Jordan Spieth must deliver for dad at PNC Championship: "He wants to win"
Jordan Spieth and his father Shawn are making their debut at the PNC Championship as they get ready to tee it up with Nelly Korda and her father on Saturday.
Jordan Spieth revealed that he and his father Shawn aren't at the PNC Championship to make up the numbers as the three-time major champion's partner wants victory on Sunday.
Speaking to the press on Thursday, the Spieth pair was in a reminiscent mood as they spoke about his rise from an eight-year-old protege to one of the best players in the world.
Spieth and his father are making their debut at the family-orientated event on the PGA Tour and Shawn has put in six weeks of solid practice to get his game in shape for Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando.
The 29-year-old said he'd been encouraged by other Tour players to play in the popular year-ending event. Spieth put in some good preparation in The Match last week as he and Justin Thomas beat Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Woods will be playing with his 13-year-old son Charlie (if you didn't already know). They came second last year, so the Spieth duo may need to topple Tiger and Charlie to take the title.
"Dad wants to win. I'll do my best to try and help put us in a position to do so. He wants to win," Spieth said.
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"He has a really good short game. Pretty good iron play and worst part is when he wants to hit a drive really far, which is most every drive, when he swings smooth, he drives it really nicely.
"Out here if I hit a good one, he's just going to go ahead, otherwise he's going to need to have a gear back to putt one in the fairway. It's not a terribly different driving course from the holes we saw today.
"So my job will be to get one out there and then we'll both try and take advantage from there." Shawn added, "Challenge him to try and keep it somewhere within where Nelly hits it."
In the first round, the Spieths will be playing in the same group as LPGA Tour star Nelly Korda and her father Petr. Team Korda came 12th a year ago with scores of 63 and 64.
Korda is one of two women's players at this year's tournament. 10-time major champion Annika Sorenstam is competing with her son, Will McGee, who is the event's youngest participant at 11 years old.
Spieth had a key piece of advice for his father this week. He won the RBC Heritage back in April and he wants Shawn to harness some of Korda's magic to help him pick up another victory.
"I'm looking forward to it. It's like playing with Adam Scott. She swings it so sweet," Spieth added.
"It will be nice to watch that tempo and hopefully Dad will watch that tempo and take that tempo. Swing like Nelly, that's going to be your goal on Saturday."