Two shots off the after 18 holes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, JJ Spaun finds himself in this space on the PGA Tour after a while. Excerpts from an interview:
How would you characterize your round today?
JJ Spaun: I was solid. It was one of those days where you’re kind of just having fun out there, making putts. When I got out of position, I tried to get back in position and save pars, and that’s what I did. Overall, it was a very solid day.
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Knowing how hard this place plays normally and especially when you get into the afternoon a little bit, is it — how important was it to get off to such a good start in the afternoon then knowing that you can come back tomorrow with fresh greens in the morning?
Spaun: Yeah, I think, if you can get anything under par in the afternoon, that’s a really good round. And in the morning, I mean, it’s still going to be hard, like it will be cooler. The ball’s not going to go as far. But it’s good to get that afternoon round kind of low. Then you can kind of keep — you get that momentum. It’s a quick turnaround, and you’re feeling good, feeling confident. That’s what we’re going to do tonight.
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You’ve played a good amount of golf recently. Where do you feel like your game is this part of the year?
Spaun: I think I’m trending definitely in the right direction. I’m making a lot of cuts. I’m saving those weeks where I can be 50th or worse into 30th or top 25s. I think that is kind of bleeding into my game. Also like my confidence where like, if I don’t play well the first round, like I know I can bring it back. It’s not like game over. I don’t have to get off to a hot start to kind of cozy my way into the weekend.
I’ve just been believing in myself a lot. The game’s been there too. It’s nice to make some putts and make it relatively stress free today. I know it’s not going to be like that every day, but it’s nice to get at least one round like that.
Kind of sounds like you’re saying — this is kind of cliche also. As much mental as it is with the physical part of the game right now?
Spaun: Oh, yeah. Whether in 50th or 2nd, you’ve got to — I’ve learned to feel like I’m channeling into that mentality in either position. Because it doesn’t — you know, for every playoff point or every point, FedExCup point, it matters. It’s easy to kind of just throw a week away if you’re 50th going into Sunday. That’s where we were last week Sunday at Honda, and I shot 2-under and moved up 25 spots.
It’s important to really grind it out. Overall, that’s going to help your game round out and kind of complete those rough edges as far as getting off to good starts and having good weeks.
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Not that I’m saying this wasn’t, but do you find that maybe, as you’ve gone along in your career, you’ve learned a little bit more of that?
Spaun: Yeah, there’s been weeks — looking back, my first three years on TOUR were very solid, pretty good, but I just remember I’d have like really high finishes and then really low finishes, like very streaky. Now this year, I’ve had one top ten, but I’ve had a lot of like top 25, top 20s, top 30s, where those weeks are the weeks where I’m like 50th going into Saturday or Sunday and then I kind of like am learning to just grind it out.
Because it was easy to just kind of like, well, I’ve got next week. After I lost my card last year, I knew that I didn’t have that next week. That’s kind of been important to me as like every week matters, whether you’re in 50th or not or in 2nd or 1st. So I’ve learned to not rely on the future and just kind of focus on the present.
