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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 11, 2018

Jordan Spieth

St. Louis, Missouri

Q. Describe the day, Jordan.
JORDAN SPIETH: Up and down. A little bit of everything.

Q. You had such a nice run going. Then what happened?
JORDAN SPIETH: What I'm working on in the swing isn't quite there. Squatted a little on the tee, squatted back, and playing a draw, hit it way off the toe. Those can go pretty far right. And then I thought I had a shot and just didn't quite pull it off, had a tough break. In reality, I should have played the smart shot, just accepted par or bogey instead of trying to take the green. But hindsight is 20/20.

Obviously, a bummer because my putter is as hot as it's been in two years, and I'm really rolling the rock nicely, and the swing is almost there. It's really close. As I get to kind of 4 iron to driver is where it just needs that extra 10 percent of work to not hit those kinds of shots.

But, yeah, I mean overall for the day looking back, I'm extremely excited about where my game is at, just very frustrated that I've worked my way into a chance to win this tournament just to kind of throw it away on a bad decision.

Q. You were talking the other day that you worked on the wrong things for a long time. So you were trying to kind of reverse that. So take us to where you were a week or two ago with that. And then here today, do you feel like you've made a lot of progress?
JORDAN SPIETH: Even day one, I wasn't working the right things. So from there, it's been phenomenal what I've been able to do, in my mind. I've made, what, I believe -- I thought might take weeks, kind of a turnaround to be able to trust and hit some really quality shots and work my way up a Major championship leaderboard in the span of hours.

Q. Do you think you'd try that shot if you're really kind of not out of it? I think at that point you're probably thinking I'd like to get a par out of this at 12 because you're getting closer to the lead?
JORDAN SPIETH: No. If I weren't -- if I weren't in it, I not only would have tried it, I probably would have pulled it off.

Q. But you know what I'm saying.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. Looking back, I'm going through all the scenarios afterwards, and it's sitting in a little bit of where an old twig had been in mud, and also slightly underground, which means you try to play the low shot, it could pop out high. And so I saw a V in the tree where it would just start at the left side of the green and I could hit it stock fade.

And the only outcome I'm seeing any differently would have been I just shouldn't have hit a 5 iron, I should have hit a 6 or 7, because the higher it got, the wider the gap. I was 205 yards away from the hole into the wind, so I thought 5 was the club to actually get back to the hole, which is where my mind shouldn't have been. It should have been five paces onto the green.

Yeah, I mean, I just -- I thought, if I didn't pull it off and hit the tree, I'd be somewhere down into the trees and still be able to make 5. I hit two trees to get out of bounds, and my tee shot hit the cart path to get over there, and it just was a perfect storm.

Q. How about the mindset going into tomorrow?
JORDAN SPIETH: Just same as today. I went out feeling really good about the progress over the last couple of days on the greens, and with the ball striking, just trying to give myself a lot of putts, and the ones I got to the hole I made. That's kind of the theme of the week for me. So tomorrow's just hit 18 greens in regulation.

I mean, I know I can shoot around a 7 or 8 under around here. I know that that's in the bag. I mean, I played holes 1 through 3 at 2 over, and the field is playing well under par. If I can get off to a hot start there and playing the rest of the golf course really well, I know I have a chance to win this golf tournament. But I can shoot a low score and potentially back door top ten, and that would be the goal.

Q. Do you know exactly what is working for you?
JORDAN SPIETH: Oh, yeah.

Q. Do you feel it?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. To an extent, it still needs -- certain into the wind holes, or when the wind is off to the left, when I get a 4 iron through a driver in my hand, it still picks up instead of getting around. And really anything can happen when I pick it up. I just started week to week from about this time last year, working the wrong direction right off the bat, and I'm reversing that and doing the correct way. It just took a long time to figure it out.

And it's going the right direction. There's some really good golf going forward for me, and I'm excited about that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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