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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 10, 2017

Jordan Spieth

Pebble Beach, California

Q. Talk about your day.
JORDAN SPIETH: Pretty good. Putted a lot better today than yesterday, but conditions were also totally different. Feeling like I've been striking it well and been trying to do a lot of work with the putter. And we got some pure greens out here at Spyglass and I started to roll some putts in starting on the third hole of the day, No. 12. So, got in a nice rhythm, the hole started to look big towards the end and very glad to finish with a nice 3.

Q. What do you work on when you're working on your putting?
JORDAN SPIETH: Just depends. It's just normally a little bit of kind of path and face marriage. Just matching them up. Normally my speed control, I don't really, doesn't really matter on how my stroke looks for my speed control work. Then we just do the same kind of stuff every week for that. What I'm a little off, it's just because I'm just slightly inconsistent in the stroke and we just try and find out exactly what that is. And this week just trying to -- it's not perfect, it doesn't feel the best on the stroke, but I'm just trying to get in a really good posture, good stance with my weight forward, and just kind of get a nice strike on the ball. Because the second you're kind of lifting up out here, it's just going to go off line quickly. So, trying to put a good solid strike, even if it is dying into the hole.

Q. How much could you see the pin at 9?
JORDAN SPIETH: We could see it. Yeah -- it was a little bit, but we could see the outline of the bunker, too. I knew that there was room to the left, so I knew to be aggressive to that pin. We play that pin, I think, every year here. So I knew that even if I flew it left, actually I was going to have an uphill putt so it frees me up. I had a good number too. A full 8-iron.

Q. How do these greens compare with MP yesterday?
JORDAN SPIETH: It was totally different. Totally different. Maybe it was because we got so much rain during the round yesterday. I don't know, same amount of players, we also had an earlier tee time here compared to the rest of the field. We were I think probably six or seven groups earlier out than over there. But not once from -- there was maybe one, number 4 was a little beat up here, just spongy. Other than that, not once from --

Q. (No Microphone.)
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, yeah. Well, if I didn't make it I would have had a six feet on the spongy one. But over there, we were grinding from one, two, three feet. And over here it felt like they were going to roll true. But MPCC's have been great in the past too. Spyglass is always the purest in my opinion.

Q. Are you excited given the fact that the sun allegedly might come out tomorrow, to have it last on the rotation?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, Pebble is fun on Saturday. Everyone is still playing. We got the celebrity rotation in this rotation. So a lot of cheers, a lot of laughs you can hear across Pebble and some of the holes crossing over there on the back nine makes for some fun. We should get an easier wind than what those guys had to deal with yesterday and even today over there.

Course is still golf course to be really soft even if the sun's out, but Pebble's a gettable golf course when the wind's not blowing. So, going to have to keep it rolling. Guys are shooting I think J-Day was something like 6 of 11 on this round. It's out there, you can throw darts. So you got to keep the pedal to the metal out there.

Q. Did you feel like you were in the zone today on the greens?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah a little bit. A little bit. I also had some 2-putt birdies. I made one long one on 4 and then a couple from 12 feet or so. But quite a few short ones. I've been pretty dialed in, too, with my ball striking. It really hasn't been much of my putting. I'm putting a little better than I did in my last three tournaments and that's why we're towards the top of the board. Striking it pretty much the same. I would like to continue to do so.

Q. How much do you think, when you're putting well, how much of it is the mechanics and how much is your confidence?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, confidence. Mechanics are on when I'm putting well, I think, but the point is is I'm looking and I'm hitting where I'm looking and it's the right location. And each time you kind of pick a spot from 10, 12 feet that you want to roll it over and then you roll it over with the perfect speed and you read it right, you go to the next hole and just believe in that you created the greens, pretty much. I mean you believe that that hole's big and you believe that anything that you do, it's going to find a way to go in. So, that's nice. I'm not at that level right now, and it will be difficult to get on that level on poa annua greens for me. But if we can continue to hit putts with the right speed from long range and not beat ourselves up when we're missing short ones, because it's bound to happen, then that patience will carry over.

Q. You talk about the hole getting big. Does your brother ever talk about that, the analogy to shooting well in basketball?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, yeah, he's talked about it, my dad talks about it for both of us in comparing. But, yeah, when you believe it's going to go in, even if it's off line a little bit, for some reason that will, it does something on the greens. And it does it the other way, too. So, if I'm not putting great, staying real patient allows me to get to that confidence level a lot quicker. I don't have to take two steps, I don't have to go back to neutral and then get confident. I can go straight to confident.

Q. The putt on 6, can you think of another time where you actually swung that hard?
JORDAN SPIETH: Not with a putter. Maybe St. Andrews, but I mean even 18 at St. Andrews, up the burn, I didn't hit that as hard. I mean that was unbelievable. I almost got a wedge. I could fly it most of the way up there and just one hop and stop. It's difficult, because they have done a great job with the pin placements here. When it's forecasted for this much rain, they're going to put it on the high points of the green, which is normally the back of the greens. Well, if the pin's on the back of the green, the greens are ridiculously soft, so we're spinning the ball a lot, but you can't throw it behind it. So it's very difficult. That's the biggest challenge for me over the last few years is courses where the greens are really soft and the pins are in the back. Just taking two clubs extra and swinging a half swing, that's been a very difficult thing for me to do, which is a bit surprising that I'm this far up, because you've had to do that almost every hole out here. But I've been taking advantage of a lot of the easier holes, I've been in a lot of fairways off the tee, so I just haven't made many mistakes. But it's very difficult to get next to many of these pins even with a wedge, even from 120 yards, because the ball's spinning back 30 feet.

Q. When you get a multiple course like this, when do you start keeping score with the rest of the field compared with?
JORDAN SPIETH: Sunday, probably. Yeah. I mean, I didn't feel any nerves out there, even though I knew I was towards the lead. Just because so much could happen with three courses and whatnot. So it's kind of nice. But tomorrow, start to probably see a little bit more, it will be odd being a Saturday and not being in like a leader group and other guys may be playing an hour, hour and a half ahead of us that are towards the lead somewhere else. So, the first two rounds it's been easy. Tomorrow might feel a little bit different. But in my opinion, I'm at 10-under now, if I can try and just make two a side at Pebble each time, and make up for the bogeys with maybe another birdie or something like that, it may be good enough.

Q. A couple days ago you lamented the fact that a couple tournaments this season you got off to a slow start and kind of been unable to move up. I imagine this is kind of what you were trying to work on.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yesterday's round was a great round. It was one that I felt like was a 5- or 6-under round that ended up at 3, just off some shorter length putts, but that happened with everybody. Finally it was really nice to birdie that last hole today and to finish at the point that I got to during the round. I don't like to get to 7-under on the round and then finish less than what I am at some point. I like to keep the momentum -- obviously anybody does -- but for me that was a really nice exclamation point at the end to say, all right, we shot 7-under, we took it to 4 at the turn and we kept the pedal down and were able to make a few putts on the back, made a couple really nice par saves on the back that kept that momentum. So, the one on 18 was really nice, hot start. Now I would like to, obviously, continue that scoring average from the weekend that we have had.

Q. Spyglass is typically the hardest of the three in the rotation. When you have a round like this, does it almost feel like you're picking up a little bit extra?
JORDAN SPIETH: Possibly, I think compared to the field I've played Spyglass -- this is my fifth time playing this tournament -- I've played Spyglass better to the field than I've played the other courses. So, I take it how it is. I mean, I don't know why. I do love this track a lot. Maybe it's the fact that I feel like the greens roll more true than anywhere else, and I should convince myself Pebble's that way too, but I've played this course well in the past, always have, obviously not this well, but yeah, I feel like I got a little extra today.

Q. Do you have any unusual rituals to practice your putting as a kid? I know we hear stories of Tiger's dad jingling coins?
JORDAN SPIETH: A lot of putting contests, just grabbing a few guys and learning to hit the putts with the right speed from long distance and obviously having to grind on the shorter putts. But just a lot of putting contests and then got into a lot of more mechanic work when I was probably, 14, 15 years old on.

Q. I asked him for an example of a great putt and Smylie said what really pisses him off is a 6-footer when you're looking at them the whole time and you never look at the ball, you just putt it in.
JORDAN SPIETH: Oh, me, yeah.

Q. Like messing around with your friends in those situations, do you like that --
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, yeah, here and there. Normally, if it's not for too much money, otherwise it's not necessarily worth it. But I've had success doing that. I assume over time it's probably not the best route, but it's fun when it works out.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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