Q. Let's talk about the round. What went well for you today? What was the difficult part?
JORDAN SPIETH: I struck the ball well. I drove it really well. I was in a good position on a lot of holes. If I drive it like that, I'd expect to shoot what I did or better.
Just didn't quite finish the way I wanted to the last three holes, but under-par was a good score. It was blowing really hard, and it was cold this morning. The course played very, very difficult.
It was a good start. I'm going to need to improve on it, I think, each day.
Q. The level of challenge with the rough around the fairways or around the greens?
JORDAN SPIETH: Sometimes you see the ball around the greens so you think it's not so bad, but those are the worst ones.
The pins are the defense too of the course. Even when you're hitting it in the fairway, it's very difficult to get it on the right tier and have a putt that doesn't do a couple things.
All in all, it's a challenge. They give you some wedges, and you've got to take advantage in the few times you get good chances. Other than that, be playing to the middle of the greens and just try to pepper greens in regulation.
Q. We had a couple of players say that the pins were awesome. I don't know what that means to you.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, they were definitely -- you could see how this course could play very fun for members if they want to make the pins in bowls. Seems like for us they want to put them right in the corners and stuff.
Yeah, if you got a good chance, it was fun to try to take some on. If you were out of position, you really had a tough two-putt because you could only hit it on the center of the green.
We kind of knew that was going to be the case coming in, and they definitely did that. They give you kind of an easier start on the 1st hole, on No. 1, and from there it got kind of diabolical.
Q. With those good moments today, your outlook for the rest of the week? How positive do you feel?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, very. It's one of those rounds where I feel like I played better than I scored, which is frustrating because you want to get the most out of your round. It's also a good thing, which means things are in a good spot.
I'll go try to tighten a couple things up that got off at the end of the day and just go out there tomorrow and try to make a few more putts.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports