PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 19, 2023

Jordan Spieth

Oak Hill Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Obviously, 36 holes that you didn't think you were going to be playing a week ago. Why don't you assess how your health is and how the game is.

JORDAN SPIETH: Health is good. Wrist is holding up nicely considering the most -- the busiest two days the last two days.

I turned under-par rounds into over par. I'll be the first to admit, I've gotten a lot of good breaks in my career, but, man, I got some hosed situations out there in the last two days.

My game feels actually in the spot it's been all spring; it just hasn't turned into under-par rounds. Some of that has to do with probably not quite feeling as fresh and a little bit of course knowledge that I wish I had.

I left it in a couple of tough spots; but, I mean, we can all look back and point to a couple of situations here or there.

But I hit a lot of good shots; I hit a few bad ones. Missing the cut would be such a dagger because I could have just taken the week off. That's where your brain goes.

To hit a putt end-over-end in the middle of the hole on a last on a pretty tricky putt to make it, I can draw something from that. I've had putts to make cuts on the last hole that I've missed. I've had some I've made. That one was about as long and difficult a one and a situation that was -- you feel the nerves almost like it's a putt to win in a weird way. It's nice to step up and make that, and hopefully leads to the ball going in quite a bit tomorrow.

Q. (Off microphone).

JORDAN SPIETH: That was one of the worst I think I've ever seen. It landed almost in between the bunkers. It was about a yard from hitting in between and just kicking on, and it kind of hit the side. The bunkers are wet, so every other bunker shot, and I had a lot of them today, they all go back almost to the back, which on that hole would be perfect because then you can kind of carry it further and have it kind of scoot up the hill.

I don't know how it got to where it did, but it went -- it kicked sideways and ended up half plugged under the lip. I didn't think I could get it more than the front of the green.

Then it was also a situation, just the last situation I'm looking for for my hand. If I were to commit to hitting into it, I would have smashed the lip. It would have hurt. I pulled up hard, and I think I thinned it and hit it about 120 yards.

There's no doubt that that doesn't happen if I'm at full strength there and not worried about it a bit, so that kind of stinks. There was really no other play though. I had no other play on to the green anywhere, and going back in the bunker, I knew I could get out of the bunker. I was maybe trying to hit it a little far, but regardless, just to get it out on to the green would have required me hitting right into the lip, and it just didn't sound like a good idea at the time. I didn't think I could possibly hit it over the green.

I hit the drive, I mean, call it one yard off from 300 where I was looking, which I did a lot. I've driven the ball beautifully. That one was by far the worst that I've had in a while.

I mean, I ended up getting that second one up-and-down. I dropped it twice. It rolled outside of a club length, so I had to place it in the pitch mark. So it was back embedded slightly and took a 52-degree and got that up-and-down and birdied the next and parred the last three.

I mean, I can call it a mess of a back nine, but I can also look to once I had to play out of that drop, I was already looking at no chance of finishing this off, especially with those last three holes. I went and hit, made my putt there, made a putt on the next, and then hit three fairways.

There's a lot I can take in positive to finishing that round. I don't ever want to feel like it's a good thing to be around the cut line, though. I was out of it. Vegas would have had me favored to miss when I was about to play that shot on 14. I stole some shots at the end there.

Q. Do you feel like you can kind of take those good things from the last few holes into the weekend?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, especially tee balls. Those are like hitting tee balls to have to try and win a golf tournament. 17 and 18 for sure and even 16 to an extent, but 17 and 18 are about as hard a tee shots as we see all year with how firm the fairways are.

We clearly had nice conditions for them, and that helped, but on 17 it was pouring, and I didn't want water on the face because Shane's ball shot straight right.

I just kind of looked at my target under the umbrella, and then Michael walked away. I set it down real quick and hit, sort of to -- it was raining, so it didn't make it any easier. It's kind of like déjà vu; it was pouring ten years ago, and I ended up missing the cut, missing the fairways on 17 and 18 and making bogeys.

It was kind of standing on that tee I needed to go par, par. It was cool to kind of remember it ten years ago and step up and hit a good shot. In between clubs on 18, hit a bad shot. But yeah, to answer your question, yeah, from when I had to place it in the drop on 14 on, I couldn't have asked for much better.