On a day full of questions, the first query came not from a media member nor a media official.
Jordan Spieth was curious, though.
“Am I the first one?”
He was told he was.
“Great.”
Indeed, though we’ll leave open to interpretation his tone. Spieth’s a pro golfer, of course, but before pro golf is played, pro golfers are called upon to talk about pro golf, and converse about pro golf the pro golfers did at Quail Hollow Club on Tuesday, two days before the PGA Championship’s start. In total, there were eight interviews, 10 interviewees, 188 questions asked and 132 minutes of back-and-forths — and that was without three press conferences that had been scheduled but were moved to Wednesday.
Not that we were counting.
But we were listening, though. To everything, from Spieth’s question at around 8:30 a.m. ET through Scottie Scheffler’s final word at about 3:45 p.m. Here, then, are seven things we learned.
‘My left feels twice the size of my right for about a half hour’
Spieth revealed his recovery progression after undergoing left wrist surgery last August.
And what he sees in the morning.
“Less and less [effects] as the year has gone on, which is great,” he said. “It’s hard to tell if it was preventing anything that I could or couldn’t do, so I’m not going to say that it’s everything. But just the ease of not worrying about it dislocating, I guess, or subluxing, I think, is the term for this specific, is really nice.
“Just off the course, I’m able to pick my kids up and throw them around, and my wrist doesn’t dislocate. You can imagine that’s a good feeling.
“So when I’m golfing, I haven’t really been thinking about it the last couple of months. I wake up in the morning, I’m very aware I had surgery. My left feels twice the size of my right for about a half hour every morning. They say that stops about a year post-op, and it’s getting — some days are better than others. I haven’t exactly given it a lot of rest in the last few months, and I’m sure that will help once we hit the offseason.
“It’s still there, very much so. I’m still aware, but I’m not worried about the same thing happening anymore thanks to the doctors that I’ve had and their rehab process that I went through. It was a lot of hard work. Last fall and into the winter, physically and mentally, it was one of the hardest things that I’ve had to do.
“Anybody who’s come back from an injury, you want to be out there doing more and more and more, especially when I — it’s not like I was top five in the world last year, right? I felt like I was going to be coming from behind, and I wasn’t able to do much while other guys were getting better. So just a hard, hard process to be patient with, especially for me.
“It tested every bit of what I could do, and I went by the book. By the time I was able to play, I think I played well and was kind of in contention in Phoenix, and I was just like, man, I am just incredibly grateful just to be back out here doing this because there was months where you’re going through the process wondering if or when that would happen again.
“I didn’t expect this year to be a ridiculous year. It’s going to be something that I needed to work slowly towards with a long-term outlook, and I think it’s going really well so far. I’ve got a big stretch and a lot of good opportunities coming up and a lot less distractions on it than I had last year.”
‘That’s a question for Luke’
Three times, Jon Rahm was asked if he was told by European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald that he was a pick for the team.
Three times, Rahm deflected.
Below is the exchange, with the reporter’s questions in italics:
Has Luke said to you, you’re on my team anyway?
“That’s a question for Luke,” Rahm said. “It’s his team. Hopefully I can qualify, and we don’t have to question it.”
Here, Rahm answered another of the reporter’s questions, before the back-and-forth continued.
You said that’s a question for Luke, but my question was to you.
“I know,” Rahm said.
Has he said to you, don’t worry, you’re in, in effect?
“You’d have to ask Luke that question,” Rahm said. “It’s not up to me to say.”
You won’t tell me whether he has?
“I’m not going to say anything about that, no,” Rahm said. “Again, that’s a question for Luke, the captain.”
‘Damn, I forgot I really want to do that’
When asked if he’s fueled by competitive jealousy and a desire to remind people that he’s one of the best of his generation, Justin Thomas said he was.
But, after watching McIlroy win the career grand slam at the Masters, he admitted to his wife, Jill, that he’d forgotten that that was something he wanted too.
“But for some reason watching somebody do it firsthand,” Thomas said, “it reminded me almost of, damn, I forgot I really do want to do that. It’s weird. It’s something I think all of us — some certain people maybe hit us different ways in terms of jealousy or drive or whatever you want to call it.
“Yeah, any time someone wins that isn’t me, if it’s a friend, I’m obviously happy for them, but there’s always going to be a part of me that’s jealous and wishes it was me. I think you’d be crazy to say otherwise.”
‘Inside the ropes is actually a peaceful place’
Keegan Bradley, when asked how his game has been affected by his Ryder Cup captaincy, said the hardest thing for him is not thinking about the event, be it while practicing or at home with his family.
But there’s one place where the thoughts dissipate.
“It’s constantly on my mind of how we’re going to go about doing this, the best way to go about doing this, how to run a proper meeting last week,” Bradley said. “I think that’s been the biggest obstacle is shutting that part of my brain off, which is interesting because, when I get inside the ropes in a tournament, it’s really the only time I can do that.
“Sometimes for us golfers, being inside the ropes is actually a peaceful place. I’ve had that at times this year, but there’s definitely been times where I’ve been practicing, and a thought will come into my head and I’ve got to write it down and then I’m thinking about it, and that’s a distraction. But it hasn’t affected my preparation or anything like that.”
‘We’ll see if I smoke some tonight’
Tuesday night, as defending champion, Xander Schauffele was to host the PGA Championship’s champions dinner, though he offered just one word to the chefs.
Steak.
Why?
“I didn’t even look at the menu, to be completely honest,” Schauffele said. “I just trusted what they had. I knew they’d do a good job.
“I saw a lot of blue cheese on there. I think we’re kind of tweaking it a little bit, from the last of my knowledge, or making it a little bit more customized; you can have some on or not because it’s sort of a really strong, you either like it or you don’t thing. My thought was I wanted everyone to enjoy the meal and have a nice time.”
Then there’s his gift. It’s a PGA tradition, and Schauffele was to hand out humidors and cigars to the winners in attendance.
There might also be an opportunity to smoke.
“Apparently, there will be someone rolling cigars tonight,” Schauffele said. “Maybe I might tuck some for later. We’ll see if I smoke some tonight.”
‘I saw it on Zoom’
Last week, Bradley hosted a gathering for potential team members, including Bryson DeChambeau, who said he missed it, but watched.
“Yeah, it was awesome,” DeChambeau said. “It’s an incredible honor. Unfortunately we had massive storms that morning that delayed me three-and-a-half hours, and I couldn’t make it to the dinner. But I saw it on Zoom and also talked to the captain about it, and I was step in step with him. We had a great conversation after.
