Q. Nice par on 18. You seemed pretty fired up with the putt. What did it mean to save that par going into tomorrow?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, it was a messy hole. I didn't play a lot of messy holes, but I was looking at the board and I thought it was maybe either the last group or I could even drop to the third-to-last group depending on how the finish was, which is a big deal, especially when you're down four, five, six shots. I thought that was big.
I knew that I hadn't made a bogey in a while so I wanted to keep that streak alive. It was great. I put the ball on the green even when I was out of position today, played the smart shots, and then on 18 I decided not to, so it was nice to make it up.
Q. Being in the top 2 or 3 into Sunday, do you feel ahead of schedule with your comeback?
JORDAN SPIETH: Oh, way ahead. Bad days are going to happen in this process. I'm glad that -- today I felt a little off. I wasn't loading right. I wasn't getting positionally where I was getting yesterday other than maybe three or four swings the whole day.
To be able to shoot a score like this where the pins were, and they were a lot harder today, so to be able to do that with not my best stuff makes me feel even better because it takes a little bit of pressure off maybe trying to be perfect and coming back.
It's a long road ahead. This is certainly ahead of schedule for this week. I've had a good history here, so we'll see how I continue to progress on other courses, but tomorrow I'm going to have to make -- I'm going to have to hit more fairways because I'm going to have to hit it closer to try to catch Thomas.
Q. 16 and 17, did you think you had both of those?
JORDAN SPIETH: I thought 16 was low, and then with about four feet to go, it never started breaking. I'm like, wow, that might catch the right edge. But I actually thought it was low pretty much the whole time.
17 was kind of long. I was glad to be on the green with a decent look on 17 from hitting it in that bunker. I was pretty off off the tee today and I made it work, and I hit some important drives in the fairway, but there's a few spots that I hit it that you just can't go out here, and I was fortunate to be able to make some pars.
Q. Thomas goes out in 31, you were talking about the pin placements and 65 from out in front. What do you make of that, and is five shots too far back for the group?
JORDAN SPIETH: You know, on this course, not necessarily. I know I've got a pretty good idea on where the pins are tomorrow, and if anything they're going to be a little bit easier. That doesn't mean that he's going to let up. Sometimes when you're playing that good, you're playing that good.
But if he doesn't fill it up tomorrow and posts a round of even a couple under, it's definitely catchable. But if he shoots 5, then that's probably out of the picture.
Q. If there's a course that you can chase and this is a guy who hasn't won before, is the key to get your name a little closer early so he starts feeling it?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think trying to make up shots through nine holes is big, and then when you turn, everything changes Sunay on the back nine. And this back nine in particular, you can go 5-under on the back nine, especially even in the last six holes.
A lot can be done and you start getting risk-reward, and if you're close enough, it's not the easiest place to hold on to a lead because there is trouble. But if you're trying to chase, there are birdies. He's going to have to be in that mindset of chasing a number, and everybody else is going to have to be in a mindset of trying to shoot as low as they can.
Q. What do you make of the rigor of the front nine compared to the scoring of the back in previous years? Has it played differently this year in particular? What do you make of what you've seen out there?
JORDAN SPIETH: I don't believe so. I don't know the stats on it. To me, you're trying to play the front nine in 2-under and you're trying to play the back in 3. You kind of have -- if you can hit a good drive, a couple shots on No. 3 and then steal one somewhere else with a wedge and then the back nine you get the two par-5s and a drivable par-4. In my head, that's where I go to is if you get a good club and a good chance on a hole, fire in, but for the most part, that's what you're trying to do.
So I would say the back nine should lend lower scores, but it also -- you see 30 on the back but you can see 40 on the back. You're not really going to see 30 or 40 on the front; you're going to be more towards par, I think.
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