'Mentally Fatigued' Jordan Spieth Channels Augusta National Know-How in Sunday Charge
AUGUSTA, Ga. — In his 10th Masters Jordan Spieth proved once again that his game and Augusta National go together like peanut butter and jelly.
But as with all good snacks, at times they can be a little too much.
Spieth was at times overwhelmed by Augusta National this week.
Tired from playing for eight weeks out of the last 10 on the PGA Tour, the 2015 Masters winner was mentally spent when he arrived at Augusta and only his relationship with the course earned him a sixth top-5 finish.
“I came in mentally fatigued, and you overwork this week every year,” Spieth said. “I need to change my schedule up going forward to be a little sharper this week. I think that has a lot to do with it.”
The lack of mental acuity created a lack of patience with the course being softer, with Spieth thinking he could try to attack more pins.
Spieth paralleled his week’s play with how he approaches TPC Sawgrass at the Players Championship every year.
“You must let the course come to you out here,” Spieth said. “I do a better job here than anywhere else, and it left me this week.”
When the misses are so miniscule, the precision of picking a target is paramount to success.
Spieth believed that he was successful with targeting on only 50% of his shots this week, far below any acceptable standard.
“I like to have them 100 percent of the time,” Spieth said. “I kind of was trying to remind myself, but there were a few swings Thursday and Friday where I could have really taken it quite a bit deeper and left a few out there.”
Spieth said he didn’t remember the last time he tried to peak on his eighth week out of 10 on the road but seemed sharp on Sunday, recording nine birdies to move from 1 under par to 7 under par and get in the mix for the title with Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka. He finished T4, five shots behind Rahm.
The final round of 6-under 66 was his best round since a 64 in the final round in 2018, and those are his only final rounds in the 60s in his Masters career.
“When you're that far back, you have to have everything go right,” Spieth. “It was close, but I should have done a lot better in those first three rounds. I made a tremendous amount of mental mistakes. To be this close now, it's nice, but it also almost frustrates me more because I really—I made some mistakes I don't normally make out here, and it was more decision errors than anything else.”