VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP

March 19, 2023

Jordan Spieth

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)

Quick Quotes

Q. Jordan, I'm not sure where to start. How would you sum it up? I'm sure you may be a little frustrated but also hung in there the whole way too.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I thought today was going to be a challenge. We didn't really get any rain, so it was going to be a tough course and I was trying to set a goal to try and be 3-under and on 18 green. I was 2-under on 18 green, which 3-under would have been in a nice spot, all things considered.

But it was -- yeah, just, I made two bad swings today. I got away with the one on 6 and I didn't get away with the one on 16. Fought hard from there and made a nice bogey and then a nice couple shots on the last couple, and that 18th pin is just brutal there. You just can't rely on having to birdie that hole to that pin.

Q. Did you feel you hit that approach far enough back when you hit it?

JORDAN SPIETH: Well, it was in the rough and I was playing a flier. It did fly, but just figuring out how much the wind's going to hit it above the crowd, you can't miss the green long, you got to -- I was trying to hit it left of the hole and it came down about a foot right of the pin, and I think it was about a yard left of the pin, you know, it stays there and I got a decent look.

But regardless, it doesn't come down to the last -- the two shots that I really struggled with were 6 and 16. They were low fade intense. I kind of, on Friday on, I really lost a lot of the structure of my swing that's been really good. That's the shot that I'm going to come in late on, and I just said, screw it, I'm trusting it and I didn't try and like play away from it. I said, lean into it, and didn't pull it off. I'm better mis-executing than playing scared. All in all, if I played scared, I probably would have made bogey and tied the hole anyway.

So, yeah, it was -- what, I missed like two greens through 15 holes. It was the boring round I was looking for. I tried to die the putt in on 17 and just misread how much it was going to dive at the end. All in all, I felt like I played better than 1-under, to be honest. Obviously, having to rip the one on 18 to make sure I got it there put me in a tough spot on the next one. But good week.

Q. On 16, was that a 3-wood? And are you trying to hit it straight and fade it?

JORDAN SPIETH: No. Yeah, I was trying to hit a fade, and the wind was off the left too. I was trying to hit a really straight fade, but I bailed a little bit on the swing, trying to lean to get it really low. I just didn't want to get it up in the air. If I'm going to play that shot, I could go to driver really low off the tee and try and slide it a lot.

But it's a shot that -- with what I'm trying to do in my swing, it is the most challenging shot, is a 3-wood in front of a fade. And I hit a good one on No. 1 after hitting some terrible ones on the range. So I was like, I'm just going to try to have the feels of No. 1, and I hit it off the heel. When you hit it off the heel, it's going to start spinning with the breeze.

Q. Were you surprised to look up -- I guess you might have been on 16, to see somebody had gotten in at 10?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I was. I thought it was me and Adam. I thought it was down to us two, and I thought I was maybe going to sneak a tie on 16, and Tommy -- I don't know what he did on the end, but I guess he made a bunch of putts, got up-and-down from everywhere to finish.

Q. He birdied 16 and parred 17.

JORDAN SPIETH: Made a long one? Because I was thinking it was Tommy one back of us with a few holes to go and so I thought we could still kind of control it from the last group. Then I saw 10 was posted walking off 16 green.

Q. You and Taylor are a day apart in age. Do you ever see him at home or do you know anything about him?

JORDAN SPIETH: I have before. Not a ton, no. He does, I think he's out at Maridoe and so am I, but I haven't been out there a ton. I practice mostly at a couple other places. But solid game. He's from Oklahoma, so we played some junior golf events together, I know that. Really solid player that's been knocking on the door. Out here you get a little mix, but there's, it's notorious for guys posting numbers and it being very difficult to go in and close out. So if we would have separated ourselves a couple more, then that would have been a difference maker. But aside from maybe number 11 I don't really look back and think I could have done a whole lot different today. It was a really challenging day to play golf. He must have shot 4-under, is that right? And that would be one of the low rounds of the day, I imagine. Which coming late in the day, that's pretty good.