AUGUSTA - It was one year ago that Jordan Spieth missed the cut at the Masters. Rounds of 74 and 76 will typically put you on the road to beat the weekend traffic. Spieth responded by hitching up his Under Armours, driving a couple hours to Hilton Head, S.C., and winning the RBC Heritage the following week.
And while it was nice to add a red tartan jacket from Harbour Town to his ensemble, Spieth said it is time to win another green jacket to the collection he started in 2015.
“I’d love to get in the mix because I feel like right now, I feel better about my game than I have since probably 2017,” he said.
That’s big talk for Spieth, who at age 29, has a record at Augusta National unrivaled by most. In nine previous starts, he has won once, tied for second twice, and tied or finished solo third twice. The only other player with five top-three finishes in their first nine appearances was Arnold Palmer.
“When you get that many opportunities at a young age and you feel good about your chances, you want to win it again. That’s the goal,” he said. “I think I’ve learned that it’s a game. It’s a game, and I’ve approached the highs and lows as life-and-death in different scenarios, and that’s not the case. Ten years here, a lot of experience, I can look back and say I learned a lot from winning, and I learned a lot from losing.”
Since mid-February, Spieth has reaped some positive results on the PGA Tour. He tied for sixth at the WM Phoenix Open, tied for fourth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, tied for 19th at the Players Championship, and tied for third at the Valspar Championship. He is 47th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Not only is his game in a good place, he’s back in his happy place. Spieth considers himself at home when he competes at Augusta National. It was his hours watching the tournament as a youngster – and seeing Tiger Woods make hero shot after hero shot – that inspired Spieth to set aside other sports and focus on golf. It made him run to the putting green at his home course and try to duplicate the putts and chips he watched at Augusta.
“It was my favorite tournament growing up, so qualifying to get here was always a lifelong goal of mine,” he said. “I really fell in love with the game because of this tournament, back to Tiger’s chip-in to Phil’s first win. It inspired me to really take up the game and see what kind of moments you can create, because the ball is always in your hands. Few things are as electric as those moments they had in sports. I wanted to create my own. From the moment I got here I was always very excited, and I wanted to learn it and fall in love with it.”
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