JORDAN SPIETH: I got to 5-under through eight and then finished at two, so yeah, just a tale of two nines.
Q. What changed if anything?
JORDAN SPIETH: Nothing really. I had a couple spots like No. 3, ended up 3-putting from often green but it was right where it was five yards short or five yards further it was cake but I had to ride a ridge and a couple lipouts on some pretty good putts. Not much different. The putts I hit, same putts both nines and I had them drip in or lip in on the one nine and the other, they just missed. So overall, it was -- I wouldn't say I did anything better or worse on either nine. It's just funny.
Q. How important is this week for you as a tournament itself?
JORDAN SPIETH: I think just focusing on the fact that it's a tournament itself and trying to win the golf tournament is the best thing I can do for this week and next week. So I like playing in the majors. I haven't played into the Open since 2015, and played some really good Opens since then, so it has not really been totally necessary but it's really nice to get on links grass. There's certainly some shots today I'm glad I didn't try to hit the way I did next week because I played them incorrectly or something like that. You almost need to get over here and get on this turf.
Q. Away from the golf, can you enjoy it?
JORDAN SPIETH: Sure, I did enough off the course in the last four days in Ireland that I need to just chill and honestly not -- doing less is doing more for me right now. This is eight out of ten weeks so I don't need to be out exploring much, especially to try to leave enough for next weekend, ideally.
Q. Do you look forward to St Andrews differently than other venues for The Open?
JORDAN SPIETH: I think The Open at St Andrews is arguably the best golf tournament we play.
Q. Why?
JORDAN SPIETH: I just think the history of it, playing in the town, the idea that it could be the easiest or the hardest venue that we play depending on the day. Maybe it's just I remember watching certain ones growing up, and so the holes, the kind of scenic holes starting and finishing really kind of hold onto, and then it was a really special tournament for me back in 2015 trying to go for a third in a row and just kind of the crowd, you know, the putt I made on 16 and kind of the finish, it was really fun contending in that major and having a chance to win.
Q. Does it matter to you that it the 150th, as opposed to the 149?
JORDAN SPIETH: Knowledge.
Q. You have no parties planned for the week?
JORDAN SPIETH: No.
Q. Have you been back since to 2015?
JORDAN SPIETH: No, the only time we've been on Scotland we've been the other coast. Carnoustie, but I didn't go on the Carnoustie trip. Probably would have been a good idea I guess.
Q. The Champions Challenge, will you play in that?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I'll play, Monday afternoon, I think it was four holes. It was going on when I was on the course or out there before and I thought that would be a cool thing to be able to play in the next time The Open went back there. So certainly looking forward to enjoying. I don't know what it will look like. Just try to find a couple friends and play with them.
Q. Last time, the entire focus of the golfing world was on you?
JORDAN SPIETH: I don't think it will be any different. I went in off a win. That's the most confidence you can have. I was playing the best in the world at the time. Yeah, sure, I really wanted to win it for any reason, to win the golf tournament, to win a major, obviously the third in a row would have been pretty awesome.
But I can't say that I would feel any different starting out or finishing then than I would in a similar position next week 2022.
Q. Which shot do you think about the most when you look back, the putt on 17 or the next two on 18?
JORDAN SPIETH: I think about the putt on 16. But thanks, Doug. I like to think about the 40-slider that dropped right in the front lip.
But if I think about what got me -- it was actually the tee shot on 17. I chose to go down left fairway, left me with little to no angle instead of taking on the right fairway thinking I could still maneuver a four but leaving me with just a wedge into 18 and a putt to win The Open.
So I played that all in my head after making it on 16, but it's just that much more difficult to make a four from the left fairway. It was a little bit of a weak play I think looking back and that's the one I think about.
Q. What you said about St Andrews, would winning an open there, would that be a major with bells on for you?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, absolutely. 100 percent. I think anybody would say that.
Q. St Andrews, a lot of people talk about the fact that it might be too easy.
JORDAN SPIETH: Sure.
Q. Do you feel that that's the case, and if so or if not, why not?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think it might be. You know, it's hard for me to tell given 2015 we had so much wind that we couldn't even play. But I think if it's like it was this morning out here, it's just a wedge contest, really. The back nine just doesn't show the same teeth that it normally does par part front nine going out with this wind is already -- makes it pretty easy for six, seven holes.
Then you normally have to hold on for dear life on the back but if that wind is down on the back, all of a sudden you've created a few more birdie holes.
Q. Does it detract from it being a major?
JORDAN SPIETH: I don't think so, of it being a major, but I don't know what else necessarily could be done. You know, it was not necessarily built for today's technology. But I think that even a nice ten to 15 miles an hour would show something to it and the fact that it doesn't look like we are going to get any rain, so I think the defence could be how fast it plays. It could get like Muirfield was in 2013, and I think that regardless of wind conditions, that would change the golf course significantly and make it challenging to hold fairways and greens.
I'm somebody who believes that courses are designed to play from certain places each hole, and it's nice when that's how you play them because that was the design of it to hit that shot from that distance to a green that is receptive to that distance or that difficult because it's such a short shot I've always been somebody who thinks of it like, we're hitting some of the shots, they just couldn't do even 30 years ago, let alone 130 years ago.
Q. Be like playing five different courses next week, 8, 17 --
JORDAN SPIETH: Oh, did they move some? It will be interesting to see. So that's good. I mean, I think you then are playing a lot of those holes more similarly to where you should be playing from the fairway. I don't necessarily think it's great thing that it can't be moved back. I mean, I think courses are designed to play -- but it's also unique in that way where you've got tricky little shots you might accidentally have 50 yards to a pin that's hard to get to but if you had 100 you could get to it. Longer is not always better on those kind of courses.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports