THE 153RD OPEN

July 20, 2025

Jordan Spieth

Mixed Zone

Q. Is there a particular hole this week on the course you've enjoyed, and if so, can you talk me through it? Have you got a favourite hole out there?

JORDAN SPIETH: The 5th hole is great, isn't it? I think they did a great job with the pins. With what the wind conditions were going to be, if you took it on and hit a nice shot, it was a birdie hole, and if you didn't, you had to play it really safe, even from a chip shot. It was a great drivable par-4, which makes it -- that's super exciting for us.

Q. On the fans, both inside and outside, how have you enjoyed the fans on the course?

JORDAN SPIETH: They're the best in the world. Yeah, The Open always has the best fans in the world. Most knowledgeable. We have these giant grandstands. This is one of the better viewing, I think, Open courses because of the dramatic topography, so you get -- some Opens would be very hard for a spectator to view if you're not in a grandstand, but here you had all the par-3s, you had some great spots for people to see, and all the par-3s were really awesome this week.

This is one of my favourite Open venues, but in general, the crowds at any Open are typically the best in the world.

Q. Any experiences outside of the course that you've enjoyed this week?

JORDAN SPIETH: I got in late this week, and I didn't really get to venture out much. But I did the last time I was here in '19. I was here a little early and was able to be in Dublin for a couple days and then go up to Portrush early before we played. This year I didn't have the luxury, but hopefully next time.

Q. You grew up with Scottie; when you see him play like he's playing now, what do you make of --

JORDAN SPIETH: Obviously he won a U.S. Junior, like he was a great junior, but I don't remember necessarily saying it -- I think maybe after the Ryder Cup, watching him when he beat Jon and then when he came and won in that playoff in Phoenix, it's like, now he knows he didn't have to do anything different, and he's good enough to win any week. As anybody would be, I'd be pretty surprised if he wasn't the one holding the Claret Jug at the end of the day.

He's obviously well-deserving of it, probably the most deserving player of it, and I've thought the way that his game is the last few years, the harder the conditions, the better for him over here. If there's ever a chance for someone to take him down, it's when it's benign like this. But he's been putting so well this week, I have a hard time thinking anybody else would get it done.

Q. Shane said that if he had a swing like Adam Scott, more people would be comparing him to Tiger the way he's played over these last two or three years in terms of his dominance.

JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think it's also -- I think more so maybe it's less the golf swing and maybe more of his personality. He doesn't care to be a superstar. He's not transcending the game like Tiger did. He's not bringing it to a non-golf audience necessarily. He doesn't want to go do the stuff that a lot of us go do, corporately, anything like that.

He just wants to get away from the game and separate the two because I know that he -- at one time, he felt it was too much, that he was taking it with him, and whenever he made that switch, I don't know what it was, but he has hobbies. He's always with his family. They're always doing stuff.

I think it's more so the difference in personality from any other superstar that you've seen in the modern era and maybe in any sport. I don't think anybody is like him.

Q. He obviously has the will to win, but he sort of says it disappears after two minutes. You've obviously known him since he was young. Is his intense will to win there, or does he detach himself from it --

JORDAN SPIETH: Well, he has that unique ability to, from best I can tell, to separate. But again, when I see him, I'm at the golf course. I see him here and there off the course, but when we're playing on the course at home, he shit talks. He's very witty. You can't really go at him because he's smart, and he's got good bullshit.

Q. What would he say to you? What kind of things would he say --

JORDAN SPIETH: I mean, it's not necessarily just to me. It's normally the other people that we're playing with. But yeah, not that I want to say it -- I'm not going to quote him on that kind of stuff.

But then when a tournament starts, he's incredibly competitive, as you see. But it also -- he's kind of plotting along. You won't see that much emotion as he continues to strike it like this because the only time you're going to see it is when he's on the greens if he misses putts because he's not missing many shots.

I wouldn't necessarily think that the golf swing makes as much of a difference as the personality match. I'm thinking about so many other sports, and Nikola Jokic is the only guy I can think of that's a superstar that's equally unassuming in any sport in the modern era, and I'm happy if anybody else can find another example, but it's very rare. Most people lean into it and take advantage of it.

Q. Federer maybe?

JORDAN SPIETH: Federer, he went very -- he's maybe the same kind of demeanor and person; that doesn't mean -- as a person he's different, but he made more off the court than he did on all the time, and he cared to. When Scottie is done playing, he's not going to show back up at tournaments. I can promise you that.

Q. And Ryder Cup, we're not that far away. What do you want to do to --

JORDAN SPIETH: I've got to win. I've got to work my way in. I think statistically I'm playing good enough, but I'm just not finishing high enough, and I didn't have enough points from -- I didn't have enough points to get off to a good start from last year, and then I essentially missed four elevated events and it's based on money, and that's a killer. So I needed to make it up.

Hartford was really a dagger for that because I was playing well coming into it. I felt really good off of Oakmont. Felt like Hartford was a good track for me, and then I just had a random spout.

So that was a huge bummer, and then I knew I was going to have a few weeks off; we were having a baby, so I just dropped in FedExCup. It was just poor timing. Hartford really stung. So I was putting a lot on this week. But I just was really rusty to start.

So this was going to be -- I thought if I finished high here, I could write it off. So it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I also couldn't really expect to come in and just play like I had just finished third last week. I only played two rounds of golf in the last four weeks. I'm going to have to probably add an event and work my way as far as I can.

I think if I can make it to the TOUR Championship, that means that I've played well in the Playoffs, in big events, and it may come down to if Keegan picks himself or not and opens up a spot. It may come down to how other guys are playing that are on the bubble.

I know if I can get somewhat close -- I feel like I'm in similar to even a little better position than what Justin was in '23. He was outside the Playoffs altogether, where I think maybe if you go off recency bias, I would have been playing better this last half of this year coming into the end of this year. So that gives me hope, but also remember who was on the receiving end of when Justin got picked. So that doesn't necessarily mean -- they're going off the stats guys and they're going to pick the best 12 guys. Do I think I'm that right this second? No. But do I think I can be that by three weeks' time? Yeah.

Q. Sometimes when you have a baby, a lot of golfers win a few weeks later.

JORDAN SPIETH: If I was playing better, then I could have won this week. No, I don't think it just comes out of nowhere. Scottie was the best player in the world, had a baby, played a couple weeks later, he was still the best player in the world. I'm working my way up from surgery, and it's seemed to be better every couple months, I'm getting more consistent, and I still feel that way.

Q. What are you overall pleased with, and where are you lacking? Your misses don't seem wild.

JORDAN SPIETH: I mean, I only had a couple that were more than five years off the fairway this week out here, which is nice. I didn't get away with the ones that I did. I did get away with a couple scooting bunkers and then I hit it in a few of them.

But I'm pleased with the consistency of the striking. I feel like if you asked me to hit any shot right now, I feel like I've got confidence I can pull it off, chip a 7-iron, do stuff that I had been struggling with.

But man, if you count anytime I had a putter in my hand, even off the green, I think I had 13 three-putts this week, and I've had maybe -- five or six times I had a wedge in my hand around the green, within three yards of the green, and didn't get up-and-down. That's 15, 18 shots. I'm not saying I'm going to get them all in, but for me that's normally a strength of my game, and that just comes down to pure rust and probably not playing the week before where you get acclimated to kind of bounces, and the turf plays a little bit different.

There's only so much you can get on the practice greens. It's very different on the golf course. It was all in speed control. I putted two of them off the green, chipped three of them off the green. Just bizarre stuff for me that when I hit them I didn't think they were that bad, and all of a sudden they're bad.

Q. Wyndham is the one you'll add?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think so. I'm just going to have to see what -- it will depend on how everything is going at home and it'll depend on if I think it's going to be incredibly useful. Missing these last -- Hartford and then the three after, I dropped like 11 or 12 spots in the FedExCup, and that 50 number is an important number.

If I can continue to not be on the outside looking in and instead go have a strong week leading into the first playoff event, I'd feel better. And if I start to play really well at Wyndham on and I make it to the TOUR Championship, that's only four in a row, which the only bad part of that is having a newborn at home. Four in a row is not a big deal, and I can make trips home in between, I guess.

Q. Can you talk about how excited you are to go back to Birkdale next year, and why is it so unique?

JORDAN SPIETH: I think here and there are the two most similar Open venues that are different from the rest because I think that they're played more from the air than they are true links on the ground. There's not many areas that you can bounce and run it up at either course. In that way, I at least know what is expected. But it'll be really cool to just go out there and play the course again. I haven't been there since -- it'll be cool to relive the memories that I had from the whole week, and obviously the last five holes or so. That was probably the best, most clutch stretch of golf that I ever played. Anytime I'll go back there in the future. I remember exactly what I was looking at. I remember how I felt. It'll come right back to me.