Spieth hopes Jug’s return is just a loan
JORDAN SPIETH was hollowed out yesterday by the experience of handing back the Claret Jug he won from the Birkdale truck stop 12 months ago.
Spieth reluctantly took part in a set piece handover of the Open trophy on the first tee at Carnoustie to R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers and afterwards owned up to a surprising sense of emptiness.
“I thought maybe somebody would meet me in the parking lot and I’d just give them the case back and we’d move on. But it was a ceremony, and because of that, it actually hit me harder,” he said.
“I was thinking: ‘Man, this was in my possession. I took it to all the places that allowed me to get to where I am today. My family was able to take it around. Members of the team were able to take it. It’s the coolest trophy that our sport has to offer.’
“So having to return it was certainly difficult. Hopefully it’s only out of my possession for a week.”
Spieth played the last five holes in five under par to win the championship last year in a triumph which will always be remembered for his final-round salvage operation on the 13th after he took a drop onto the practice range where the equipment lorries were parked.
There was an 18-minute delay while he consulted rules officials and came up with his off-the-wall plan of attack.
“I just remember a couple of things,” he said. “One, how long it took on 13 versus how long it felt like it took. It felt like I was making decisions quickly and concisely but on TV, when I watched it back, I had to fast forward through it.
“Then how quickly it looked from when I finished on 13 to tee off on 14 and how long that time actually felt like. I remember using the rest room and I remember regrouping.
“It was kind of weird. I’ve had plenty of tournaments where I’ve made it very boring coming down the stretch, and I’ve had plenty of tournaments where it’s been exciting – good and bad.
“That needed excitement to get it back but if I could go back and redo it again, I would 100 per cent take three birdies and no bogeys and just walk my way up the 18th green and win the Claret Jug.” Spieth’s form has dipped this season but after three weeks off during which he attended the Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle with his special needs sister Ellie, the world No 6 feels ready for links golf.
“I needed a break. I was dragging along cut-line golf for a while and playing a pretty heavy schedule and I needed to kind of get away from the game which I did. I feel good about coming back to it,” he said.
“Coming to an Open Championship requires a lot of feel and imagination and I think that’s what I needed a bit of in my game.” REPORTS DANNY WILLETT sits down, takes a deep breath of clean Scottish air and reflects with searing frankness on how his golf world disintegrated. How a Green Jacket turned to a red face and then nearly a white flag.
He is able to do so with complete honesty because, finally, the wheel has begun to turn. But if you ever wondered what happened to that twitchy Yorkshireman who won the Masters then here it is in unflinching detail.
Willett’s fall from Augusta hero two years ago to a missed cut and withdrawal specialist was widely (mis)interpreted as a classic case of golfing Icarus, a player who flew too close to the sun and could not handle what went with becoming a Major champion.
The truth was that, at 28, he was only on the course at all with the help of daily painkillers and when the chronic back condition he was suffering with intensified as he tried to fulfil the tournament invites that drop into the inbox of a Masters champion, he was in serious trouble. The decline that saw him plunge from ninth in the world rankings to No462 was upon him.
“There were certain times last year when I woke up in pain, I was playing s*** and I didn’t want to play golf. There was no point in playing,” he said. “Shooting 75 and being injured at the same time wasn’t great fun. I was moving poorly, swinging poorly, my mind was a wreck, I wasn’t sleeping great because I was constantly thinking about what was going on and how I had got to this position.
“It was a really negative spiral I was getting in to. It’s nice to be through that and be playing some decent golf again. Sometimes I wasn’t quite sure if I’d ever play any good again.”
The search for a way to play golf that did not trigger his back issue involved ‘de-learning’ almost everything he had relied upon to reach the top and rebuilding his swing under the guidance of Justin Rose’s coach Sean Foley. “I started working with Foley at the USPGA last year. At the time I was incredibly
It’s the coolest trophy