Jordan Spieth Discusses 2015 Performance and His Putting

Coming into the HSBC-WGC Jordan Spieth admitted that he was a bit rusty, but that he and his swing coach had been working on his game and continued to do so in Australia.

“I wasn’t there in China,” he said to media last week about his performance at the HSBC.

From the looks of some of his tee shots and a few putts, he was not 100% there on Sunday, either, and yet he still came within a whisker of winning the Emirates Australian Open. A couple of better drives and some made putts, and he would have repeated.

Spieth, though, did reflect on 2015 and his outstanding performance last season. He’s also trying to get better.

“You have to approach it believing that you actually can improve,” he said in Australia. “I can go without missing a cut.”

That was a for instance on how he could get better.

“The whole year I think I missed four(cuts),” he recalled, accurately. “I like playing the weekends so there’s ways to improve in that”

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His missed cuts were in San Diego, at Doral, the Match Play and the Players. He played 25 PGA Tour events.

“As far as timing wins and your best weeks at the perfect time, I think we have a formula to do that but it’s not always going to happen,” he said about trying to peak.

Spieth said so much has to come together physically and mentally to win a major championship that’s it’s impossible to plan everything to happen at the right time. But now that he has won two, he knows at least that he can do it. As far as what he sees for 2016, there’s no back off in Jordan Spieth.

“There’s a chance it can all come together, and we could even improve on the last year,” he suggested. “There’d be no point in me setting lofty goals to just settle for something less than what I’ve already done. I believe that my best is forward. I believe that my prime is ahead of me. I have to believe that.”

He added that if last year is his best ever, he hopes to have a few that approach it.

“That’s all I can really go for, I guess, is to try and each year, find a way that I think I can get just a little bit better and be a better golfer.”

As everyone who watches golf knows, Spieth is an excellent putter. And when asked about his putting success, he said it depends on the kind of putt it is.

“You can have a 30-footer that doesn’t break much and maybe it’s that, you know, slightly downhill, and it’s a relatively makeable putt,” he said. “There is just a certain range that you go to where the outside influences enough to where you’re not really controlling the outcome of the putt. You can put a good stroke on it. It could miss or make, based on the elements.”

He admitted 2015 was a great year for putting when it counted.

“I really found a couple ways to cope, mentally, with the added pressure, especially on short of putts,” he added.

He’s trying to pay attention to where the face of the blade is and whether he’s tended to leave the blade open or closed on. He worked on making the shorter putts a couple ways.

“I did part of that by looking at the hole, I did part of it by lining the ball up and just depending on where it was,” he explained. “I’m just kind of discovering these techniques on what I felt worked for me on my own when I line it up.”

Sometimes he spot putts and looks at a piece of grass. That works for him, he said, when he’s nervous.

“I’ve been enough pressure situations to be able to have trial and error, and you find what works and you go with it and if you’re truly confident with it, then it’s a game changer and that’s what we’ve done, “ he said. “I feel great about my putting, and for me it just comes down to repetitions. Getting comfortable with your alignment, getting comfortable with your speed work.”

After that, he said, it’s the ability to manage nerves.

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Whatever he’s found, Spieth certainly manages to make putting look easy most of the time.

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