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Jordan Spieth ‘ready for anything’ in 2018 PGA TOUR schedule

By Kathlene Bissell

SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND - JULY 23: Jordan Spieth of the United States celebrates victory with the Claret Jug and his team on the 18th green during the final round of the 146th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on July 23, 2017 in Southport, England. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND - JULY 23: Jordan Spieth of the United States celebrates victory with the Claret Jug and his team on the 18th green during the final round of the 146th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on July 23, 2017 in Southport, England. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) /
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Jordan Spieth understands that his PGA TOUR career is a learning process, and he’s ready to put all of his experiences – good and bad – to work in 2018.

Reading between the lines of what Jordan Spieth said in his press conference at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, he’s mostly over that disaster at the 2016 Masters.  It was a progression that started in 2017 and continues today.

Spieth, in recent seasons, has been able to succeed when all the best guys show up. However, he hasn’t always had that skill.  It was learned, and he’s still learning. The first lesson, which was on closing, came by winning the Australian Open in 2014.

“You know, 2014 was kind of a difficult year, given I had a lot of chances and didn’t quite close out,” he explained about learning how to finish with success.  Then, in the fall, when he won the Australian Open, beating out McIlroy and Adam Scott, he said he learned how to close. That victory, greatly improved his on-course confidence.

"“I found a way at the Aussie Open that year and Tiger’s event to push forward, to push the accelerator when you’re already in the lead and that’s something I didn’t really know how to do in professional golf, which is an adjustment,” he explained about that time."

It also spurred him on to an eventual Masters victory in 2015, followed by a U.S. Open victory.  Spieth became one of the few golfers in history to have won those two events in the same year. He had a chance to tie Ben Hogan’s feat of three majors in a season, but at the British Open, he was defeated by the occasional poor shot and Zach Johnson’s very good play.  He ended the 2015 with five PGA TOUR titles, along with Player of the Year honors.  It was a spectacular year.

The next season he had three victories on the PGA TOUR, and a second title in Australia, but he was disappointed.  It’s always hard to follow greatness, for anybody.  So he had to learn to handle a season that follows greatness, something which, realistically, few have the opportunity to do.

When January of 2017 rolled around, Spieth was major-hungry, but still felt the sting of disappointment after his disastrous collapse at the 2016 Masters. Players like to say they are over these things, but Spieth (and this is one big reason why so many love him) admitted he felt it.

"“You get yourself in position enough times, it will go your way, like it did at the U.S. Open, in an unorthodox manner for me at Chambers Bay,” he explained. “And sometimes it will go the other way, like it did at the 2016 Masters, and I wasn’t prepared for the other way.”"

Despite that, early in 2017 he tried to put the disappointment of 2016 behind him and won at the AT&T. But when the starting gun sounded at Augusta, his best was T11, and then he T35 at the U.S. Open.

Sometime before the British Open in 2017, Spieth’s trainer mentioned a quote by Teddy Roosevelt which Spieth said was a quote about what it was like being the man in the arena and about having people criticize you.  His trainer,  Damon Goddard, must have sensed that Spieth needed to work to get the brain muscles a little stronger as well as the body muscles.  All the best have had to learn to have a strong mind. Even Jack Nicklaus finished second 19 times in majors.

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The quote is a rather long paragraph from Teddy Roosevelt. According to Spieth, it “was really profound and very much helped.”  It allowed him to flip the switch to success in the final round of the British Open.

"“I felt like that round was eight hours long because of the stuff I was juggling, the comparisons I was making in my head to the Masters in 2016 at some point,” he admitted. “To being able to shut that off and pretty much say, so what, if you don’t end up winning today it really doesn’t matter. You constantly put yourself in these chances in Majors, and you should take enough confidence about being able to do that to recognize that the only person that’s going to get in the way from me doing that going forward is myself."

“I felt like I had let outside influences get in the way for a good year of my ability to free up and to be okay with not winning, but to still stay focused and play fearless golf.”

All that problematic negative self-talk, he believes, is over.

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“Starting 2018 I’m kind of ready for anything. I’m ready for failure, for success, and everything in between,” he concluded.

What a glorious way to start the new year.

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