THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 13, 2025

Jordan Spieth

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. 2-under today, just some opening comments.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I got off to a dream start, and then I just wasn't very tight off the tee today, and out here eventually that will hurt you.

But I battled really well on my second nine. Posting 2-under when out here a lot of times for me when I'm a little off I've shot over par in the first round and really feel behind. Been driving the ball pretty well. Today was not one of those days, so I'll go try to tighten it up and hit more fairways tomorrow.

Q. People like to joke sometimes that you have these chaotic stretches where eagle, bogey, things like that? When you're going through it --

JORDAN SPIETH: I like to -- let's flip that. Bogey, eagle. Yeah. I like it the other way around.

Q. Does it feel different when you're going through that? Can you tell when you're in the midst of a stretch that's like really all these crazy things seem to keep happening?

JORDAN SPIETH: I'm obviously very aware of what I'm doing. But, I mean, no, I mean, I feel like I'd like it to be boring, and then I'm still in a position right now where I'm still not at the place I want to be and just trying to work my way there.

So when that happens there's going to be volatility. I don't feel super tight yet, but I do feel like I'm on the right path and I've had a number of tournaments where I've played boring towards the end and I've had plenty where there's volatility too.

This time it wasn't from making a dumb mistake. I made a bad swing. So sometimes -- that's okay. A lot of the times when it happens it's when I'm trying to do too much, and that's when I'm aware of it and that's the most frustrating one. Bad swing, you go learn how to make better swings.

But I made good decisions until my second shot on the 9th today, and Pete Dye got me again. You just can't -- when you're don't have a wedge out of the fairway you have to take your medicine on these par-5s, play the angles and stuff like that. I probably lost a shot there, but overall it wasn't -- all the volatility was just in those first five, six holes and from there it was just almost and just close to being really good.

Q. Which version of a nine feels better to you? Is it one where you're playing steady golf?

JORDAN SPIETH: Oh, for sure, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Q. Say they're both even, like they both finish at par?

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it's still, you still feel more -- I mean, you know, you like to see that there's firepower. If I made 16 pars and two birdies, I would be like, oh, what do I need to do to make more birdies, but if it was from hitting every green to 15 feet and you hit good putts, then you know it's coming. So sometimes it's easier to get rid of bogeys when you know you're going to make enough birdies. But it kind of depends on how it's done. Ideally I'm hitting more greens in regulation because it is very challenging around the greens here.

Q. You said you don't feel like you're all the way back yet. How will you know when you are?

JORDAN SPIETH: When I stand over it and I'm not trying to avoid things. Instead I'm picking a target and I'm very confident it's going to start on that target and move to where I want it. So pretty much where most ever these guys are playing from, I would like to get there.

I'm doing a really good job of battling it. I had to kind of rebuild stuff from a few months of nothing, and it wasn't like I was coming back to something that was already great right before. I was in some really bad habits for a year and a half.

So it just takes maybe double the balls that I hit prior, and my wrist feels really good this week, I'm very excited about that, so that allows me to feel like I can go out right now and push it a bit, when I couldn't the first few weeks, first few events of the season.

Q. You expressed how kind of bummed you were not to be out there last week. What did you do last week and how did not being out there last week maybe affect your mindset coming in this week?

JORDAN SPIETH: I was just home. I was in a normal week. I only took one day off. I typically take more than that off, but I liked what I was doing, and I knew exactly what I wanted to accomplish from the Cognizant. So I just took Monday off and then I was right back at it Tuesday. I did a mix of maybe three practice days and three playing days, which is pretty typical at home.

Then I came here Sunday afternoon, just to get in, get settled, and then I went through my routine here. We have as good of facilities as anywhere in the world here, so if the weather was better on the weekend here I would have probably come in earlier. But yeah, it was just a normal week. It was tough watching, but I didn't earn my way into the event, so it's a little easier to watch that way. It was fine because, when I missed the BMW and the TOUR Championship last year, that stung more. Just because that's like the whole season. This one, you know, you can't really rely on getting in, you have to play your way in for certainty.

Q. Why did you take the drop you did on 14?

JORDAN SPIETH: Why did I take the drop I did? Well I wanted to go as far up as I could go so I could push the next shot up and --

Q. Why didn't you drop further, was there any question?

JORDAN SPIETH: I didn't think so. I mean, from where I was standing, I didn't even see it land in the water because the trees were blocking. The guys were saying there was a chance it crossed up there, but I was, like, it would have had to have covered the corner for me to believe that it could have actually covered the red line. It may have covered a little bit of land, but they said it landed even with the red stake. Even though it was just barely in, I was like, I can't, I can't feel good about dropping one up there if it's that close and I'm leaning towards it's most likely not. If it covered the corner, it was moving, so I could justify that it would have hit the corner and may have saved me a shot. But yeah, it was 60/40th wrong way, so I played it the right way.