Q. How good was that birdie on 18 and just talk what you thought you did best today.
JORDAN SPIETH: That was a, that was one of the harder holes I've played on the PGA TOUR today. So getting a birdie there felt like a huge steal. Just wanted to hit the putt hard enough. They were pretty slow and bumpy this afternoon. I hadn't really made much and I got one to fall in on 17, made the hole look like it existed. Then sometimes that's all you need. What did I do best? Probably I kept just kind of under reacted to things, which is what I've been working on. Yesterday I caught a couple nice breaks, today I had a couple that kind of hung on the edges of rough, bunker, or just kind of were as anything when its wind happens on hard courses you can get in some tough spots. I just didn't react and made sure that bogey was my worst score. Then you never know. Birdieing two of the last three was a huge bonus heading into the weekend with Cam posting 13.
Q. How hard has it been, you working on the under reacting to things?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, decently hard because I feel like my game's been getting better so I just want it to show up in the results. So it's frustrating. If I was playing bad and bad things were happening it's like, you know, I can be realistic with myself that, but I want to get away with a couple shots here or there and then I want to see some scores posted. But it's days like today where it really matters, not days like yesterday.
Q. Do you feel like you had good patience out there today with how it was playing?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah. I mean, if you give me a bucket of balls on No. 1 and number 10, these par-5s, these par-5s, I just, I think I played 1-under by making a birdie on 8. But I was in easy position to birdie all of 'em and I just felt like I left a couple out there. Those are sometimes harder because you know the conditions are difficult and you know the other holes are going to be really hard. So with four par-5s you at least kind of think if I hit the right shots off the tee I should give myself some opportunities. I just got to get those up-and-down. I misjudged a couple sand shots and I just had an off day putting. Got to get a little tighter around the greens like I was yesterday and that round turns into 3- or 4-under for sure pretty easily.
Q. I know you're not as close as you would want to be where Cam is. But what's your mentality, how do you maybe strategy-wise this weekend, how are you going to play it to hopefully stay in contention all the way through Sunday?
JORDAN SPIETH: I think the fortunate part of this golf course is that there's really no adjustment in strategy day-to-day. It's going to be windier tomorrow, but it's like you're trying to hit the greens on the par-3s, you're waiting for the par-5s, and possibly steal a really good drive sets you up on No. 3 or 5, you got a couple wedge holes. But I mean the course kind of makes you take your medicine in places, and then gives you six or seven times where you can really be aggressive. It's not, 13-under, I would have guessed that 13-under was lower than the winning score at the beginning of the week. And it still could be. But tomorrow it's going to be as windy or windier. So just trying to stay under par each day is a big deal. Then it will change on Sunday and I think shooting two rounds under par anything can happen.
Q. Halfway through a 72-player field, no cut, twosomes all weekend. From a player perspective, do you like this format as compared to the Friday cut and a little bit more stress going on, how does that look?
JORDAN SPIETH: I mean, if you're asking me personally like what, I mean, obviously. If you're asking me what's best for the PGA TOUR, that's probably a different answer. But as a player in that, why wouldn't that be better? You know. But I don't know if that's what's going to be best or what's going to happen in the future. And that's not necessarily for the players to decide, it will be collaborating with the networks and the fans and the players, so it will be kind of a group effort. I think they're trying to figure that out. But I mean, as a player, you know, obviously you're playing faster, there's less people in the field, so it's technically, you know, obviously the field's elite, but if you just added more people that's more players. So, yes and no, depending upon how you're asking it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports