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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Four days before the start of last week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, which was two days after he missed the cut in the Farmers Insurance Open, Jordan Spieth was putting in work at TPC Scottsdale thinking he didn’t have any chance of winning.
Ten days later, on the eve of the start of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he’s no longer feeling as lost on the golf course.
Spieth’s best result in a year – a tie for fourth in Phoenix that included a spectacular 10-under-par 61 that lit up the golf world last Saturday – was a significant confidence boost as he continues his hopeful journey back to golf’s stratosphere following his alarming fall into an abyss three years ago.
He’s been building confidence for some time now, little by little, and is certain the things he’s working on have him on the path back to where he once resided as he reached No. 1, won three legs of the career grand slam and 14 worldwide titles before turning 24.
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For the first time in a while, Spieth started thinking he had a chance to win for the first time since the 2017 British Open after opening 67-67 in Phoenix. His 61 put him in a share of the 54-hole. A depressing 72 on Sunday, when he hit just five fairways and made but two birdies, left him disappointed but encouraged.
“I saw a little bit of success last week, but for me it’s about the feels more than it is the results and I know when it starts to feel a certain way that the results follow,” Spieth said Wednesday after his pro-am round at Pebble Beach. “I love that I trusted what I was working on all four rounds, knowing that it wasn’t necessarily going to fully be there and I think that kind of trust and that belief just pays off.
“When you stick to something and you start working at it, it feels a little better each day that you do it, when you’re doing it correctly.”
Spieth, 27, who is ranked No. 69, is in an ideal place to add more building blocks. In eight career starts in this tournament hard by the sea, he has four top-10s, including his four-shot win in 2017.
“What’s not to love as a golfer here?” Spieth said. “I enjoy coming back here off of last week because I know the place. I feel like course knowledge goes a long way in this tournament if it starts to firm up and if the greens get faster, and then if the conditions get bad, too.
“If it becomes a Palm Springs-like day out here, that kind of levels out the field, but when the conditions get tough, you got to understand a little bit more the course knowledge, and it looks like we’re going to have some of that this week.”
Spieth acknowledges the work must continue and last week’s showing, while promising, in no way means he’s back.
“There was a number of things that I got off on mechanically and it was very frustrating because I felt just as competitive and felt just the same. I was still me, still the same me,” Spieth said. “I just would take the club back and feel lost. Making some significant adjustments starting really last fall through this winter to kind of get back to my DNA has been a process that has taken a lot of hours and still will. Getting over kind of scar tissue of certain holes and rounds that you’ve played at different places where you just didn’t have it that day versus being able to just draw back on positive memories for a number of years at places is something that is a new and different challenge over the last couple years.
“But once you start to see light at the end of the tunnel, get a little bit of confidence, you just kind of want to stick with what you’re doing and keep the train rolling and kind of reverse that trend.”
Spieth has come to enjoy what he calls the grind, the work and patience required to return to past success. In his mind, a victory is at hand – whether this week, next month and later this year.
“I’m getting into where I’m able to actually play golf instead of thinking about swings, and that’s just really exciting,” Spieth said. “It gets me enjoying the game, loving the idea of going out there this week on No. 1 and if I shoot 65 or 75, as long as I’m trusting what I’m doing, I know I’m moving the right direction.
“That’s just the head space that I’ve wanted to get into and, for a while now, I feel like I’m starting to tap into it.”
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