Advertisement
Spieth: back-nine nightmare ruined his Masters chances. Chris Carlson
Masters Plan

Spieth: 'I've got ladies at the grocery store praying for me... my dog didn't die, I'll be okay'

Spieth focusing on “great memories” of 2015 Masters win rather than 2016 Augusta pain.

JORDAN SPIETH KNOWS that questions about his Masters meltdown will continue to follow him for a long time.

But the two-time Major champion is determined to shake off his nightmare afternoon at Augusta, and says he has even been able to laugh about it.

Spieth looked set to retain the green jacket with another wire-to-wire win as he turned for home on Masters Sunday five shots clear of the chasing pack.

But a spectacular implosion saw him drop six shots in the space of three holes — including a horror quadruple bogey at the par-three 12th where he put two balls into the water — and open the door for England’s Danny Willett to steal an unlikely win.

Spieth, 22, is ready to draw a line under the disappointment but he knows that he will have to face many more questions.

He said: “It will keep coming back up, even if I were to go on to next week and win (The Players Championship) and to go on to Oakmont (The US Open) and produce clutch shots and win. It’s still going to come up when I get back to Augusta. I understand that.

“The good news is that I’ve got a lot of great memories there. We’ve already won and pulled away from the field.

I’m not taking it very hard. I’ve got ladies at the grocery stores putting their hand on me and going, ‘Really praying for you, how are you doing?’

I’m like, ‘My dog didn’t die, I’ll be okay.’

“I’ll survive. It happens. It was, again, unfortunate timing.

“But actually I laugh about it now, I really do. It will keep coming up, I understand that, and it’s tough every time it comes up. It was very tough to go through.”

The saving grace is that Spieth can call on the memories of his wins at the 2015 Masters and US Open which thrust him centre stage as one of the game’s most exciting talents.

He added: “I’m very fortunate that I now have a couple of Major victories that I can draw on. That didn’t happen before I ever won a Major, and it didn’t happen when I still haven’t won a Major where that’s going to be the only thing people are drawing on.

Our team can draw on the wins, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’ve now had a chance to win coming down the stretch at six Majors and we’ve won two of them.

“So that’s still a pretty good percentage. If you’re in contention six times, you win two of them, a third of the time. Considering my age, and hopefully with continued good health and continued improved play, if we keep that percentage up, we’ll be all right.”

The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!

Even a mid-court miracle buzzer-beater wasn’t enough for the Raptors to turn down the Heat

Your Voice
Readers Comments
4
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.