Spieth defiant in reluctant rehashing of his Masters disappointment
Jordan Spieth really just wants to move on from that…unpleasantness…at the Masters.
Spieth hasn’t played competitively since putting two balls in Rae’s Creek on the par-3 12th in the final round of the Masters, finishing off the five-shot lead he had built heading into the final nine of the year’s first major. Despite a valiant effort to come back from that quadruple-bogey 7, Spieth came up short and had to suffer the sport’s ultimate cruelty in slipping the green jacket on winner Danny Willett.
“Believe me, I wouldn’t wish how I felt on any of y’all,” Spieth said.
“I obviously knew the feelings Danny was experiencing and I was happy for him but for me personally it was very difficult. I had control of the event, I could have put the green jacket on myself or however it works, and so the hour that followed was just horrible. But it was also motivation for next year.”
The 22-year-old contends that what happened at Augusta National isn’t going to stick with him, particularly as it relates to how he plays this week at TPC Sawgrass.
“I’ll just tell you that I’m not affected by it,” he said. “Again, it was the wrong miss at the wrong time.
“If I hit a good shot (on a par 3) and it catches a gust and goes in the water, it’s not because of the Masters. It’s not something that was in my head.”
Alright, fine. It’s more than reasonable to think Spieth’s mind won’t slip back to that dreadful Georgia letdown as he’s trying to maneuver around the Stadium Course. However, Spieth hasn’t competed in the four weeks since Augusta. He didn’t break out his clubs that first week. In the second week, he went on a Bahamian vacation with Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Smylie Kaufman that was broadcast on Snapchat, including a lot of entertaining shirtless golf. He finally got back into a mini-offseason program with instructor Cam McCormick last week, working on a few changes to his swing.
While The Players is a big event and the most lucrative in golf, it’s not a major. The pressure isn’t quite the same. However, it is somewhat similar, and it’s a good spot for Spieth to come back and start a busy run of golf between now and the Ryder Cup in October. But make no mistake about it, Spieth isn’t viewing this week as a chance to strike back against the golf gods.
He said, “I don’t think there’s anything I shall come up against here where I feel like I need to get revenge.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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