Jordan Spieth describes Masters collapse as 'bad timing'

ByABC News
May 3, 2016, 6:44 PM

— -- World No. 2  Jordan Spieth said Tuesday that he has moved on from his collapse last month at the Masters and is now getting his game ready for the U.S. Open in six weeks.

"I'm not taking it very hard,'' Spieth said Tuesday, while attending a FedEx Cares event in suburban Pittsburgh ahead of a practice round Wednesday at Oakmont, where he will try to defend his U.S. Open title. "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 OK. I'll survive.' It happens.''

"Actually, I laugh about it now. I really do. But it keeps coming up, and I understand that."

Clinging to a 1-shot lead at Augusta National, Spieth put two shots into the water on the par-3 12th and made a quadruple-bogey 7. With that, he fell three shots behind, never caught up to eventual champion Danny Willett and failed in his bid to repeat as Masters champion.

Asked about the collapse at the 12th on Tuesday, Spieth summed it up in two words: bad timing.

"I wasn't trying to hit the ball at the flag at 12. I was trying to hit the ball to our spot," he said. "My miss that week was slightly off the heel [of the club] with a short right shot. Had that miss come on 11, it was no problem. ... It was just bad timing on the miss and then just a poorly executed wedge on the next shot.

"It is what it is. And I'll move on. If you're in contention at a major, say, 50 times in your career, something like that is going to happen. Just don't let it happen again."

Spieth said he heard from "some of the world's greatest athletes" after the Masters and has used their words as motivation.

"I received notes immediately following that night pretty much saying, 'This happens everywhere. No doubt, you'll be back. Don't draw on it. It happens to everyone in all sports on different levels,'" he said without naming names. "And pretty much, they believe, just as we believe, that we'll be back -- no problem."

Spieth has spent the past few weeks trying to decompress and get ready for the daunting test that awaits at Oakmont starting June 16.

He joined Rickie Fowler, Smylie Kaufman and Justin Thomas for a getaway at a tropical resort that Fowler chronicled via Snapchat. It was a vacation that included a little golf and a lot of unwinding.

"We were having fun. We were relaxed," Spieth said. "We were able to play golf, and golf was kind of secondary to the relaxation part of the trip."

It will be back to work Wednesday, when Spieth takes a long look at Oakmont, which is prepping to host its ninth U.S. Open and first since 2007, before he heads to Florida for next week's Players Championship. Spieth plans to treat his preparation for the rugged test in the Western Pennsylvania hills much the same way he got ready for Chambers Bay last summer, when he edged Dustin Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen by a stroke. Spieth will try to get a feel for Oakmont this week, then arrive early in June for a far different kind of test than the one found at the three other majors.

"The history of Oakmont produced champions who believe they won at the toughest test, which is a U.S. Open at Oakmont," he said. "I already believe we have won golf's toughest test, in winning any U.S. Open. But to win it at what is regarded as the day-to-day toughest course in the United States, possibly the world -- that would be something you'd look back and say, 'I conquered golf right now.' So that would be a really cool feeling."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.