THE MODERATOR: On Thursday you went out with Zeke Newberry on the first hole. Can you talk about how that came to be and why it was important for you to kind of do something like that?
JORDAN SPIETH: Well, our foundation supported an organization that he and his family have taken advantage of that has allowed him to take a lot of flights, expenses paid, this amazing organization, where these kids can go get treatment. He was flying from Naples to Florida I think 20 some odd times, and now I know it's less often, but for a while it was every two weeks, I think. That's how it came about.
I think he's had his first surgery or his first treatment when he was, like, 3, and now he's 14. I mean, that kind of situation just nobody should have to deal with. Pediatric cancer is just an absolutely just terrible, terrible thing. We just got hooked up, I'm not exactly sure how, but he had some cousins here. I think maybe the organization was just going to bring him over here. So it was cool to spend some time with him and walk the first hole with him.
It was the best hole I've played this week, to be honest. I made eagle with him on the bag. I have yet to do that any other hole.
Q. Talk about how important it is for guys like you to kind of give back and help out community people going through tough times.
JORDAN SPIETH: I think it's any athlete, right? Kids want to be athletes when they grow up. A lot of them do. I believe that there is a responsibility when you are in the public eye that you should, especially if you've been given way better of a deck than most kids and then especially the ones who have been given some bad cards that, I mean, I've always thought -- and it's really just comes back to my upbringing with my parents and then also my high school at Jesuit. To me it was, like, Hey, just recognize that there's a lot of people that are struggling, and we're not.
I will grind out there, and it may seem like the world is ending to me out there, and I know in retrospect that that's just on the golf course, and I'm just competing. Anything that athletes can do and when I was young, I looked up to them. If you can be a role model, you definitely should be trying your hardest too.
Q. Jordan, today 71. After the bogeys on 13 and 15 and then you came back with in a birdie on 17, how big was that?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it was big. I thought I actually hit it on the left rough. I thought a really good bounce to be in the fairway and then I had a good angle from there and a good number. It was nice to see one go in.
The holes looked smaller than the golf ball for me for a month or so now. I feel like I'm hitting my lines. It was really nice to finish that way.
I played 18 a little safer than I would have with the wedge I had and may have had a better look at birdie if I didn't have to kind of make sure you don't get a gust or a weird, bad swing or something like that, but it looks like it will be good enough to have a chance this weekend. Wind is going to blow. So if there's any time you can be on the cut line and make a big move, it's going to be on this course this weekend. That's what I'm looking forward to doing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports