SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 8, 2023

Jordan Spieth

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you assess the week overall?

JORDAN SPIETH: Better than last year's start. Obviously after Friday I would have liked a better weekend. I made a lot of really, really bad decisions on the weekend. It wasn't any less, it wasn't any more or less on execution than the first two days. I made seven of 'em yesterday and at least four or five today. Very unlike me for a weekend. Which could maybe just go in a little bit of just contending and a little bit of rust. I really haven't played in the last few groups on a weekend since, I mean, shoot, going back more than six months.

So I think it just, it wasn't nerves or anything, just more I just played just some of the wrong shots or the wrong clubs. So that was a bit frustrating because it wasn't just on execution. But that's also a little easier to fix, I think.

Q. What's the plan with the driver? You said you broke it the other day. I assume that's going to be a priority when you go home.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I'm playing next week, so I've gone, I'm on just my backup head, which launch conditions are pretty good. A couple of 'em are surprising to me when I look up on where they're going. Typically on fades they're just fading more. I think that's a spin thing.

I know that J.J., my guy from Titleist, will be there next week with a couple more heads and some of the newer ones to try out. He knows exactly what I need. So I don't foresee it being a problem having a few days of runway. But I didn't have any runway. So that was tough this week.

Q. Can you speak to how hard it is to win even with a big lead. Because Collin went from six up, he's now one back. I don't think people get how difficult it is to close it out, no matter where you are on the leaderboard or what position you're in.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think what's challenging is continuing to play yourself against the golf course, which is what you did the first three rounds. That's the biggest difficulty when you have a big lead is you kind of sit there and one thing's a little tentative. Or, Just make sure that you play it to the center of the green here. And I haven't seen any of the round or what's happening I've just seen the scoreboard, so I don't know about Collin specifically. But I've had leads that I've lost and I've had a lot that I've kept. I would say that the most difficult part of the bigger leads and keeping 'em -- and I've had big leads where I lose 'em during the round and get 'em back, is finding a way to play against the golf course or a certain goal for that day.

If Collin set out to shoot 5-under today, which is, this was a very easy day to shoot 5-under, I didn't get to 5-under and I wasn't leading. If you set out to do that and your mind's only on that he has a higher likelihood of accomplishing that and at that point he's not going to get caught.

But it just gets really challenging when you get in that position because the only thing -- if you win you were supposed to. If you lose it's the worst thing ever. I think that mentality is just what you can't have creep in, but it's also human to have that happen. I think he's gone a little while without winning. So there's also that too. So it's not crazy, it doesn't mean he won't go win five events this year either if he doesn't win this one. In fact, regardless, coming out of it he'll be more comfortable the next time there and that's assuming he doesn't win.

Q. How hard is that to get over? How long does it take you to get over something like that?

JORDAN SPIETH: Let's see, I had a, the year I had ahead at the Masters and lost. I ended up winning at Colonial, which was a few starts later. I mean he's playing well. When you're playing well, you're playing well. Good form is good form. In golf it's probably, in an individual sport I imagine it's even more important than in a team sport.

You talk about team sports, they call it recent form in soccer, but it's like you got 11 guys out there and you could just have one go deflect off a guy's foot.

But in an individual sport, when you're in form, I assume he's going to continue to keep playing really, really well. The more times you're in that position, the bounces go your way.

Q. How long did you have that head, the one that cracked?

JORDAN SPIETH: I've been playing that driver for -- well I had one crack -- I played with a cracked driver the day I won in San Antonio. So it had to be after that. So it's been over a year. Which typically I go about a year on those heads and then crack 'em. It's been a few years in a row now.

But everybody does it. It's not just me. It's just unfortunate when it's Wednesday or Sunday. I've had it twice on Tuesday or Wednesday of the Masters in 2016 and 2019. And then I've had it, yeah -- so it's nice it's not in the spring. It's nice that it's in January. It would be better in November, but January's fine.

Q. Going ahead to Sony, what's the biggest thing you have to shift to when you go from Kapalua to Waialae?

JORDAN SPIETH: Honestly, everything. The greens putt totally different. Your ability to hit fairways goes way, way down. You're thinking through positioning versus just hitting driver everywhere. So I haven't played there in a little while, so I really need to almost kind of re-learn where you push it and where you lay back.

So I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to just the difference. It's fun as a golf lover to play such drastic, differences in golf courses, whether they're right next to each other or not. You don't have two more different back-to-back weeks I think than Kapalua to Sony. So it will be a fun challenge trying to make up for the decision making this weekend. Because it requires so much more there. So going to have to work on that.