THE CJ CUP BYRON NELSON

May 22, 2026

Jordan Spieth

TPC Craig Ranch

Quick Quotes

Q. Quite a day out there. You're going six birdies in a row. I think that's the most you've had on TOUR. How did you feel in the midst of that six birdies?

JORDAN SPIETH: I made a really nice par on 18, and it kept me kind of at 5-under. Frankly, knowing the cut's going to be 5 or 6, the front nine is where you've got to go get it.

I thought making the par on 18, hitting the fairway on 1, I just hadn't found any fairways. When that happened, I was like, all right, I should get some wedges coming up. My putting feels good today. Made some nice adjustments last night.

I've been working hard on it, so it's not just a one-click thing, but I felt like I got a nice feel that it allowed me to be more outwardly focused. The birdie on 1 was big, and from there I had a pitching wedge into 1, gap wedge into 2, pitching wedge into 3, 9-iron into 4 and a par-5 and then a lob wedge.

They were all very scorable clubs, but pins you had to kind of hit it on the correct side or hit a really good number at. But the hole started to look big, so that allows me to play a little bit safer on my approaches.

Q. Pretty unusual to have a 61 and a 62 in the same group. How did that feel to be riding that wave and then the hole-in-one?

JORDAN SPIETH: I was hurting my head trying to figure out what our best ball was. I think it was 57, which is pretty good.

Yeah, it was really fun. Sungjae got off to another really good start like he did yesterday. I was just kind of hanging behind those guys until we made the turn. I love playing golf with Sungjae, and I was hoping that we'd -- as we got to 7, I was like, all right, now I hope we don't play together because I'm up two or three on him, whatever, two on him. But you're feeding off each other, right? There's a lot of good golf going on. Chris ended up closing out really well too.

He hit one of the most beautiful -- that was one of the prettiest hole-in-ones I've ever seen. Prettier than any one I ever made. It's 222, and the wind is off the left to the left pin. There's only a few people that would land that left of it on purpose. He might be one of them.

He just hit this just perfect 5-iron that held the breeze and came down and went in like a putt, breaking left to right. From that distance, that club, I was like, Sungjae, all these other par-3s were way easier to make a hole-in-one on than that one. He obviously closed out with an eagle on the last to make our chances of playing together hard for tomorrow, but maybe Sunday.

Q. You mentioned over there you feel as good as you have in nine years. Why is that? Is it physically you feel like you're finally coming around? Is it kind of everything?

JORDAN SPIETH: It's physically and my mechanics. I got pretty off for a long time. I've been trying to build it back, and then I'd compensate and do what worked.

This last off-season I said no more compensating because, to be consistent, I've got to get it back to a certain place, and it's been work from then to try to get there. It's all in mechanics and health.

Q. Going off like you did with those six in a row, how much more special is it to do something like that here when you're really on a roll and it's kind of one of your favorite places to be?

JORDAN SPIETH: It's just nice to -- it's nice to capitalize, right? Play the hole, and you've got a wedge in your hand, you've got a shot that you see, and you're kind of thinking, I should make birdie here. It's just nice to do it, right?

Just a lot of it just comes down to knocking in putts. It felt good. I had a lot of family out today too. I certainly have that tomorrow, and my kids will make an appearance this weekend, which will be fun because they don't come out very often.

Yeah, I got to kind of see nieces and nephews in the crowd. It's not a normal week, and it's fantastic. Now that our families have grown and stuff, you get the little kids coming out, and it makes it even better.

Q. Jordan, of all of the facets of your game, what were you most in command of today, and why was that right for this day and this tournament?

JORDAN SPIETH: It was putting today. I've been driving the ball the best of my life, and I drove it horribly today, like really badly. But putting was -- to go to your actual question, putting was the best.

I felt fluid with it. I felt like I -- in what I've been trying to do, I've been trying to put it all together. I know what needs to happen, but putting it all together into a fluid stroke and then being able to be outwardly focused has been the goal.

I felt like last night I did a really good job out here of that being the goal, find that, and then carry it into this morning and then trust it on the course.

Frankly, I mean, I told Michael -- I've been telling Michael for a while. I just feel like one lips in instead of lips out, and I feel like the lid comes off. I lipped out a few yesterday. I had one on No. 10 go across the lip today, but then the one on No. 1 could have been short and fell in. It was like, oh, wow, there is a hole there.

Sometimes I've certainly shown that I can get streaky with it and was able to kind of get on the right side of that today.

Q. Have you had a chance to get out here since the renovation, and what are your thoughts on the golf course after seeing it in its new form?

JORDAN SPIETH: I played the front nine on the Pro-Am, and I looked at a couple greens on the back nine. Frankly, it showed yesterday. I was actually pretty upset last night that I didn't do more on Monday and Tuesday. I didn't come out here at all, fourth week in a row and 13th week out of 16. But with a new golf course, if you're going to play the tournament, you've got to be prepared.

I legitimately felt like I lost a couple shots yesterday on the back nine because I didn't come out here and see it. That was eating at me a little bit last night. I was like why would you play if you're not going to prepare the right way?

Luckily today was -- I still haven't even seen the 11th green. I had a tap-in today, and yesterday we were on the back right, and I was chipping and all that.

But I think it's awesome. I think the problem right now is that this is like the first time in the history of Dallas, Texas, that you'll have four or five days of very little east wind and soft conditions in May. You get your normal what we had on Monday out here, that's how it's designed. I think it would show that it's significantly harder, but also fair.

I think it's awesome. I think the TOUR's done a good job with the tee boxes on the par-3s because there's obviously a design element to it where it's not just like you're supposed to play the back of every box to every pin. So far they've done a good job of creating some fun spots, and it looks like maybe No. 3 could be drivable or something like that. So there may be some unique stuff that we haven't been able to see here.