Spieth feeling good for big assault on the Masters
Jordan Spieth believes it is a case of panic over as he targets a second Masters title this week.
Spieth has been far from his best this season and reached a low point, particularly with his putting, with an opening 76 – while alongside Tiger Woods – in the Valspar Championship last month.
The 23-year-old went on to miss the cut and failed to get beyond the group stages in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but bounced back to finish third in the Houston Open on Sunday.
“I made big strides in the last two weeks to get from kind of a panic place to a very calm, collected and confident place,” the 2015 Masters champion said.
“It’s difficult to do in two weeks. Sometimes it takes years. And I feel like I’ve been able to speed that process up a lot over the last couple of weeks.
“I feel better coming into this week than I did in 2016 and 2014, where I came off of missed cuts in Houston.
“There’s a lot to be said of the previous week’s momentum and being able to work my way into contention and hit some putts under the pressure that I felt.
“I didn’t do a lot of scoreboard watching. I kind of pretended like I was tied for the lead, even though I figured I was a stroke or two back.
“I kind of wanted that ‘You need to make this’ feeling and I started to really roll some putts in under the gun. “My iron play and off the tee has been fantastic, just like it was last year. It’s just been about finding the [putting] setup that I had for a couple of years that I kind of got a little away from recently.
“Settling into that from round one here will be important, but I feel like last week was a tremendous stepping stone in the right direction.”
Spieth has finished a remarkable second, first, second and 11th in his four Masters appearances.
“It’s not been the greatest start to the year of any that I’ve had,” the world No 4 added. “But I feel good about my game, I feel like I should have a chance to win this week. But if I don’t, it’s coming soon and that’s exciting for me.”
With so many storylines around, including the resurgence of Woods, defending champion Sergio Garcia has been somewhat overlooked.
“This is my first time defending a major and a green jacket, so it’s new to me,” Garcia said.
“But no matter what, this week is going to be amazing.”