Spieth has moved past nightmare at No 12
AUGUSTA: It may have only been a practice round but Jordan Spieth proved on his return to the site of his US. Masters collapse that he has moved on from the disastrous sequence that cost him a win.
Spieth, who was leading the Masters last year until his debacle at the par-three 12th, stuck his tee shot about a foot from the pin on the same hole on Tuesday.
“I really could have used that one about 12 months ago,” an amused Spieth turned and said to the crowd, prompting laughter, before going on to tap in for a birdie.
Those two shots, the first time he has played the hole in front of a crowd since last year, could prove just the tonic for the former world number one as he chases a second Masters title.
Spieth took a five-shot lead into the back nine last year in his bid to become the first player to lead from start to finish at Augusta National in successive years.
The Texan reached the 12th tee with a one-stroke lead and walked off the green after a quadruple-bogey sitting three shots behind new leader and eventual winner Danny Willett.
While Spieth has moved on from the most memorable moment of last year’s Masters, he admits it is one he will not forget.
“It will surely be there and it has been,” Spieth told a news conference on Tuesday. “It is one of many tournaments I’ve lost given a certain performance on a hole or a stretch of holes. It happens in this game.
“But I’m excited about the opportunity ahead, which is now I can go back and really tear this golf course up.”
The 23-year-old world number six has one win and two runner-up finishes in his three Masters appearances.
He enters the year’s first major, which begins on Thursday, with a win and four top-10 finishes this season and said he was not worried about last week’s missed cut in Houston hindering his chances at Augusta National.
“I feel very comfortable out there,” said Spieth.
“I feel like we have it mapped out and, as we dissect the golf course, we know the spots to go, where not to go and therefore the commitment on shots.
“Certain shots you hit versus others, you obviously feel more comfortable, but I feel like we’re freed up because we know where those spots are and where they aren’t.”
Meanwhile, Dustin Johnson said yesterday that being the hottest golfer on the planet heading into the Masters means nothing when it comes to trying to tame Augusta National.
The long-hitting American is the favourite to win the year’s first major after recording wins in his last three tournaments but no world number one has captured the Green Jacket since Tiger Woods in 2002.
“It’s a funny game. It doesn’t matter how good you’re playing, you can still not win,” Johnson, who became world number one in February, told a news conference.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game right now, especially with the way I’ve been playing the last few tournaments. But, you know, anything can happen.”
Apart from two top-10 finishes the last two years, Johnson has a modest history at the Masters but has never arrived here with his game as sharp as it is right now.
Last year, his dreams of winning were ruined by two double-bogeys in the final round. He tied for fourth, four shots behind winner Danny Willett.
He now boasts all the tools needed to tame the demanding layout, most notably his prodigious length off the tee that will give him as good a chance as anyone of essen- tially changing the four parfive holes into par-fours.
“I always thought it suited my game very well. It’s a tough golf course, everything in your bag needs to be working for you to play well around here,” said Johnson.
“The last couple years, I’ve done a little bit better and I feel like I’ve had a chance. Obviously I’m playing well coming into this week, so hopefully I can continue that success and I’m looking forward to giving myself a chance to win”
Should Johnson, who clinched his first and so far only major at last year’s U.S. Open, win this week he would become the first golfer other than Woods to win four consecutive PGA Tour starts since Ben Hogan in 1953. - Reuters