Q. 3-under making the turn and then you went on that nice run, three birdies out of four holes, then the blip at 17. Your thoughts on how you played today?
JORDAN SPIETH: I thought it was really solid. My goal was to try to be 5-under and on 18 greens, so I accomplished my goal for the day. That doesn't always happen.
Obviously didn't like dropping one on 17. Wish I hit a better putt, but it was a good day. There was a few key par saves on 6 and 7, and then 8 with the mud ball on the side that could go towards the water.
So I felt like once I got through that stretch there I could really start to try and take advantage.
Q. It's always tough to defend a title on the TOUR but you've given yourself that opportunity. Thoughts on tomorrow? I guess we're going to have a lot of rain in the morning before we tee off and they're going to go in threes starting on the first tee. What do you need to do to close this out?
JORDAN SPIETH: The way the course softened up the last two days made today kind of right in that in between, and I thought without rain it could actually be a firm and tricky and tough Sunday.
But if it gets rain, then you've got to keep the gas pedal on. If you look at the leaderboard, you go down the list of names, try and tell me one of them isn't going to shoot 4- or 5-under.
It's going to be about trying to win the golf tournament, not play protective. This course can make you try to maybe try chip shots or be tentative with how tight it is, but you just have to play freely tomorrow and look to make birdies.
Q. Yesterday you said you came into the round with an aggressive mindset. What was the mindset today?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, pretty much the same. I hit some putts before the round and the practice green was significantly faster, so I thought maybe they were stepping it up today, and as it firmed up, it was going to get a lot quicker and play tougher.
Then when you saw -- the nice thing about going off late is you can see how the scoring is early, and there were some guys that were 5-, 6-, 7-under through 13, 14 holes, and when that's the case, you know it's out there.
So I changed to being probably a little bit more aggressive than I thought originally.
Q. Opportunity to defend tomorrow; do you relish the opportunity to defend?
JORDAN SPIETH: Absolutely. I mean, anytime you have a chance on a Sunday you've accomplished your goal for the week. Then it just becomes go out there and get it done and try to separate yourself. You know you're going to have nervous shots and pressure-packed shots, and that's where the fun is.
For me, that's why I got into this gig. The ball is in your hands, and I've had plenty of times where it's worked out, I've had plenty of times where it doesn't, but each time I never regretted being in that situation.
Q. I wanted to ask you about Jimmy being a fellow Texas guy. I don't know if you have a relationship, but just your thoughts on him being back?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I hadn't really seen or talked to Jimmy a lot in the last couple years, but we were pretty close prior to that. Stayed in houses together at times, and always somebody to root for. Then obviously with his Lyme's Disease, when that hit I know it's been really hard on him. I know his wife had it, too.
Just a really tough gig given he had won a major, was on top of the game, and he started working with my coach a bit. So I saw him a little bit maybe a couple years ago. To see him back out there and to kind of see and read some of the things he was saying, it's really cool that it feels like a free run to him. He doesn't look at it as I have to do this or that. He seems to be relishing the opportunity.
I don't think I'll be paired with him tomorrow, but battling it out with Jimmy is something I've done before, and I'm happy to be doing again.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports