A POSITIVE

Red- hot Spieth familiar with

U NIVERSITY PARK, Wash. — Jack Nicklaus once said that when he arrived at a major and heard half the players grumbling about the golf course, he knew he only had to beat the other half. Masters champion Jordan Spieth thinks the same way heading into Thursday’s opening of the 115th U. S. Open at Chambers Bay.

“If you’re going to talk negative about a place, you’re almost throwing yourself out to begin with because golf is a mental game,” Spieth said this week. “The U. S. Open is about as challenging mentally as any tournament in the world. So you have to go in positively. You have to go in with enough confidence to get yourself into contention.”

There was plenty of grumbling when players got their first taste of the fescue links course along Puget Sound. The former gravel pit is a tough walk for spectators and a difficult puzzle for the golfers who will have to deal with unpredictable rolls on drying fairways capped by deep, undulating greens. By the weekend it will play hard, fast and reckless.

“Courses can drastically change in this tournament from Monday to Thursday and from Thursday to Friday, Friday to Saturday and on,” Spieth said. “They’re very different golf courses daybyday.”

It’s hard to bet against Spieth. Just 21, he has proven himself a player who thrives in the big moment, highlighted by his fourstroke win over Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose at Augusta National last April. He has hardly slowed down since, playing in seven tournaments. He looked fatigued when he missed the cut at the Players. But he followed with a secondplace finish at the Crowne Colonial and tied for third at the Memorial.

He is comfortable wearing the Green Jacket and in his own skin, remaining the same approachable, accommodating, thoughtful and loyal to all things Texas the player was when no one knew his name. “If he wins here, he’ll be more popular than Taylor Swift,” one USGA insider said.

The Dallas native has two things going for him this week Only