THE MODERATOR: Talk about your round today.
J.J. SPAUN: Yeah, I was definitely anxious to get back out here and see how the game would pan out, and it ended up being a pretty good day. It was more of a true U.S. Open round I feel like, a lot of back and forth, a lot of grinding, bogeys. I saved all those from Thursday's round. Yeah, it was still an overall good day, positive day. I'm still right there and got 36 holes to keep it up and see what happens at the end.
Q. How difficult would it have been say a few years ago to look at this as kind of a 36-hole performance instead of maybe a few years ago you'd say I played good yesterday, worse today?
J.J. SPAUN: Yeah, totally. A few years ago I would probably expect to play poorly today. But I knew it would be hard to back up a bogey-free 4-under at Oakmont in the U.S. Open. So I'm just glad that I kept it together. I was even par -- I was actually 1-under through 5 maybe, 6, so I still was hitting a lot of good shots, making a lot of good conversions, and I'm glad I kind of kept it together, kind of fell asleep on the back nine towards the end there, but responded with a nice birdie on 17 and hit a good shot on 18. I ended up being 2-over.
Granted, the venue we're at, it's still a pretty decent score.
Q. What would you say is the biggest difference between yesterday and today, and what's the No. 1 thing you want to adjust and look at from today and adjust for tomorrow?
J.J. SPAUN: It's kind of hard to go into the round having the -- not expectation, but I want to say just more of you know what's coming in a sense. I hadn't made a bogey all day on Thursday, so I just didn't want to feel like I'm adding too much pressure into the day trying to keep that up or kind of trying to shoot under par again. I was just trying to let the course come to me and stick to hitting fairways and greens and just taking what the course gives you because that's all U.S. Opens are. You kind of get what you get. You can get a huge bounce like I did on 18 and go 30 yards over the green.
But it is what it is. But happy to still have a shot going into the weekend.
Q. For most of your career you were kind of a self-taught player. What made you decide to start working with a coach?
J.J. SPAUN: So when I went through my health diagnosis, I lost about 50 pounds, and so my body just wasn't reacting to the feels that I was used to having when I was 50 pounds heavier. So I needed some advice. I needed some guidance. I went through a few guys, kind of experimenting, and it was a learning experience kind of picking the right coach for me.
I've known Adam Schreiber for, gosh, 10, 15 years almost throughout the Canadian Tour. He's caddying for a couple guys out there, and he's seen my swing a lot throughout the years and he knows when it looks good and knows when it's off. It's been a good kind of marriage for the last few years.
Q. What's been the biggest difference he's made in your game?
J.J. SPAUN: Getting structure and consistency in my swing as far as how I need to work on things, what I need to do, and kind of a blueprint. We kind of found a blueprint to the key to my swing. We kind of go back to that square if things are a little off, if you know what I mean.
It's been good, and I think just having the consistency -- I think I mentioned yesterday I like to go down the rabbit hole. He wasn't there with me at home last week, so that's kind of a problem and he tells me to just stay the course and listen to him and he'll fix things.
Q. I know you said you're just starting to learn how to feel comfortable with the lead. Because you finished earlier in the day yesterday and teed off later this afternoon, how did you spend that large chunk of time and dealing with those nerves once you stepped on to the first tee today?
J.J. SPAUN: I have my family here, my two kids. They're two and a half and two, and my wife. I'm really busy with them being a dad and playing with them and going out to meals and hanging out with them.
I did get a little practice in after my round yesterday, so it was kind of nice to not have too much time in between my two tee times.
But anyone knows dad duty is a pretty crazy time, especially with ages of four and a half and two. It's a good distraction to have them around so you're not dwelling or thinking about things when you're all alone in a hotel room. It's been nice to have them out.
Q. I had your round at five hours and 40 minutes. You know it's going to be a grind out here, but that seems kind of long. How do you handle it mentally, and do you have a routine you go through if you get to a tee box and know it's going to be 10, 15 minutes?
J.J. SPAUN: Yeah, we didn't wait a ton throughout the day until we got to 12 tee and there's two groups on the tee and it's a par-5 and you're standing up there and you've already been three and a half hours in and you're waiting about 15, 20 minutes just to hit your tee shot, then you've got to hit a tough tee shot.
I think the key is just to kind of embrace it, accept it and stay fueled as far as nutrition and eating and drinking enough water to stay hydrated.
But honestly, we play pretty slow on Tour anyway, so what's another 40 minutes to go around Oakmont.
Q. Adam is saying you asked him to give you a little pep talk earlier this week. Just wondering what you said to you and how that got you fired up.
J.J. SPAUN: Yeah, he knows I'm a pretty -- I wouldn't say feisty, but I get agitated pretty easily. He told me that things aren't going to go my way. It's the U.S. Open. It's more about how you respond than react.
I did a really good job of that the last two days, and it was kind of a nice little mantra to go by to keep things in front of me and not let things unravel when things didn't go my way.
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