Photo credit: Darren Carrol/PGA of America
When the PGA comes up each week, one of the players the spotlight shines is on Jordan Spieth.
With career victories in the U.S. Open, British Open, and Masters, Speith is short only the PGA to complete the career Grand Slam.
The six players that have accomplished the feat are Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, and Gene Sarazan.
Phil Mickleson and Scottie Scheffler are a U.S. Open win away from the Slam. Time seems to be running out on Mickelson whereas with Scheffler it just seems to be a matter of time.
Here are parts of Spieth’s press conference Monday at the PGA. ACES editor Dennis Miller edited the transcript.
THE MODERATOR: Well good afternoon everyone and welcome to the 108th PGA Championship.
Jordan, welcome to Aronimink and your 14th PGA Championship. What are your thoughts on your game and what you’ve seen from the golf course so far?
JORDAN SPIETH: I feel, yeah, I feel good about where my game is at. I wish I got a little bit more out of the last couple weeks but I kind of know what got off now and how to fix it, and I’m spending the next few days working on that.
This course, I thought I wasn’t what had changed since 2018. I haven’t been out yet. I’m about to go out for a few holes. I’ve heard great things. Maybe shorter clubs than other PGAs into greens, but then the greens themselves have a lot of pitch. You have to hit it in the right areas, and you have to control your distance extremely well. Obviously need to be coming out of the fairway in order to be able to do that consistently.
I feel like I’ve been driving the ball really well which is a nice premium. I feel like that puts me in a position to contend here versus maybe when I hadn’t been in other PGAs. Driver has to be a weapon in the PGA Championship. So, if I can continue on the path that I’ve been on, then that leaves me with plenty of opportunities.
Question: How much does the career Grand Slam possibility affect your preparation coming into the tournament, regardless of the course you’re at?
JORDAN SPIETH: It doesn’t. If you’re talking about scheduling and stuff like that, our schedules are kind of pretty set in stone. If you’re in the elevated events, you tend to want to play them unless you have the luxury of maybe being able to miss one.
Like for me right now, the Dallas and Fort Worth, I’m in an interesting part of the schedule. But having played two very difficult golf courses leading into this is helpful, I think.
I don’t mind a third week in a row. I’ve played some of my best golf having been third week in a row. But I’ve got to get kind of some legs under me after the last two and everybody is kind of doing that. I think most of the field played last week. One of the few places.
So as far as the career Grand Slam, this tournament’s always been highlighted. If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would obviously be this one for that reason. But the easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way, you know.
Just go out and get ready for the first hole, get a good game plan in and attack it the way it needs to be attacked.
My game has been getting better and better. It’s plenty good to have a chance to win. It’s about working my way into contention. I was able to do that a couple weeks ago. Being in the last couple groups this weekend for the first time this season. Glad I was there and hopefully I can do that week and do better.
Question: On the career Grand Slam, how much do you allow yourself to think about it and what would it mean to accomplish it?
JORDAN SPIETH: It would be amazing, right, because it’s just a very, very short list in history. So, you know, at the same time winning the PGA itself, you get to then play in the PGA for however long they allow you to. I don’t actually know the rules on the PGA. Is it 60? Forever? Or till you’re possibly asked that maybe we celebrate this as your — the same way Augusta does.
Just winning this tournament in general would be very special. The Ryder Cup’s been such an important part of my life, and The PGA of America, having my instructor that I’ve been with for pretty much my whole career be a PGA of America professional, so there’s many reasons.
But obviously with having won the other three, that’s the one that everyone focuses on. But when I’m out here, and certainly when I get out on the golf course, I’ve been in contention a couple of times in this tournament. It didn’t feel any different than any other majors, so I wouldn’t expect to if I get there this week.
Question: You said you’ve been close but haven’t gotten a whole lot of your rounds or out of your tournaments. Is it like a whack-a-mole situation or is there a common denominator?
JORDAN SPIETH: I mean, if you look at the stats, yeah, it’s a whack-a-mole situation because I have had weeks where I’m leading in putting, weeks where I’ve leading in driving, weeks where I am leading in ball-striking, and then I just haven’t been able to kind of put them all together, at least have — haven’t had — you know, been able to lean on something on an off-day and not have, you know, something be a negative strokes that throws me out of a chance on any of those categories, right.
So the good news is within this season I’ve been able to lead in each, so I should be confident that I have at least each part of the game as a weapon. It’s just focusing on the right things, putting it together, limiting the mistakes, and then when something feels a little bit off, managing to be able to shoot a couple under par versus a couple over par.
It’s pushing the low ones just a couple strokes lower and limiting the bad ones by a stroke or two. If I can shave off a stroke a round like anybody would like to, it’s a big difference. But I think it’s a little simpler for me this year than it has been in other years to feel like I could do that.
Question: Donald Ross courses tend to expose every part of one’s game. What part of your game is most important here, do you think?
JORDAN SPIETH: I’m not quite sure yet. I haven’t totally dived into all — I haven’t figured out statistically what the biggest difference is, and it probably will be a bit different from when the BMW was here last just because it was so wet. It’s a little bit longer now and the rough will be higher.
So it put more of a premium on driving probably than we saw in the BMW, but it certainly seems like it’s going to be distance control on your approach shots, because if you’re able to really be hitting your mid to short irons, controlling the spin and getting it into these tiers, you can actually — based on what I’ve seen on the book and what I remember, you can actually have a lot of pretty close looks for birdie if you get in the right section.
If you miss the section, they are going to be really difficult to either get up-and-down or to two-putt. Just lots of pitch on the greens. So, if you can control it, take your chances when you want to.
But I would imagine it’s going to be the people that are — obviously greens in regulation — but that are controlling those shots into the right areas. So distance control and accuracy on kind of shorter clubs.
Questions: Another Grand Slam question. People in your position are almost a victim of your own success. You’ve won three majors and now there’s a focus and it builds and builds. We saw from Rory the relief. If and when that happens, will that relief help you?
JORDAN SPIETH: I don’t think so. My situation was certainly different than his at Augusta, so I think that was unique to him, which is probably — you probably didn’t see that kind of reaction with the, what, other six or seven guys that have ever done it. And again, I don’t have video proof of when they won, so you’d have to fact-check me big time on that one.
Rory’s was obviously a very unique final round and his history of having led there and stuff like that, so I don’t think it would feel similar. For me, it would just be like, look, I’ve been kind of — I went on a run of feeling like I was contending or having a good chance of contending at every major for a number of years and then it was periodic, and I feel like I’m close to being able to go back to doing that again.
Question: This is going to be your 14th PGA Championship appearance. You’ve seen this championship in lots of different venues as well. In terms of your pre-tournament preparation, do you think back to the time when you first became a pro and got to the PGA Championship, how has your Monday to Wednesday evolved throughout your career?
JORDAN SPIETH: This being a third week in a row — it also changed because it used to be in August. We would come off World Golf Championships in Akron and go straight to the PGA. Akron was a very difficult golf course, but then it was typically very hot, so that changes your days.
Now it’s a third in a row, which is also kind of unique. For me, it’s not — it’s more about what just happened the last couple weeks. If you have the week off, you kind of have a little more energy to get here early, get prepared, play more holes.
It’s not the luxury of playing the last two weeks, and I didn’t get up here prior to then, and I don’t think that would have been necessarily super useful or I would have tried to do it.
Right now it’s about getting to know the golf course, where the pin locations are going to be, what I was just talking about with that distance control, like where these pins you attack, where are the ones you layoff of, stuff like that. What are the deceiving shots.
It’s really more methodical now where it used to be hours and hours. It’s not just an age thing. It’s more just like recognizing that major weeks can feel really long, and you want to feel your best when you wake up Sunday morning. Part of it is energy conservation and figuring out how to attack the course. As far as the reps go, if you’re not ready by now after the last couple weeks, you can’t really cram for the test at a major.
I have no reason to be anything but extremely positive right now after of my last couple weeks and just the way the year’s gone coming into this week and then the rest of the golf that’s going to be played this year.
Question: I read something where you used an analogy of grilling meat to describe the process of working on getting your swing back to where you want it to be. Where did that analogy come from and how is it going?
JORDAN SPIETH: I was just kind of thinking, I was smoking chicken in the fall on a big smoker I have, and it got up to 155 quickly and then takes a while. I was like, man, this kind of feels like — I was working on stuff and I was — it kind of feels like what I’m trying to do in the swing. I go play and it’s a little bit out of the barriers that we call sustainable. Kind of outside the margins that we call okay.
So, I don’t know, I kind of was just thinking about it one day and came to me.
But yeah, it seems to be — I don’t know how — if it’s that way for everybody and just seemed that way for me right now where, you know, it’s there, it’s there. It’s like close. It matches what I want to do. It feels good and it’s producing right stuff.
And then, you know, if it just gets — it’s just not quite consistent enough yet to be able to be contending week-in and week-out.
But I know what to do and how to get there. It’s just, I have to stay the course and just trust that it will happen.