Spieth's title defense ends without a bang

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland - Defending champion Jordan Spieth wasn't the only one struggling to gain traction on the windswept final day at Carnoustie.

But he was one of just two in the 79-player field who failed to make birdie, shooting 76 and sliding from a three-way tie atop the leaderboard at 9 under at the start into a tie for ninth by the end. A bogey, double-bogey run at Nos. 5 and 6 let a handful of contenders squeeze past Spieth, who owns three major championships, and bogeys at two of the last four holes killed his chance of catching up.

"When you put yourself in position enough times, it goes your way sometimes, it doesn't go your way sometimes," said Spieth, who wound up at 4-under 280.

"I didn't play the wind the right way on those two holes," he added. "I was trying to fight it instead of accepting that the wind is going to win out here."

Sung Kang shared the dubious honor of carding a birdie-free round.

Spieth, who turns 25 next week, knew fighting the wind would take patience. The Texan felt he passed that test.

"You knew you'd have three, four good looks at birdies, and the rest of the holes, you were just going to try to position it to make par. I knew that going in," he said. "I played patiently. Never got down on myself. Never got angry."

More importantly, Spieth's putting stroke restored his confidence, which should extend through the rest of the bag."My game is back. I've had different parts ... being at kind of a low point in my career. Not all at the same time, but enough to where I haven't really been able to compete. It's all there, and it's moving in the right direction," he said. "So I'm actually very pleased coming out of this week."