Spieth says he can now ‘laugh’ about Masters disappointment
Jordan Spieth is letting everyone know that he’s moving on from his disappointment at the Masters.
“Actually, I laugh about it now,” Spieth said Tuesday at a FedEx event in Pennsylvania. “I really do. But it keeps coming up, and I understand that.”
Since his quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 12th in the final round at Augusta National last month, Spieth has received an outpouring of support, not only from peers in golf but also throughout sport.
“I received notes immediately following that night pretty much saying, ‘This happens everywhere. No doubt, you’ll be back. Don’t draw on it. It happens to everyone in all sports on different levels,'” he said.
Though he didn’t name specific people he heard from, Spieth said the message was uniform: “And pretty much they believe, just as we believe, that we’ll be back — no problem.”
He’s also heard from people who probably couldn’t care less about golf but felt sorry for the 22-year-old who was seeking to become the fourth back-to-back Masters champion and first to win the same major in consecutive years in wire-to-wire fashion.
“I’m not taking it very hard,” he said. “I have ladies at grocery stores coming up and putting their hand on me and going, ‘I’m really praying for you. How are you doing?’ And I’m like, ‘My dog didn’t die. I’m doing OK.’ I’ll survive. It happens. It was unfortunate timing.”
Though the world has focused on Spieth’s loss at the Masters, he’s been in contention deep in each of the last five majors. He won two — last year’s Masters and U.S. Open — and lost three. Arguably, he lost the grasp of the last four. Even though he won the U.S. Open, Dustin Johnson had a chance to win on the 72nd hole or at least force a playoff. Spieth had the lead going into the 71st hole of the British Open and could have gotten into a playoff with a 72nd hole birdie on one of major championship golf’s easier finishing holes. Then he tried to stop Jason Day at Whistling Straits but found himself unable to topple the Aussie, who was playing the golf of his life at the PGA Championship.
In other words, Spieth knows the fine line between winning and losing majors — and he knew it well before he put two in Rae’s Creek in the final round of the Masters.
“It is what it is,” Spieth said. “And I’ll move on. If you’re in contention at a major, say, 50 times in your career, something like that is going to happen. Just don’t let it happen again.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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