SPIETH: I HAD A BRAIN DRAIN
Jordan’s round goes to pot but he says: I can turn this around
JORDAN SPIETH blamed a “brain fart” for an underwhelming start to his title defence.
Three-time Major champ Spieth carded an opening 72 at Carnoustie in his first round.
He got off to a good start at three-under after 11 holes.
But Spieth had to come out sideways of a bunker on the 15th en route to a double-bogey as he dropped four shots in his last four holes.
Spieth, who finished one-over, claimed: “I just had a brain fart and I missed it into the only pot bunker where I could actually get in trouble – and it plugged deep into it.
“It was a really poor decision on the second shot and that cost me.
“What I would consider as a significant advantage for me is recognising where the misses are. The round felt like a missed opportunity.
“I’ve done a bit of that this year, just the decision-making that’s cost me.” Spieth also drove into the Barry Burn on the last and had to take a drop to finish with bogey five.
But he insisted: “I’m certainly in a recoverable situation. It’s not a bad place to be. A solid round Friday to stay in the top 25 or top 20 will be the goal – to feel like I can do something on the weekend.” Playing partner Justin Rose also finished one-over and it would have been worse had the Englishman not birdied the last. It was a challenging round for the world No.3 whose usual cool was tested by an exchange with photographers on the sixth hole. He later ran up a double-bogey seven on the reachable par-five 14th.
Rose got so rattled that he changed strategy on the 17th to pull out his driver and take out his frustrations.
He reflected: “Just when I looked like I was going to get under par, I doubled 14, which is really one birdie hole you look forward to on the back nine.
“I never saw myself hitting a driver on 17 this week at all, but I knew I needed something to happen – and that opportunity presented itself.”