagine, would be more shot focused than swing focused. I still would like to be more so shot focused than swing focused. When you're doing a bunch rehearsal, if you do it weeks in a row I think you can -- like last year I was doing to the week I won but I wasn't really thinking about it.

It was just kind of a get-set motion. I had done it for so many weeks. When you start doing it or changing it up and doing it, I think you just start trying to make good swings instead of hit great shots, and it doesn't have to be perfect in this game. But I'm not trying to be either. I'm just trying to get some things back in order.

Q. How different are conversations with you and Michael on a day like this versus a day when things aren't going well?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think it just depends on if it's not going well off execution or not going well off -- like I played really dumb shots or made really bad decisions. I made a lot of really bad decisions last Saturday. It was probably the worst mentally-played round I can remember having in a long time. Meaning I was hitting holds when I should have rode it or I was hitting a club that could go -- that wasn't going to get there, but long was better than short.

Just stuff like that where I'm like, man, I'm just trying to be perfect and I don't need to be. It's more I'm just blabbering to Michael more than anything else, you know what I mean? Like keep an eye on if I'm trying to get a stroke back here I don't need to push this up or something like that. Stuff I should know that sometimes I need a reminder because you I get a little too aggressive.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, yeah, definitely. 100%, yeah. If you miss execute then you miss execute and you just need to go get better. Decision making is going to happen or you'll have a lie you didn't expect.

But as a whole, it shouldn't happen more than a couple times in a round on a -- like a Kapalua when it's not really that windy. Out here if it's blowing hard, you got crosswinds, it's going to be tough for everybody.

Those are for sure way more frustrating than miss executed shots.

Q. End on a great note. When sat last time you flew coach?

JORDAN SPIETH: The 27th -- oh, coach, sorry, no. It's even worse. I thought you said commercial. I thought I had you too. I was like, asshole, the 27th. I flew back from Hawaii when I missed the cut in 2019 and I didn't have -- my flight was set for Sunday and I didn't want to wait and there was a seat that was available.

Q. What was that like?

JORDAN SPIETH: I was pissed because I was playing really bad. Didn't know how to solve it and just missed the cut. I didn't care where I was. I just feel bad for the people around me.