WM PHOENIX OPEN

February 10, 2024

Jordan Spieth

TPC Scottsdale

Quick Quotes

Q. What was going well out there for you?

JORDAN SPIETH: That was a good nine holes. I misread a putt on 8 and then I played 9 poorly, and I was coming to the 10th hole, and I'm kind of on the cut line, and I'm like, man, I'm playing way better than this and just wasn't scoring very well.

I think once I birdied 10 I settled in. I hit pretty much every drive where I was looking on the back nine, and 12 was a bonus and so was 17. In that range you're just looking to try to get it in a three-foot circle, and if it drops, it's certainly a bit of luck with all the variables. It's really fun out here when you get some of those holes on these long putts or chips and you see that they're about to go in, you know it's going to be a bigger roar than normal, so that was pretty cool to have early on a Saturday.

Q. It's not the first time, won't be the last time the PGA TOUR is in a situation like where we're at. You finished early on Thursday and then got back out there today. What goes through your mind and how do you prepare for situations like that?

JORDAN SPIETH: I kind of took yesterday as a practice day. The conditions were really nice. I wished we were playing. It was obviously not the better end of the draw, but I've had plenty of both sides. I tried to come out here and get like what would be a normal good practice session day knowing I was only going to play a couple holes. I hit a workout and I did about two and a half hours of practice. Just working on some things right now, so it was actually kind of nice to have a little time to do it in the middle of the tournament, and took a few holes today to actually feel like I got it going, but hopefully I can continue to improve as the weekend goes on.

Q. 5-under 66 in pieces and parts for two round. If you could just recap a little bit about how you're trying to keep it all together given those pieces and parts.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, we knew we were going to kind of get lapped once the first round ended. I thought posting 3-under the first round, I think it was the fourth best score in our wave that went off, and that was big because I felt like once we started -- I think I started the next round in like 37th, so you kind of knew it was going to happen, but you want to have -- you don't want to feel like you have to make birdies, but instead, just play shots where you need to and then try to capitalize on putts.

We came out and it was raining. I made a nice par putt this morning to not bogey a par-5 from last night, and I thought that was a really nice one to salvage, and then we got delayed for rain.

That ending stretch of the front nine when it was kind of cold and wet becomes very challenging, so I was just trying to hit the middle of greens and have looks and then took advantage of the back nine with a couple bonuses.

Q. What have you been feeling most confident and comfortable with coming into the week as far as your game?

JORDAN SPIETH: I've been driving the ball really well, and I did again in that round. Obviously putting that with the ball in hand, I guess if you're driving it well, you'd rather have it not ball in hand. But anyway, it's nice to be able to be picking it up, putting it on the right lies and then trying to control the spin from there.

But driving has been really nice. I want to get a little tighter with the putter. I've had some nice long ones, but it's not quite as solid feeling as I'd like. That could be just one session away or one putt on the course.