RBC Heritage
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Jordan Spieth
Quick Quotes
Q. Started on the back nine. That double at 14, but just really hung in there. How important do you think that birdie was on the final hole of the day to keep the momentum?
JORDAN SPIETH: It's one stroke, but to shoot over par versus even is actually kind of a big deal. It doesn't feel like the golf course beat you today. It's a three-round tournament, just kind of one round, tied the course.
I felt like I hit a lot of really good shots today. It is tough out here when the wind is kind of swirling through the trees. I haven't played here in four years, I forgot about that.
I felt like I stayed really patient, took some punches today on some wind gusts or whatever it may be, and some putts that almost went in. But with the conditions we have coming up through the next three days I kept myself in it. I really could have shot 2- or 3-over today. And feel like the game is progressing.
Q. Sometimes the stats don't always tell the story, because you're looking, it says 8 out of 14 fairways, but you don't hit 15 greens and blow it too far off the map. When you look at the iron play today, how would you assess it?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, one of my irons went in the water, but it's the best 8-iron I've hit in a year and a half. I caught an into gust when it was supposed to be down. Another one of my missed greens, two of them were kind of just on the fringes.
All in all very pleased with what I did to get myself on or around the greens in a couple of strokes. And I really have to bust it out here.
I really got Augusta'd out here. What I mean is I was still putting to the speed of Augusta. I haven't fully made the transition away from that. And as we are expecting high winds I'm sure the greens will slow down even more to make it fair. I'm really going to need to dial in my speed on the greens. Just tough out there coming off last week to this week, to get yourself to pop it harder than you really want to.
Q. How would you assess the putter today?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, good. I felt like I hit my lines. Again, it was just the speed control on a couple of my misses or at least trusting to play them high enough that they'll actually break that much. It's good.
Q. You didn't start the greatest, but looked like you developed momentum as you went through the weekend there. Did you feel that way and does it carry over to where you feel like you are right now?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I felt like today that front nine today kind of felt like my first nine holes at Augusta. I got about a 2-over instead of 4, and back nine shot a couple under instead of 1-under. Just a little improvements on it.
It was an off day, and what I mean by that, I didn't feel my game was off, it's one of those days it's hard to commit to a club, because you feel like you've got an in between number on every hole. When the wind blows harder out here it will be easier to commit to trusting where that breeze is. It was kind of doing a little bit of this today.
Q. Looked like it kept changing?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, that one was a tough call. If it's blowing hard into, which I took less club and I was okay with trying to hit it on the right side of the green. And Francesco steps up with one more club and flies in the back bunker. You can do everything right and end up in a really bad spot out here sometimes. And the golf course is fair, it's just that the way that it works in the tall trees, how the wind swirls down sometimes, you don't get it high enough for the wind to affect it. You'll see a lot of guys changing clubs and maybe taking a little longer to hit their shots.
Q. You haven't been to this tournament in a few years, did you decide to commit here to kind of shake things up and come to a place you've had some positive vibes in the past?
JORDAN SPIETH: It's been on my schedule for a lot longer. I was planning on playing here probably a couple of months ago. And it's because the few years that I have played I played it well. And I feel like I'm doing myself a disservice, just because it's after the Masters, not coming to this event. I'm trying to play golf courses where the greens and the grass type and the conditions suit my game. And I haven't done a great job in my scheduling this year thus far with this new schedule. But I think adding this event was really good for me.
Q. It's been a couple of years since you've been here, is the course how you remember, how did it stack up?
JORDAN SPIETH: So pure. It really is just flush. I just didn't quite make the adjustment to the difference in the green speeds from last week to this week. I knew our group would be leaving some putts short today and we all did, but they trick it out on the greens, but it's still tough and fair.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #178 at 2019-04-18 17:26:00 GMT
