The Masters - Round Three

The Masters 2024

Jordan Spieth is focused on a simple approach this week as he pursues second Masters title

A simple answer to a simple question.

Sitting at the podium during his Tuesday press conference, Jordan Spieth was asked how to recreate his 2015 form — the year he won his lone green jacket.

“Make that many putts,” he said. “It’s that simple. I’ve hit it better a lot of years, but I was just rolling ’em (in 2015).”

Spieth enters the week ranked 18th in the world, but has struggled over the last two months.

In his past five events, he was disqualified following a scorecard mishap at Riviera, placed 30th at Bay Hill, missed the cut at the Players Championship and Valspar, and finished 10th last week in San Antonio.

Still, the 30-year-old believes his form isn’t far off.

“I feel like my game has been better than the results,” Jordan said. “They typically line up over an extended period of time. I’ve just had some really outlier weeks.”

Last April, Spieth carded a final-round 66, marking his sixth top five in 10 tries at Augusta National.

But following the 2023 event, he stood near the scorers’ building and spoke with annoyance of his fourth-place finish.

“I made a tremendous amount of mental mistakes,” Spieth said last April. “I got lazy picking targets. I probably only had a target on 50 percent of the shots, and I like to have them 100 percent of the time.

“To be this close, it’s nice, but it almost frustrates me more.”

Fast-forward 12 months and Spieth says he’ll attempt to correct the hiccups.

“My goal is to have a specific and very small target on each shot. It’s the easiest way to have your good shots go right where you want and your misses be close,” he said.