4th major get to him

Neither did Spieth. He missed a playoff by one shot.

He holed a 50-foot birdie putt to tie for the lead with two holes to go at St. Andrews. Instead of hitting his tee shot over the Old Course Hotel to have the best angle into the 17th green, he played down the left side — the safe side. The Road Hole Bunker in his way, he missed the green to the right and then missed a 5-foot par putt. A par on the final hole ended his dream of the Grand Slam.

Looking back, Spieth said he should have gone down the right side of the 17th hole.

“One of the bigger regrets that I’ve had in golf,” Spieth said. “If I don’t pull off the shot, I hit it out of bounds, big whup. But I didn’t. I went down the left side that day. It was playing extremely tough. I didn’t reach the green.”

Was he affected by the added pressure? Spieth isn’t sure.

“If I was truly free, I wouldn’t have cared,” he said. “I would have taken it down the right side. I thought I could make 4 from the left instead of thinking, ‘This is my best chance to make the best score, even though it brings in a risk.’ That’s the way I feel now. Take the risks.”

He will be playing the opening two rounds with Masters champion Sergio Garcia and U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, who know the feeling.

“You do think whatever happens, I’ve already won the Masters and it’s amazing,” Garcia said. “But at the same time, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to go out there and try as hard you can, because that’s what we do. That’s the only way we know how to play.”

Spieth figures he has two decades or more playing the PGA Championship if he doesn’t complete the slam this week. Only five other players have won all four modern majors — Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Nicklaus and Woods.

Then again, none of the five went more than three years before adding the final leg to the Grand Slam. Palmer and Tom Watson spent their careers chasing it. “The more years you go on playing PGAs, and if I don’t win one in the next 10 years, then maybe there’s added pressure,” Spieth said. “And hopefully, we don’t have to have this conversation in 10 years.” —AP