2015 Masters champion, Jordan Spieth thinks it is possible to overplay in the game of golf. In the final round of the Masters Tournament on Sunday afternoon, Spieth gave it his all and shot 6-under 66 despite a closing bogey. However, after a third-round 76, he had fallen too far behind and ultimately tied for fourth place with Patrick Reed and Russell Henley.
He explained that a busy schedule leading up to Augusta caused some of his difficulties before the final round.
“I believe I played too much golf before this,” Speith said. “I arrived mentally worn out, and every year you work too much during this week. I’ve been playing golf for eight out of the previous ten weeks, which is simply too much. I must therefore adjust my timetable going ahead in order to be a little more focused this week. That, in my opinion, has a significant impact.” he also mentioned.
Prior to the Masters, Spieth had only missed the Honda Classic and the Valero Texas Open since starting his round at Pebble Beach on the opening weekend in February. During that time, he participated in five events, including The Players Championship and WGC-Match Play.
Spieth stated other factors that put him too far behind going into the final round, but the mental exhaustion was the one he spoke of most.
“The course being soft gave me a little impatience since I thought I could try to target more holes.
“I perform the same action each year at The Players. You must allow the course to assist your game here. I play here better than anywhere else, but this week it stopped. Just a tiny bit, I think, in my target accuracy. This week, my target accuracy was probably just 50%, compared to my preferred 100% accuracy rate. There were a few swings during the games on Thursday and Friday where I could have really taken it quite a bit farther, but it was hard to put myself in my regular state.” Speith stated.
Spieth received favorable weather conditions, similar to Brooks Koepka. The former Longhorn played in excellent scoring circumstances on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before the weather started to act up late on Day 2.
Spieth had a tremendous start to his round on Thursday, sitting at 4 under after only eight holes, but he finished the day by shooting just 1 over.
Spieth is seven shots behind Koepka heading into the weekend after shooting a first-round 69 and a 2-under-par 70 on Friday morning.
Spieth continued by saying that although he has no regrets about how he organized his schedule, he plans to change it going forward.
“I will attribute some of my poor judgment while taking shots to a lack of focus, which I’m striving to correct,” Speith said.
“To be honest, I seem to have forgotten the last time I was able to perform at my best for 8 out of 10 consecutive weeks in a row. I can’t recall the last time I experienced that,” he said. “For us on the PGA Tour, this year serves as a transitional year. I want to continue competing in both the large events and the other competitions that I really enjoy. I foresaw it happening this year, and I intend to be more stable in the future, which would be beneficial.”, he finally added.
