THE 151ST OPEN

July 20, 2023

Jordan Spieth

Mixed Zone

JORDAN SPIETH: I was very pleased with the round. I felt like my game has been in a really good place. I felt like the results haven't necessarily been showing it, but came in not putting a whole lot of pressure on myself, just knowing that I like Opens, and if I'm stepping up and trusting what I've been doing, it's been really good performance the last couple days, which is always nice to draw off of.

Q. What happened on 8?

JORDAN SPIETH: I just had my face wide open, ball above my feet on a really bad lie, trying to flop cut an 8-iron. I feel like I'm as good as anybody at that shot and I guess the hosel got there first. I'm not really sure.

That shakes you up a little bit. I've never hit one before, so it took me a couple holes to feel like I got my feet back under me.

9, there was no chance I was hitting anywhere near the heel, so I toed that one in the bunker and then I was fine after that.

Q. On the 17th, there's obviously been a lot of talk about that this week.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, today it was at a number where I felt like I could just put a wedge in the back of my stance on the back of a divot and just flight something, which is nice.

The wind picks up or tomorrow as it changes direction, I think, and it's blowing harder and into us, it could become carnage. But it's fair.

You have a big enough area to hit. The greens aren't surfaces that'll rip back if you flight the ball the rye way. You have to hit a really nice shot. If you do, you have a good look at birdie, and if you don't you have a difficult par.

I actually think it's fair. I wouldn't necessarily put it in the top three greatest short par-3s, but I think it's a really good one, and I think it'll be really exciting because not only do you have that hole, you have that and then 18 right afterwards that you have to hit two really, really nice tee shots.

Q. Walking down the fairway, do you ever think, oh, I know how to do this, I've done this before?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think when I land here it's kind of how you should step into it. You know you're going to have to play a different style of golf.

I felt like I've played a lot of fairway-green. This course reminds me of Birkdale in that a lot of it is from the air on approach shots. There's more table tops here making it even more challenging, but there's not a lot of old school links or I don't know what to call it but where you can run the ball up. You can't do that a ton here.

That's not a good or a bad thing, it's just different.

You kind of adjust to that, I guess, where it's a little bit more similar to the States. It's just amazing how much the wind, heaviness of the wind affects the ball here in crosswinds and into and down.

But yeah, I think the toughest part about the course is the crosswinds off the tee and how important it is to hit the fairways. I thought I did a really good job of that today, and that's got to continue to have good looks.

Q. What is it about The Open and links that suits your game or that you like, that kind of speaks to you?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think I grew up in the wind, so I grew up learning how to have to flight it a little bit. I like the imagination around the greens, putting some, bumping others, using three or four different clubs around the greens.

And then how the conditions -- when you just get a little moisture on the ball how it massively changes on and around the greens here.

I think it's just more I fell in love with kind of the style of play, and then now 10 years in the experience is really nice to draw off of. I don't feel like I have a shot I haven't had before.

Having said that, I'd still like to play fairway-green golf, and I did a lot of that today.

Q. Would you like to see more links golf on the calendar?

JORDAN SPIETH: There's some great American links courses, but it's not the same. You don't have the fescue grass, and that's what makes it.

Q. Would you like to play over here more if possible?

JORDAN SPIETH: I play the two events we have on the PGA over here, and then last year played some links in Ireland. I like the idea of coming over a few days early, playing some new places where I haven't played before, and then going Scottish to British, or Scottish to the Open.

I know I'm supposed to say The Open.

Yeah, I really enjoy it. It's really far from home, so no, I don't wish that I played like half the season over here or anything, but I really enjoy the middle of the summer coming over here.

Q. You spoke about the similarity to Birkdale. Is that a good feeling for you?

JORDAN SPIETH: I mean, I think I would have won on any golf course in 2017 in that time. I had won three weeks before. I had almost won the next two events after. I was just playing that well.

Sure, if I -- I don't come out here and think, oh, there's similarities so it fits my game. It could have been any other venue, I think, and I would have felt pretty good about my chances that week. That is just the golf I was playing.

I'm focused more on how I'm playing now, what shots I need to fine tune, and what have I done well that I can continue to push.

Q. Question about Leeds United. How excited are you by this opportunity?

JORDAN SPIETH: It was brought to me last fall by a couple guys that know the 49ers group really well, so I've been looking at it since then, cheering them on this year, and then when they were relegated, I was going to see kind of what the new restructured deal was. It was going to take a lot for me not to get involved. I had already gotten emotionally involved.

Yeah, I'm excited. Myself and J.T., we've been kind of texting each other for six months now every game and even the other games we needed teams to lose and stuff like that. It'll be fun to keep track, hopefully get back into the Premier League.

Q. Was there any banter out there about it?

JORDAN SPIETH: Not banter, just support. He's a big supporter. Bantered with Matt a little bit when the crowds were shouting, Good luck, Leeds, Matt is like, they're going to need it, because Sheffield got moved up.