Q. Can you talk us through the last five holes with the bogey on 17 to start with.
JORDAN SPIETH: To start with? It was my best swing of the week. It was 175 to cover, 185 hole, yesterday my 9-iron given it was a little different wind flew close to 170. I hit an 8 and I kind of today it was really tricky because the wind kept going almost back to northeast and then it would go to northwest and with a cold wind here that makes such a massive difference, more than it does anywhere else that we play, I think. And I just was worried if I held it up against that breeze that it may not carry, but we were pretty confident in it and when I struck it I thought it was all over it. I hit the dead center of the face, high, kind of hold straight ball, the wind just took it a little. And it was on the line where it would have actually not only bounced towards the hole it would have then fed left. I was, in the air I was thinking this might lip out. And it hits the lip and goes in the bunker.
Bunker shot, you would like to leave below the hole instead of above out here and it just shot out. I wasn't trying to hole it or anything like that, just wasn't a lot of sand in it.
And then I just lined up pretty high to have a die pace on my putt and I just hit it just a little bit too hard.
So driver got off towards the end I probably should have hit iron off of 15 and I hit driver and that took away one of my birdie chances. Other than that I hit every shot really where I wanted to hit 'em. And typically that works out really well for me, it just didn't quite today.
I had a couple, between the putt on 11 and the putt on 14 those were two that, I mean, with five feet to go I don't think they can miss the middle of the hole and found a way to miss. I've had plenty of times where the hole catches those and win the golf tournament. So try and do the exact same thing next week.
Q. What were the emotions like on the back nine, how much did you scoreboard watch and you obviously had a two-shot lead there for a little while?
JORDAN SPIETH: I didn't know I had a two-shot lead at any point in time. I didn't do a lot of scoreboard watching, there's a lot of boards or here or there I did glance or see that I was at or near or tied or in the lead. I saw T-1 at one point and then I saw 1st at one point. So it was continue to play each hole -- like out here the only hole that you wouldn't play the only hole you could play differently 4-down versus 4-up is 18. Every other hole you hit the shot to where you want to hit it, being too aggressive doesn't really get you much.
So it didn't have anything to do with it, I mean I would say it had been quite awhile now since I was really in contention and so I can almost look at last year at as very similar to my Phoenix-type tournament where it was kind of the first time in contention in a little while and so definitely yesterday and today the second half of yesterday and all of today's round had some nerves, I guess adrenaline is a better way to put it. I stayed positive, I looked what I was working on I liked the way I struck the ball this week and felt like I was putting it better each day. So I was eyeing today as a low one and it very well could have been.
Q. Last Wednesday you're in the hospital before Farmers and then you were saying just how bad you felt on the course, missing the cut. If you could describe the last week to then put yourself in contention here at Pebble?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think, I mean not only an extra day given it started on Wednesday but missing the cut it gives me an extra, I mean I had a week there in between.
And I feel almost a hundred percent, but I still can't really keep a whole lot down. It's about half of what it was. But I'm down some weight and all that stuff but I didn't feel it affected any performance whatsoever. Again, like just -- look, scores are easy to look at, they don't always tell the entire tale and last week certainly I, once it started going sideways I just needed to be done, because I'd never felt like that on the course. But prior to that and just progressively I felt really good about my ball striking and just really felt like I needed to heat the putter up. I felt like I burned a lot of edges my last few months and yesterday they started to fall, so -- and today I made some nice putts as well. So I think I'm in a lot better position, but I think still got a little ways to go.
Q. Gutsy week in many ways for you. Maybe one of the better ones because of what's gone on over the last several days.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I mean I'll look back and kick myself for not winning this tournament just having the lead and looking back at where the pins were on the last four holes and say, you know, there's 1- or 2-under there and if I go 1-under I think I'm in a playoff and 2 -- so you get a birdie on 15, 16 or 17 then I can birdie the 18th to win.
So that's where I'll be, but certainly if you told me I would have the lead on Sunday on the last Thursday I would have said I'll take that.
So played well, tempo got a little off on the driver as kind of nerves were up and such. I've driven the ball really well the whole week, and just kind of started missing some contact. So I'll probably dissect that a little bit into next week and try and improve.
Q. Obviously disappointing finish, but hit the ball well all week long. Talk a little bit about your day about your ball striking and how you're feeling moving on.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I still feel like there's some significant progression to get it to where I want it to go and I feel that certain range sessions are like, wow, I feel, those are striped and every ball's on a string. Transferring it to the course just keeps getting better and better. Tournaments like this where, on a Saturday, Sunday as you're towards the top of the leaderboard and you need to keep trusting things are where I really make progress.
So all positives on that front. I think I was first in tee to green yesterday or maybe approach. That's where I've felt I've been heading for rounds like that where I can ball strike my way into really low rounds and when the putter's hot then that's when you win the golf tournament.
So today again just off the tee a little bit, but even on the approach shots like I No. 1 and number, where is the other one I'm thinking of, on 9? I mean, they were both within a foot of being right next to the hole and they end up in that -- I was playing aggressive, I was hitting shots where thinking I needed to shoot 5- or 6-under today around Pebble to win this golf tournament. So even the ones that weren't great were actually really good shots that just were a yard or two off. So you don't normally have to be this precise elsewhere and so I'm looking forward to what's next.
Q. You spoke on Tuesday in your opening press conference about loving this course loving this tournament. Can you just reflect on the week a little bit and how it went for you?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I mean, I can't tell you how many times maybe had half a dozen times I got to tell Jake, Hey, we didn't even have to pay to play Pebble Beach this weekend. And the weather we had, I mean it's just, you don't want to leave. Like we we've been here since Saturday and as excited as I am for the next couple events, I mean I could stay here for months and just play this golf course, it's just -- all three of them were so much fun this week. They were in such great condition, they were firmer, faster, weather permitted. So it's always amazing it's one of our favorite places in the world on the Monterey Peninsula.
Q. I heard a story about you and Tom Hoge, potentially a craps situation involved.
JORDAN SPIETH: I think he taught me back in the day, to be honest.
Q. How are you feeling about it -- obviously disappointing not to one the tournament yourself, but how are you feeling for Tom right now?
JORDAN SPIETH: I mean, he's, he's a Texan, he's from Fort Worth, somebody who I've really gotten to know here or there that I think the general public doesn't realize that he's a guy when he's in contention will be the guy that can close it out. I mean there's just, there's few and far between the guys that are going to sit there and embrace it and play fearlessly.
And he's somebody that I knew when he was on the heels I needed to make birdies, he wasn't going to falter. So between him and Patrick behind I never felt secure and therefore I tried to keep playing aggressively as well. So happy for him, very happy for him, a little upset he didn't shoot even par today, but it is what it is.
Q. Yesterday when you were reflecting the cliff shot you said you weren't really looking forward to talking to your wife and parents. How did that go?
JORDAN SPIETH: It was fine. I mean, they were kind of just more asking about it than anything else I think at one point Annie said, You know, it's okay, it's just golf, you don't have to you don't have to do that. You know she was, it was almost like she was kind of like relieved more than anything else, I think, so anyway.
Q. How did the talk go yesterday when you had to explain the shot that you hit to like Annie and the family?
JORDAN SPIETH: They were just asking questions about it because it was maybe hard to tell how stable it was. And they didn't like what I had to say, I don't think, but like I was just saying I think it was more of a relief feeling and I was asking where they were and they were like my mom and Annie couldn't watch and my dad was just like, what's going on.
So it was, yeah, I think looking back I just never had a situation where it was like a life and death scenario on the golf course, so I think it was just kind of weird in that setting. But I don't expect to have anymore of those any time soon.
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