Spieth

has been frustrating."

Spieth, 24, always has been mature as a competitor and person. When he went after the career Grand Slam for the first time last year at the PGA Championship, he wound up 10 shots back. No one contemplated he wouldn't have won another PGA Tour title since, missing two cuts before the Masters and two more after.

While exasperated, Spieth, as always, believes he is close to the way out of this minislump — for him, at least.

"Over the last, since probably in between Austin (a first-round elimination by Patrick Reed in match play) and Houston was a really big weekend for me of settling down and getting back on the right track with things," he said. "And recognizing that it's a long career, and, you know, results aren't going to come by wanting them to come. They're going to come by being obsessed with the process, getting back to the basics, being an athlete, figuring out within the swing, the intricacies of the game. Kind of the stuff — the reason I love to practice — that's what's going to kind of bring it back, and results aren't everything."

Maybe not, except that when the results have been so spectacular so quickly, they become how you are measured by the public.

Spieth has won 11 times in his first five full seasons, including those three major championships. His putting skills are envied by many of his peers. So are his analytical breakdowns of shots, holes, his swing.

His optimism that all will be right again is praise-worthy — and probably accurate.

"I feel like my game is in the best shape it's been in a long time, including last year," he said. "And my results don't necessarily speak towards that, but I feel that way, and so I'll stick with the process, and they'll surely come at some point."

If that point is this week, Spieth must outshoot not only the sentimental fan choices (Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson) but all of those young guns who have begun to grab majors: Reed, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka.

"It almost feels like I'm back in high school and college," Spieth joked. "These are the same guys we used to battle it out with then, and I'd win one, then they would win one. It's just blown up now because there was no coverage; no one really cared to watch us back then, and now people do.

"But it's nothing different than what we've kind of been doing with each other for a number of years. It's really cool to be out here doing it, but I don't think we ... think of it as a totally different experience than anything we've always kind of done."