A look at some of the questions the top players took (and answered) after the first round of the 2018 Masters, where Jordan Spieth leads by two shots over Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar.
JORDAN SPIETH
How much more comfortable are you standing over a putt than you were in Austin, and how did you get there, from Austin to where you are feeling right now?
SPIETH: A lot of secrets that, you know, maybe if it propels to anything special, I’ll write about someday (laughter).
But there was a lot of work that went in mentally, physically. How comfortable now compared to then? Significantly. A lot. Yeah. A lot more comfortable.
I would say I was more comfortable, and I felt even better about my putting Sunday of last week than I did today. But if I can continue to feel a little bit better day by day, it would be fantastic.
But I had some really tricky putts today from inside of six feet, putts that I had to play outside the hole, and made a lot of them in the middle of the hole, which was a big confidence boost.
So I’ve kind of found a little trigger in the stroke that has served as beneficial that I tried out last week, and I really think what I did on the weekend last week was hugely beneficial to being able to start strong here.
(1, -6, 66)
PATRICK REED
REED: Yeah, it’s definitely a course I feel I can win on. Off the tees and some of the iron shots it definitely seemed to fit my eye pretty well and that’s key around here, just to get really comfortable on the shot you’re trying to hit, because just one little mishap will definitely get you in the wrong spot, you can make a big number around here.
And I was able to avoid that today and just really got the putter kind of going today, whenever you can get that going, it definitely makes these fairways and greens look a lot bigger than they are.
(T4, -3, 69)
RICKIE FOWLER
The conditions were easy but the pins were quite tricky today, were they not?
FOWLER: Yeah, they were tough, some pins that I feel like sometimes you typically see on the weekend. The greens were tough to control the ball on, just firm enough where still playing out of the fairway, if you didn’t hit your spot perfectly, you end up a little too far from the hole and then you’re just trying to get good speed and maybe it goes in, if you get lucky.
But I felt like there was a lot of times out there you’re just trying to make a par and move on. And unfortunately I couldn’t get, take care of or take advantage of the par‑5s early, but nice to at least get one of them there on 15. But yeah, it didn’t play easy out there.
I saw Jordan got it to 6 or so, but anything under par was a good round of golf today.
(T11, -2, 70)
TIGER WOODS
Anything on 15 that’s trickier than normal? There’s several guys hitting balls in the water?
WOODS: It’s tough. That false edge is pretty significant. It’s only about three over the false edge, anything short is going to come back. Anything over the green or has any steam on it is going to be wet. It’s a very difficult pin.
The great leave you have would be somewhere in the middle of the green left, over the back where you’re pitching straight up the hill. But you know that you have to flush it to get it that far.
And the easy bail‑out is right, and that’s probably the worst spot you can put it to that flag.
(T30, +1, 73)
Credits: ASAP Sports, Getty Images
