ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 5, 2023

Jordan Spieth

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you assess your performance today?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. I didn't have my ball striking on the weekend that I've had my last few tournaments. It's really hard to go around this place without it, but if you can, the way I did it today was how you do it, making putts and making chips and it was great.

Obviously looking back 16 felt like a bogey as well, so it kind of felt like four in a row. And that really stinks. But I wouldn't have hit any of the putts differently. I hit my line on every single one of 'em. I misread all four by just barely. I didn't look at a board all day. I had no idea where I stood until I was on 17, then I needed to know like what you need to do.

I hit all three shots the way I wanted to on 17, and I hit every shot the way I wanted to on 18. So I'm pleased to be back in the thick of things. I haven't really had a real lead on Sunday late in quite awhile, so it's nice to be able to kind of see where things are in those moments and learn from 'em.

But the up-and-downs on the par 3s are what I kind of look back on. But I mean, man, I had two putts in a row end up literally behind the center of the hole on the back of the hole on 16 and 17. There's a lot of times those fall on the edges for me.

Q. (No Microphone.)

JORDAN SPIETH: I didn't. I just, I've been feeling this coming. I don't remember where I was talking about it, but my stats have not told the story on where I'm at in my putting. This was the most solid I've felt putting this week from any range as far as hitting my lines in a long time. They just trick the pins out on these crowns and they just get really, really dicey, and it's really hard to continue to make putts out here.

The ones that I did make were the ones that broke a lot. And then the knob putts are just so hard. The left center, right center. It could just bounce -- there's no friction and it just makes such a difference.

Q. (No Microphone.)

JORDAN SPIETH: I would say that the least stress I've ever had was when I hit 17 of 18 greens at Pebble in a final round and won the tournament, and that's what I'm trying to do every single time.

I appreciate my ability to not give up and to see a shot where others may not see it and go ahead and go for it to pull it off because I have that luxury in my career in what I've accomplished that I feel like I may as well risk the shot that has the highest reward, even if it bites you a few times.

But that's how you continue to win out here. I just drove the ball, when I hit my actual driver, I hit it really poorly this weekend. It's been a massive strength of my mine this year. I know what it is. I just couldn't fix it in time, and that's what hurt, which made me have to play the golf that you're talking about whenever I had driver in my hand.

Q. Along those same lines, what is your mood like on 18 tee? And is there any impulse, like, I'm going to take it out on the golf ball?

JORDAN SPIETH: No. On 18, I actually, that's kind of arguably the most important tee shot, probably the biggest stroke average fairway versus not on the golf course. I was, I kind of just figured like I had to make birdie. I actually felt really calm on 18 tee. There's no reason to hit it far. You just have to hit it straight. I just tried to put a really good motion on it. I actually, funny enough, I made better swings on the back nine than I did on the front today, and it just didn't yield lower scores. Obviously that has to do with making a bunch of putts on the front, making a couple only the back, and then missing some coming down.

So I feel really good about where things are. It's no different than how I've been feeling over the last month. This is a golf course that is heavy stress going into pretty much every single hole. Holes like number 17, I mean, I just hit a flush 5-iron to the exact spot I wanted to, if the wind's up a little more, I got a good look at birdie. Instead, it's in the cabbage, and that's the kind of stuff that happens here that you hope you get on the other side of that break and the person who wins today will have found one of those coming down the stretch probably.

Q. When you're sitting in that beach chair over on 17 green is anything washing out of you so you can get in the mood to play 18?

JORDAN SPIETH: No, I just didn't want to get on the tee and be standing. I knew we were going to be waiting, because the group in front of us had just teed off. It was just that I didn't want to get to the tee and wait. And I hadn't written a score down yet. So I had to write down all 17 scores for Max and myself. So it kind of worked out well because of that.

Q. When you look at the leaderboard does it validate kind of what the TOUR's trying to do with the designated events, really the last few weeks, but especially when you have six or seven star players within a shot this late?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I mean, I guess it depends on how you define, who you're defining. If that's number of wins or World Ranking or whatever it may be. But, yeah, I'm not sure how this will -- I think that's more of an afterwards, see how it worked with ratings. I mean, it seemed like the fan engagement was incredible. But more so you want to see kind of what impact that has on the viewership. Hopefully, it's really solid and then hopefully weeks like this are common place. As they have been in the past in these big invitational events. But I don't think this tournament's had this kind of field. Certainly it's typically a star that wins at this golf course. But, yeah, I hope so.